Elias Veikko Juhani Valtonen (born June 11, 1999) is a Finnish professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player for Covirán Granada of the

Liga ACB The Liga ACB, known as Liga Endesa for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional basketball division of the Spanish basketball league system. Administered by the Asociación de Clubs de Baloncesto (ACB), Liga ACB is contested by 18 teams, w ...

, and for the Finland national team. He played

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

for the

Arizona State Sun Devils The Arizona State Sun Devils are the sport, athletic teams that represent Arizona State University. ASU has nine men's and eleven women's Varsity team, varsity teams competing at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Divisi ...

. Valtonen is tall, and plays the

shooting guard The shooting guard (SG), also known as the two, two guard or off guard,Shooting guards are 6'3"–6'7"BBC Sports academy URL last accessed 2006-09-09. is one of the five traditional basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game ...

position.

Early life and career

Valtonen started playing basketball in a youth team of his hometown club Euran Veivi. He made his debut for

Korihait Korihait () is a Finnish basketball team from Uusikaupunki. It was formed as Uudenkaupungin Urheilijat, shortly UU, in 1898 and has won one Korisliiga The Korisliiga is the top-tier professional basketball league in Finland, comprising the top ...

in Finnish top league

Korisliiga The Korisliiga is the top-tier professional basketball league in Finland, comprising the top 12 teams of the country. In its current format, each team plays all other teams two times in the regular season, once at home and once away, for a total o ...

in February 2014, at the age of 14. He played five games in total during his rookie season, while the team finished last and was relegated. In the summer of 2015, Valtonen moved to Helsinki to play in the highly regarded academy team HBA-Märsky, coached by former

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

player Hanno Möttölä. Valtonen was invited to the

Jordan Brand Classic The Jordan Brand Classic is a high school all star basketball game played annually in April. The game's rosters feature the best and most highly recruited high school boys and girls in the senior class. In 2015, a girl's game was introduced. Th ...

Camp in 2015. He has been recruited by several American colleges, including

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

Arizona State Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is one of the largest ...

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

and

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

. On October 13, 2017, Valtonen announced that he'd commit to Arizona State after his current season in Finland was finished with.

College career

Valtonen played collegiately at Arizona State for two seasons. He scored a career-high 10 points in a win over St. John's on November 23, 2019. He averaged 2.0 points per game as a sophomore. On March 17, 2020, Valtonen announced he was leaving Arizona State.

Professional career

On June 19, 2020, Valtonen signed with

Tigers Tübingen Tigers Tübingen is a basketball team from Tübingen, a college town in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany, playing in the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL), the country's first tier league. Founded as SV 03 Tübingen, is affiliated with the multi-spor ...

of the

ProA The ProA is the German basketball league system, second-tier Sports league, league of professional club basketball in Germany. The league comprises 16 teams. Officially the ProA is part of the ''2. Basketball Bundesliga'', which consists of the t ...

. On May 28, 2021, he signed with Baxi Manresa of the

and the

Basketball Champions League The Basketball Champions League (BCL), also commonly known as the FIBA Champions League, is an annual professional basketball competition for European sports club, clubs, organised by FIBA. It is the European professional club basketball system ...

. On 5 December 2022, it was announced that Valtonen was loaned out to German

Basketball Bundesliga The Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) (English language: ''Federal Basketball League''), for sponsorship reasons named easyCredit BBL, is the German basketball league system, highest level Sports league, league of professional club basketball in German ...

team

Rostock Seawolves Rostock Seawolves is a professional basketball club based in Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. The club currently competes in the Basketball Bundesliga. The Seawolves play their home games in the Rostocker Stadthalle. Within the New sta ...

for the rest of the ongoing 2022–23 season. He returned to Manresa in the summer 2023. On 28 February 2024, Valtonen joined fellow Liga ACB team

Granada Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...

for the remainder of the season. At the end of the season, he helped the club to secure their spot in Liga ACB by his game-saving block, and in June 2024, he signed a two-year contract extension with Granada.

National team

Valtonen was part of the Finland U16 squad in the 2015 FIBA U16 EuroBasket in

Kaunas Kaunas (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states by population, city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaun ...

, Lithuania, and in Finland U17 squad in the 2016 FIBA U17 World Cup in

Zaragoza Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...

, Spain. Valtonen is a member of the Finland senior national team and represented his country in the

EuroBasket 2022 The EuroBasket 2022 was the 41st edition of the EuroBasket championship organized by FIBA Europe. It was the first since it was agreed it would take place every four years, with a similar system of qualification as for the FIBA Basketball World C ...

and in the

2023 FIBA World Cup The 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup was the 19th tournament of the FIBA Basketball World Cup for men's national basketball teams, held from 25 August to 10 September 2023. The tournament was the second to feature 32 teams and was hosted by multipl ...

. He also played in the 2024 FIBA Olympic qualifying tournament.Susijengin pelaajatusina olympiakarsintoihin on vahvistettu
basket.fi, 30 June 2024

Career statistics

FIBA Champions League

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2021–22 , style="text-align:left;",

Manresa Manresa () is the capital of Bages county, located in the central region of Catalonia, Spain. Crossed by the river Cardener, it is an industrial area with textile, metallurgical, and glass industries. The houses of Manresa are arranged aro ...

