Moshtagh Hossain Yaghoubi (; ) aka Mosa (born 8 November 1994) is an

Afghan Afghan or Afgan may refer to: Related to Afghanistan *Afghans, historically refers to the Pashtun people. It is both an ethnicity and nationality. Ethnicity wise, it refers to the Pashtuns. In modern terms, it means both the citizens of Afghanist ...

-born Finnish professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for

HIFK HIFK, the Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna, Helsingfors (IFK, Helsingfors) rf (officially abbreviated IFK Helsingfors, colloquially often Helsingfors IFK or Helsingin IFK) is a multi-sport association based in Helsinki, Finland. Formed in 1897 on ...

Early life

Moshtagh Yaghoubi was born on 8 November 1994 to an ethnic Hazara family in

Kabul Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

Youth career

Yaghoubi grew up in Finland and started playing football at the age of 13 with his local club HaPa. After playing in the youth teams of MP, HJK and PK-35 he joined Honka in 2011.

Club career

Honka

Yaghoubi made his debut for Honka against KuPS on 13 October 2011. Yaghoubi scored his first goal on 27 May 2012 against FC Haka. Yaghoubi made his Europa League debut on 18 July 2013 in the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League second qualifying round where Honka lost 1–3 in the first leg to 2012–13 Ekstraklasa runners up

Lech Poznań Kolejowy Klub Sportowy Lech Poznań S.A., commonly referred to as KKS Lech Poznań or simply Lech Poznań (), is a Polish professional football club based in Poznań and currently competing in the Ekstraklasa, the nation's highest division. ...

Pallohonka

Yaghoubi played 1 season on loan for the second team of FC Honka. He played 22 games and scored 2 goals. After his loan he returned to FC Honka.

Spartaks Jūrmala

In February 2014 Yaghoubi was transferred to the

Latvian Higher League Latvian Higher League or Virslīga, also known as TonyBet Virslīga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Latvia and the highest level of the Latvian football league system. Organised by the Latvian Footbal ...

club FK Spartaks Jūrmala, signing a three-year contract. He was given shirtnumber 7.

Dynamo Moscow

Soon after his move to Spartaks Jūrmala he immediately was loaned to the

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

side Dynamo Moscow. Yaghoubi was given shirt number 61 in the first team, but did not make any appearances for them, mostly remaining on the bench and being involved in the reserve team action.

Return to Spartaks Jūrmala

In August 2014 he returned to Spartaks Jūrmala. Yaghoubi scored his first Latvian Higher League goal on 26 October 2014 in a 1–0 victory over FK Daugava Rīga.

RoPS

On 5 March 2015 he signed a contract with RoPS which is a football team in the Finland

Veikkausliiga Veikkausliiga () is a professional association football league in Finland and the highest level of the Finnish football league system. The league comprises the top 12 clubs of the country. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agenc ...

. He made his debut against SJK on 17 March 2015. He scored his first goal against FC Inter Turku in the Suomen Cup. He ended the season with a second place in the Finnish league. He scored 4 goals and made 5 assists. He won at the end of the season the Best Midfielder award for his club and the Best Midfielder award for the Finland U21.

Shakhter Karagandy

In February 2016, Yaghoubi went on trial with

Kazakhstan Premier League The Kazakhstan Professional Football League (, ''Qazaqstan Premier Ligasy''), commonly referred to as the Kazakh Premier League or simply the Premier League, is a professional association football league in Kazakhstan and the highest level of the ...

side

FC Shakhter Karagandy Football Club Shakhter (), commonly referred to as FC Shakhter Karagandy ( ), is a professional football club based in Karagandy, Kazakhstan. They have been members of the Kazakhstan Premier League since its foundation in 1992, but fell of to t ...

. On 17 March 2016, Yaghoubi signed a season-long loan deal with Shakhter Karagandy. Yaghoubi's loan was terminated by Shakhter Karagandy on 17 June 2016.

HJK Helsinki

On 4 November 2016, HJK Helsinki announced the signing of Yaghoubi.

SJK Seinäjoki

On 31 January 2019, SJK announced the signing of Yaghoubi.

HIFK

After a season at SJK, it was announced on 29 November 2019, that Yaghoubi would join

from 2020, signing a deal until the end of 2021 with the club. He got shirt number 7.

AC Oulu

On 18 December 2021, he joined AC Oulu on a two-year contract. In the summer of 2022 Yaghoubi returned to SJK on loan. Upon the completion of the loan, his contract with AC Oulu was terminated by mutual consent on 14 November 2022. After playing for PK-35 in Finland and

Kingston City FC Kingston City Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club from Clayton South, Victoria (within the local government area of Kingston), whose home ground is The Grange Reserve. Kingston club currently competes in the Victoria Prem ...

in Australia, Yaghoubi signed with Attack Energy SC in Afghanistan Champions League and returned to his country of birth.

International career

Finland U21

Yaghoubi acquired Finnish nationality in 2013 and got called up for Finland national under-21 team for 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship qualification match against

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

on 11 June 2013. Yaghoubi scored his national team debut goal when Finland beat Wales U-21 5–1 in UEFA Under-21 Championship qualification on 14 August 2013.

Finland

On 31 October 2013 Yaghoubi made his debut for Finland national football team in an unofficial 4–2 friendly match loss to

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. He eventually made his official debut for Finland in a

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA FIFA#Structure, confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia national football team, Rus ...

match against

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. He came on the field in the 67th minute for Sakari Mattila.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Finland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Finland goal''.

Honours

Individual *

Midfielder of the Year:

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

Personal life

Yaghoubi was born in

, to ethnic Hazara parents. Yaghoubi and his family fled Afghanistan in 1999 to settle down in

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. After living seven years in Iran his family applied for asylum in

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, ...

. Yaghoubi has a tattoo on his left arm with the name of his late father ''Gholam Sakhi''.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Yaghoubi, Moshtagh 1994 births Living people Finnish men's footballers Finland men's youth international footballers Finland men's under-21 international footballers Finland men's international footballers Afghan men's footballers Afghan emigrants to Finland Finnish people of Hazara descent Hazara sportspeople Footballers from Kabul Finnish people of Afghan descent Sportspeople of Afghan descent FC Honka players Pallohonka players FK Spartaks Jūrmala players FC Dynamo Moscow reserves players Rovaniemen Palloseura players FC Shakhter Karagandy players Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi players Seinäjoen Jalkapallokerho players HIFK Fotboll players AC Oulu players PK-35 (men) players Veikkausliiga players Kakkonen players Latvian Higher League players Kazakhstan Premier League players Men's association football midfielders Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Latvia Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Russia Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Kazakhstan Expatriate men's footballers in Latvia Expatriate men's footballers in Russia Expatriate men's footballers in Kazakhstan Naturalized citizens of Finland Kingston City FC players Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Australia Victorian Premier League players Expatriate men's soccer players in Australia Expatriate men's footballers in Afghanistan Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Afghanistan 21st-century Finnish sportsmen