Pyry Soiri (born 22 September 1994) is a 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 defender for

Super League Greece The Super League Greece 1 (), or Stoiximan Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Greece and the highest level of the Greek football league system. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and repla ...

club

Athens Kallithea Athens Kallithea Football Club is a Greek professional football club based in Kallithea, a city and a suburb in Athens. The club currently competes in the Super League 2, the second tier of the Greek football league system. The club has finishe ...

and the Finland national team.

Early life

Soiri was born in

Ekenäs, Finland Ekenäs (; ) is a town and former List of cities and towns in Finland, municipality in Finland that comprised the former municipalities of Snappertuna and Tenala together with the town of Ekenäs. It was merged with Pohja and Karis to form the ...

, to a Finnish mother, Iina Soiri, and a Namibian father, he spent most of his childhood in Africa. He holds both Finnish and Namibian citizenships. His football journey began in the youth sector of PPJ in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

in 2000.

Club career

MYPA

Soiri spent his last years on youth level in MYPA and debuted in

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 ...

with the first team in April 2012, aged 17, in a match against Jaro. During the 2012 season, he was also loaned out to

Kakkonen Kakkonen or II divisioona is the fourth level in the league system of Finnish football and comprises 36 Finnish football teams. Until the end of 2023, ''Kakkonen'' was the third-highest level in Finland, but after the creation of new second-t ...

teams JäPS and KTP in Finnish third level. During the next

2013 Veikkausliiga The 2013 Veikkausliiga was the 83rd season of top-tier football in Finland. The season began on 13 April 2013 and ended on 26 October 2013. HJK Helsinki are the defending champions. Teams FC Haka were relegated to Ykkönen after finishing at the ...

season, he secured his place in the team and gained 22 caps and 1 goal.

VPS

In 2015 Soiri transferred to fellow Veikkausliiga club

Vaasan Palloseura Vaasan Palloseura, commonly referred to as VPS, is a Finnish football club, based in Vaasa. It currently plays in the first tier of Finnish football (''Veikkausliiga''). The club's current manager is Jussi Nuorela. The club plays its home matc ...

(VPS) signing a two-year deal. During his two seasons with VPS, he made 62 appearances in Veikkausliiga scoring 14 goals. He also represented the club in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

qualifiers.

Shakhtyor Soligorsk

In February 2017 Soiri signed a deal with

Belarusian Premier League The Belarusian Premier League (, ''Vyšejšaja Liha'' or ''Vysheyshaya Liga''; ; "Top League"), also called the BETERA Premier League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Belarus and the highest level of the B ...

side Shakhtyor Soligorsk for an undisclosed fee.

Admira Wacker

In August 2018 Soiri transferred to

Austrian Bundesliga The Bundesliga ( , "Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Austria and the highest level of the Austrian football league system. The competition decides the A ...

club

Admira Wacker Admira Wacker is an Austrian professional Association football, football club based in Maria Enzersdorf, a town in the Mödling District of Lower Austria. The team competes in the 2. Liga (Austria), 2. Liga, the second tier of the Football in Au ...

. Soiri made 12 appearances and scored two goals for the club, before he left after just one season.

Esbjerg

Esbjerg fB Esbjerg forenede Boldklubber (; commonly known as Esbjerg fB or EfB in short) is a Danish professional Association football, football club based in Esbjerg, West Jutland, Jylland, that plays in the Danish 1st Division, 1st division, the sec ...

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga (, ) is a professional association football league in Denmark and the highest level of the Danish football league system. The league is currently contested by 12 teams each year, with 2 teams relegated. It is the current ...

announced on 18 June 2019, that they had signed Soiri on a contract until June 2022. However, after 54 appearances and five goals, the spell was cut short, when he got his contract terminated by mutual agreement on 25 August 2021.

HJK

On 4 October 2021, he signed a two-year contract with

HJK Helsinki Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi (), commonly known as HJK Helsinki (), or simply as HJK (), is a Finnish football club based in Helsinki. The club competes in Veikkausliiga, the top division of the Finnish football league system. Founded in 1907, the ...

, beginning in the 2022 season. He represented HJK in the

2022–23 UEFA Europa League The 2022–23 UEFA Europa League was the 52nd season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 14th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. Sevilla defeated Roma in the final pl ...

and the

2023–24 UEFA Europa Conference League The 2023–24 UEFA Europa Conference League was the third season of the UEFA Europa Conference League, Europe's tertiary club association football, football tournament organised by UEFA. The 2024 UEFA Europa Conference League final, final was ...

group phases.

