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 ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for Romanian

Liga I The Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1, is a Romanian professional league for men's association football clubs. Currently sponsored by betting company Superbet, it is officially known as the SuperLiga. It is the country's top ...

side Universitatea Craiova, and the

Finland national team Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bo ...

. Born in

Ekenäs, Finland Ekenäs (; fi, Tammisaari ) is a town and former 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 new municipality of R ...

, to a Finnish mother,

Iina Soiri Iina Kaarina Soiri (born August 29, 1964) is a Finnish social scientist, former director of the Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala, Sweden. Life and work Iina Soiri has a Master of Social Sciences from the University of Helsinki and foundi ...

, and a Namibian father, he spent most of his childhood in Africa. He holds both Finnish and Namibian citizenships. He began his senior career at the age of 17 playing for MYPA. 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 Ja ...

. 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, played across Euro ...

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

UEFA Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2020) or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Euro ...

Club career

MYPA

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

Veikkausliiga Veikkausliiga (; sv, Tipsligan) is the premier division of Finnish football, the highest tier of the Finnish football league structure, comprising the top 12 clubs of the country. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agency Veikka ...

in April 2012 in a match against Jaro. During season 2012 he was also loaned out to

Kakkonen Kakkonen or II divisioona is the third level in the league system of Finnish football and comprises 36 Finnish football teams. The II divisioona was introduced in 1973 and in the mid-1990s became known as the Kakkonen ( Finnish for 'Number Tw ...

teams JäPS and KTP. During season

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment ...

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

VPS

In 2015 Soiri transferred to

VPS VPS may refer to: Science and technology * Ventriculo-peritoneal shunt, a neurosurgical method used to treat hydrocephalus * Video programming system, a standard for video recorders in Germany * Virtual private server, a method of partitioning a ...

signing a two-year deal.

Shakhtyor Soligorsk

In February 2017 Soiri signed a deal with

Belarusian Premier League The Belarusian Premier League or the Vyšejšaja Liha or the Vysheyshaya Liga ( be, Вышэйшая ліга, russian: Высшая лига, "Top League") is the top division of professional football in Belarus, and is organized by the Belaru ...

Shakhtyor Soligorsk.

Admira Wacker

In August 2018 Soiri transferred to

Austrian Bundesliga The Austrian Football Bundesliga (german: Österreichische Fußball-Bundesliga, italic=no , "Austrian Football Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Austrian football league system. The ...

Admira Wacker.

Esbjerg

Danish club

Esbjerg fB Esbjerg forenede Boldklubber (; commonly known as Esbjerg fB or EfB in short) is a Danish professional football club based in Esbjerg, West Jutland, that plays in the 2nd division, the third-tier of the Danish football league system. Found ...

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, beginning in the 2022 season.

CS Universitatea Craiova

On 28 December 2023, Romanian

club Universitatea Craiova announced the signing of Soiri on a two-and-a-half-year deal, on a free transfer.

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 men's national Association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awa ...

against

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

. 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

pre-tournament friendly match against Sweden 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, Finland, Belgium and host nation Russia. The head-to-head match betwee ...

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

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

when he replaced

Jukka Raitala Jukka Raitala (born 15 September 1988) is a Finnish professional footballer who plays for Veikkausliiga club HJK. He usually plays as a left back in both his club side and the national team but can also operate as a right back or a central def ...

as a substitute on 75th minute of the match.

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 in Belarus. The tournament is organized by the Football Federation of Belarus. Belarusian Cup was established in 1992. Each year the winnin ...

runner-up: 2016–17 HJK *

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeyp ...

2023 Events Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1927 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ** Croatia will adopt the eu ...

Finnish League Cup The Finnish League Cup was a knock-out football competition contested annually during the pre-season in winter by teams from Veikkausliiga. The league cup was abolished after the 2016 tournament and replaced with the Finnish Cup group stage starti ...

: 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 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 FC Admira Wacker Mödling 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 Namibian people of European descent African people of Finnish descent Liga I players