Pohjanpalo has already scored 12 goals this season in the Turkish Süper League, which is his own record in the men’s main series. The Owl striker has a contract for next season at Bayer Leverkusen, but the next venue is still fully open.
Joel Pohjanpalo has already made 12 hits for Caykur Rizespor, who play in the main series in Turkey, this season.
It is already a one-season goal record at Pohjanpalo’s career in the main league when he still has eight league games ahead of him. He is currently the third best scorer in the Turkish series. The fire has hit as many times as the meritorious attackers play in the Turkish clubs Besiktas and Trabzonspor, for example. Michy Batshuayi and Andreas Cornelius.
The specialist in special hat tricks previously also got a new kind of three-goal evening in his collections. The hat trick, which came in the sixth main series of Pohjanpalo, was born with three penalty kick goals. Rizespor, who fought for his place in the league, knocked out the top of the series Galatasaray 3–2 with those goals.
– As such, the game didn’t have much to do with football, as there was so much snow on the field. However, special situations naturally played a big role in that match. All the goals came from the dots earned according to the standards of the Turkish league, Pohjanpalo says at the Finnish national team’s remote press conference in Murcia, Spain.
Pohjanpalo will join the national team when Finland will face Iceland and Slovakia in the national matches on Saturday and Tuesday.
The only Finnish player in the main series in Turkey, Süper Lig, will have a contract with his long-term club Bayer Leverkusen next season. Pohjanpalo is used to the fact that playing time is in no way guaranteed along the Rhine. He has played on the loan in five different clubs after signing a permanent contract with Leverkusen in July 2014.
The Finnish football audience will surely be interested in the thoughts of Pohjanpalo, who is in good pace, about his company for the next season. He stresses that the season is still badly underway and next season’s patterns are fully open.
– The contract with Leverkusen continues, but it is still completely open whether I will stay there to play after all, he says.
In the Turkish Süper League, he is ready to continue if a suitable offer is received. Interest has already begun to emerge from the larger clubs in the series.
– When I am in these places on the Turkish paint exchange where I am, the bigger clubs in Turkey are naturally interested. Of course, I will continue to be open to Turkish football. Once the place is right for me, i.e. the playing time and the result has come, then who would the attacker want.
Screens for Leverkusen and others
The high level of the Turkish series and the games of the top clubs in the European Cup competitions have convinced Pohjanpalo.
In connection with the next season, he says that he was in contact with Leverkusen’s sports executive management last week.
– I talked to them this week and before that also under Christmas. They have been very interested in how my games are going here, Pohjanpalo says.
However, according to him, the way Rizespor used the game does not bring out the kind of skills needed to play German football.
– However, it is important for them and me that the result comes. One has to look after the season, what is the ranking on the paint exchange and how many goals are in the column. Although the paint kingdom might not be a sequel to the CV, he ponders.
– Of course this looks good in every direction. Whether the career continues in Leverkusen, elsewhere in Germany, England, Turkey or anywhere else, it is a grief of another time. Like I said, everything is fully open for next season.
Only Kasimpasan have scored more goals in the series than the bottom fire Umut Bozok (14 goals) and Hataysporin Ayoub El Kaabi (15 goals).
He also believes the way Rizespor and the Turkish league played brought him to learn the ability to receive the ball in the offensive zone while defenders try to wrestle and pressure him to overthrow.
– The players here are as fit and physically fit as the players in the top five in Europe. I have to wrestle with the ball a lot towards the back here, which is due to the way we play here, Pohjanpalo says.
Long period without injuries
However, the biggest fortune for the Finnish national team leader is a long period of time without major injuries. Pohjanpalo has suffered a wide range of injuries in his career that have kept him away from the field for long periods.
Now he has been spared from worse injuries for a long time. Pohjanpalo calculates that it last experienced an injury that brought a longer recovery period in a November 2020 match against Bulgaria in the League of Nations. At that time, his fractured left ankle required surgery.
– The head injury in the World Cup qualifiers against Kazakhstan took me one match, but otherwise I have been fully fit. Above all, it has been my main goal to be able to play 90-minute matches every week, Pohjanpalo says.
– The body feels really good right now. What could be better than being able to play all the time and score goals at the same time.
Although the national matches of the Owners have been unfortunate for Pohjanpalot in addition to their importance, he now has a different duration of the load from the games than at the moment.
“Every day surprises, for better or worse”
Pohjanpalo has enjoyed himself in Turkey and has said that his company has taken care of things athletically well for him. He previously told Sporten that, in terms of football, Rize is a good and functional place, but from a social point of view, he says the city doesn’t offer much.
On the other hand, there are plenty of stories about Rizespor, currently in second place in the main series in Turkey, ranked 19th. HJK’s breeder describes that the whole country has served him a lot of different coincidences.
– Commercial tips and specialties have come to the fore. Every day surprises here, for better or worse. Also the league and my own club there. Let’s see where we play next season, but I’m still going to reveal what has happened there, Pohjanpalo laughs.
He gives a concrete example that can give a small reference to what is happening in the backgrounds.
– At least everyone will understand that we have a third head coach at the moment. All the budgets of the clubs in the series were previously revealed and Rizespor has the fifth largest of them. At the same time, we are fighting a hard fall.
The Finn considers his solution to come to Turkey to be absolutely right and feels that he has gained a new great experience after his years in Germany. Above all, the rich game minutes and the result are decisive for him.