Universitatea Craiova

On 28 December 2023, Romanian

Liga I Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1 and officially known as SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Romania and the highest level of the Romanian football league system. Contested by 1 ...

club Universitatea Craiova announced the signing of Soiri on a two-and-a-half-year deal, on a free transfer. He left the club next summer, having made seven appearances in total.

Athens Kallithea

On 4 July 2024, Soiri joined a newly promoted

club

for an undisclosed fee, which was reported to be in six figures. He scored his first goal in the Greek league on 18 January 2025, in a 2–0 home win against

Volos Volos (; ) is a coastal port city in Thessaly situated midway on the Greek mainland, about north of Athens and south of Thessaloniki. It is the capital of the Magnesia (regional unit), Magnesia regional unit of the Thessaly Region. Volos ...

. During the season, Soiri made 32 appearances in the league, scoring three goals, but couldn't help his team from relegating.

International career

On 6 October 2017, Soiri made his debut for Finland's senior national team in a qualifying match for the

2018 World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded the hosting rights in l ...

against

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

. Brought on as a substitute late in the match, he scored the equalising goal for the 1–1 draw in the 90th minute. Soiri was called up for the

UEFA Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international men's association footb ...

pre-tournament friendly match against

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

on 29 May 2021. In

UEFA Euro 2020 Group B Group B of UEFA Euro 2020 took place from 12 to 21 June 2021 in Copenhagen's Parken Stadium and Saint Petersburg's Krestovsky Stadium. The group contained host nation Denmark national football team, Denmark, Finland national football team, Finlan ...

he gained one cap for Finland on 16 June 2021 in a match against

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

when he replaced Jukka Raitala as a substitute on 75th minute of the match. Soiri made his international debut for Finland in November 2017 and has since had over 30

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

. He appeared in 9 out of 10 of Finland's

UEFA Euro 2020 qualification The UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from March 2019 to November 2020 to determine the 24 UEFA member men's national teams that advanced to the UEFA Euro 2020 final tournament, intended to be playe ...

matches and thus helped Finland reach their first ever major tournament, the

Personal life

Soiri is in a relationship with Sara Sieppi, a Finnish social media personality and a former

Miss Finland Miss Suomi (Finnish language, Finnish for ''Miss Finland'') is a national beauty pageant in Finland. The pageant was founded in 1931, where the winners were sent to Miss Universe. History The Miss Suomi was held for the first time in 1931. B ...

of 2011. Their dating was first revealed in June 2022.

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

:''As of match played on 20 November 2023. Scores and results list Finland's goal tally first.''

Honours

Shakhtyor Soligorsk *

Belarusian Cup The Belarusian Cup () is an annual association football knock-out cup competition for men's football clubs of Belarus, organized by the Football Federation of Belarus. Belarusian Cup was established in 1992. Each year the winning team qualifies f ...

runner-up: 2016–17 HJK *

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

Finnish League Cup The Finnish League Cup (in Finnish: ''Liigacup''), is a knock-out football competition contested annually during the pre-season in winter by teams from Veikkausliiga. The competition is notably the only football competition in Europe which is most ...

: 2023 Individual *

Player of the Month: July 2016Pyry Soiri kuukauden pelaajaksi

References

External links

Esbjerg fB official profile

Pyry Soiri
– SPL competition record * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Soiri, Pyry Living people 1994 births Footballers from Uusimaa Finnish people of Namibian descent Finnish men's footballers 21st-century Finnish sportsmen Men's association football midfielders Finland men's youth international footballers Finland men's under-21 international footballers Finland men's international footballers Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Belarus Veikkausliiga players Belarusian Premier League players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Danish Superliga players Danish 1st Division players Järvenpään Palloseura players Myllykosken Pallo −47 players Kotkan Työväen Palloilijat players Vaasan Palloseura players FC Shakhtyor Soligorsk players Admira Wacker players Esbjerg fB players Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi players CS Universitatea Craiova players UEFA Euro 2020 players Finnish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Belarus Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Austria Expatriate men's footballers in Austria Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Romania Expatriate men's footballers in Romania Liga I players Athens Kallithea F.C. players Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Pallo-Pojat Juniorit players Super League Greece players