Eero Markkanen


Eero Pekka Sakari Markkanen is a Finnish professional footballer who plays as a forward for Finland national football team and for FC Haka. He is the son of former basketball player Pekka Markkanen and the older brother of Chicago Bulls player Lauri Markkanen.
Markkanen made his international debut for Finland in May 2014, at the age of 22 and has since had over 15 caps, including 6 appearances in 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifications.

Club career

Blackbird

Markkanen made his debut on senior level in FC Blackbird in season 2010.

ViPa

For season 2011 he played for ViPa in the Finnish Kakkonen.

JJK

In 2012 he returned to JJK and made his Veikkausliiga debut.

AIK

In December 2013 it was announced that AIK had signed Markkanen on a 3 year contract.

Real Madrid Castilla

On 23 July 2014, Real Madrid signed Markkanen from AIK on a four-year contract.
Markkanen made his debut for Real Madrid Castilla on 24 August 2014, playing the full 90 minutes as they lost 2-1 at Atlético Madrid B in Segunda División B Group 2. Six days later he scored his first goal for the club, in a 1-2 home loss to Getafe CF B. However, he missed most of the 2014-2015 season due to injury.
In September 2014, he was chosen for Real Madrid's 25-man squad for the UEFA Champions League, but did not make any appearances.
On 21 August 2015, Real Madrid Castilla released Markkanen. There were rumours of him reporting back to preseason training overweight, but the club never released an official statement about the issue.

RoPS

On 3 September 2015, Markkanen was acquired by the Finnish side RoPS for the remainder of the season after failing to sign for AIK who were rejected a request for an exemption to sign him outside of the transfer window by the Swedish Football Association.

Return to AIK

On 5 November 2015, he signed a three-year contract with AIK. He told the club homepage that he was "Very happy to be back at AIK".
On 4 August 2017, Markkanen joined 2. Bundesliga side Dynamo Dresden on loan for the season, while Dynamo Dresden secured an option to sign him permanently.
On 15 January 2018, Markkanen broke his contract with Dynamo Dresden and went on to join Danish Superliga side Randers FC on loan from AIK for the rest of the 2017-18 season.
He returned to AIK in late June 2018, but soon left the club by mutual consent.

Dalkurd

On 10 August 2018, Markkanen signed with Dalkurd FF in Allsvenskan.

PSM Makassar

On 14 January 2019 it was announced that Markkanen would join PSM Makassar in Liga 1.

FC Haka

On 7 February 2020 Veikkausliiga side FC Haka announced that Markkanen would be joining the club on a one-year contract.

International career

Markkanen made his full international debut on 29 May 2014, replacing Roman Eremenko at half time in a 1–0 defeat to Lithuania in Ventspils in the Baltic Cup. On 7 September 2014, he made his first competitive international appearance, replacing Jere Uronen for the last 15 minutes of a 3–1 win over the Faroe Islands in Tórshavn for UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying. After losing his place in the Finland squad during his spell in Real Madrid Castilla he was once again selected by head coach Hasse Backe in August 2016 for games again Germany and Kosovo. This was after a good summer form with five goals in the last two months for AIK.
He made his FIFA World Cup qualification match debut on 6 October 2016 in a match against Iceland when he entered as a 56th minute substitute for Kasper Hämäläinen.

International goals

No.DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1.8 January 2019Jassim bin Hamad Stadium, Doha, Qatar1–01–0Friendly

Club statistics

International

Honours and achievements

Club

HJK Helsinki
PSM Makassar