, 14 , , , , 21.7 , , .385 , , .194 , , .500 , , 3.4 , , 1.1 , , .8 , , .6 , , 4.6 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2022–23 , style="text-align:left;",

, 3 , , , , 16.0 , , .429 , , .444 , , .600, , 2.0 , , .0 , , .3 , , .3 , , 6.3

Domestic leagues

{, class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:100%; text-align:right;" ! Year ! Team ! League ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! , - , style="text-align:left;", 2013–14 , , style="text-align:left;",

, , style="text-align:center;",

, , 5 , , 2.2 , , .500 , , .0 , , – , , – , , .4 , , , , , , 0.4 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2014–15 , , style="text-align:left;",

, , style="text-align:center;",

I-divisioona I-Divisioona was the second tier of ice hockey in Finland from 1974 to 2000. It replaced the previous league Suomensarja that ran from 1936 to 1974. I-Divisioona was known as the Finland-liiga (1992–1994) and the Fazer liiga (1994–1996) due ...

, , 27 , , 13.3 , , .392 , , .304 , , .583 , , 1.8 , , .5 , , .3 , , .1 , , 3.6 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2015–16 , , style="text-align:left;", HBA-Märsky , , style="text-align:center;",

, , 25 , , 24.0 , , .513 , , .375 , , .730 , , 3.5 , , 1.2 , , 1.4 , , .6 , , 7.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2016–17 , , style="text-align:left;", HBA-Märsky , , style="text-align:center;",

, , 15 , , 26.7 , , .388 , , .250 , , .750 , , 5.7 , , 2.4 , , 1.3 , , .8 , , 9.0 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , , style="text-align:left;", HBA-Märsky , , style="text-align:center;",

, , 20 , , 24.6 , , .506 , , .417 , , .762 , , 4.8 , , 3.0 , , 1.7 , , .8 , , 15.7 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2020–21 , , style="text-align:left;",

Tübingen Tübingen (; ) is a traditional college town, university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer (Neckar), Ammer rivers. about one in ...

, , style="text-align:center;",

, , 23 , , 30.0 , , .539 , , .370 , , .802 , , 4.8 , , 2.5 , , 1.1 , , 1.0 , , 15.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2021-22 , , style="text-align:left;",

, , style="text-align:center;", ACB , , 32 , , 22.0 , , .450 , , .359 , , .771 , , 2.5 , , .7 , , .8 , , .3 , , 7.2 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2022–23 , , style="text-align:left;",

, , style="text-align:center;", ACB , , 5 , , 12.0 , , .100 , , .000 , , .750 , , 1.2 , , .2 , , .2 , , .0 , , 1.0 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2022–23 , , style="text-align:left;",

Rostock Rostock (; Polabian language, Polabian: ''Roztoc''), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (), is the largest city in the German States of Germany, state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the sta ...

, , style="text-align:center;", BBL , , 21 , , 19.0 , , .409 , , .200 , , .839 , , 3.2 , , .7 , , .7 , , .3 , , 6.0 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2023–24 , , style="text-align:left;",

, , style="text-align:center;", ACB , , 18 , , 14.2 , , .438 , , .257 , , .643 , , 2.6 , , .3 , , .2 , , .4 , , 4.6 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2023–24 , , style="text-align:left;",

, , style="text-align:center;", ACB , , 12 , , 22.0 , , .455 , , .386 , , .889 , , 3.7 , , .4 , , .3 , , .1 , , 8.6 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2024–25 , , style="text-align:left;",

, , style="text-align:center;", ACB , , 32 , , 24.3 , , .487 , , .415 , , .724 , , 3.6 , , 1.2 , , .7 , , .4 , , 9.3 , -

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;",

, 21 , , 0 , , 3.7 , , .556 , , .500 , , 1.000 , , .4 , , .1 , , .1 , , .2 , , .8 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;",

, 19 , , 8 , , 14.3 , , .375 , , .500 , , .467 , , 1.8 , , .4 , , .5 , , .1 , , 2.0 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 40 , , 8 , , 8.7 , , .415 , , .500 , , .529 , , 1.1 , , .2 , , .3 , , .2 , , 1.4

National team

{, class="wikitable" style=" text-align:center;" , - ! Team ! Tournament ! ! ! ! ! , - , rowspan=2,

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

, ,

, , 7th , , , , , , , , , - ,

, , 21st , , , , , , , ,

References

External links

Arizona State Sun Devis bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Valtonen, Elias 1999 births Living people 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup players 21st-century Finnish sportsmen Arizona State Sun Devils men's basketball players Basketball players from Helsinki Bàsquet Manresa players Finnish expatriate basketball people in Germany Finnish expatriate basketball people in Spain Finnish expatriate basketball people in the United States Finnish men's basketball players Fundación CB Granada players HBA-Märsky players Korihait players Liga ACB players Rostock Seawolves players Shooting guards Small forwards Tigers Tübingen players