Atik İsmail

Atik İsmail — Biography

Atik Ismail is one of the most remembered strikers in Finnish football, and he made his name above all at HJK Helsinki. He was born into a Tatar family. After football he wrote books, stood for office and coached a team on a television programme, and he is in the Finnish Football Hall of Fame.

He started with a Tatar club, Yolduz, moved to HJK in 1968 and won a league title there in 1973. Back at HJK in 1978, he scored 20 goals in 22 matches to finish top scorer, and that year he was named Finland's player of the year. He joined Beşiktaş for the 1978-79 season, scored on his debut but never found his form, and his contract was terminated after he joined a national-team match without permission. At HJK again in 1979 he was top scorer once more, won another league title in 1981, and in 1982, the year of his third top-scorer award, scored the winning goal when HJK beat Liverpool 1-0 in the European Cup. He also played in Belgium for Waregem and Anderlecht.

He first played for the Finland national team in 1978 and scored twice against Greece in his first match; in total he earned 26 caps and scored 7 goals. Away from the pitch he published poetry collections (1994 and 1995), an autobiography and a book on coaching (1997), and in 2008 a book about the musician Cisse Häkkinen. He ran in the European Parliament elections for the Green League (Vihreä liitto) in 1999 and the Left Alliance (Vasemmistoliitto) in 2009 but was not elected.