Aapo Ilmari Halme (born 22 May 1998) is a Finnish professional footballer who most recently played as a centre-back for Veikkausliiga club HJK. He has also represented the Finland national under-21 football team from 2017 to 2020.[4] Halme was born in Helsinki, Finland. He began his senior club career playing for Honka, before signing with HJK Helsinki at age 17 in 2015.[5] He would go on to win the 2017 Veikkausliiga and 2016–17 Finnish Cup.
Formerly an international at under-16, under-17, under-18, under-19, under-20 and under-21 level. Halme was nominated to Finland´s preliminary UEFA Euro 2020 team[6] but he did not make it to the final squad.
Halme started his youth career at FC Honka, making 1 senior appearance before joining Klubi-04, where he made 15 appearances and scored once.[citation needed]
The winners of the 2015 Finnish League Cup HJK Helsinki brought in Halme from Klubi-04 on a three-year deal expiring at the end of the 2018 season as stated in his contractual obligation.[7][8][9] He made 29 league appearances over three seasons with the club, scoring once.[citation needed]
On 3 January 2018, Halme signed for Leeds United on a four-year contract for an unknown fee,[10] reported to be around £500,000. He became the fourth Finnish player to sign for Leeds after Sebastian Sorsa, Mika Väyrynen and Mikael Forssell.[11]
However, Halme picked up a serious foot injury during one of his first training sessions at Leeds in January, which was to rule him out for the remainder of the season.[12] After nearly nine months out injured, on 27 August 2018, Halme made his first appearance for the club representing Leeds Under 23's against Queens Park Rangers' Development squad.[13] On 23 November 2018, Leeds' first-team head coach Marcelo Bielsa gave Halme special praise after returning from his long injury layoff.[14] He made his debut the next day in the EFL Championship against Bristol City in a 2–0 win, after being named in the starting lineup after an injury to Pontus Jansson and long-term injuries to Luke Ayling and Gaetano Berardi.[15]
He scored his first goal for Leeds on 6 January 2019 during a 2–1 defeat to Queens Park Rangers in the third round of the FA Cup.[16]
Halme was regularly named as an unused substitute on the bench for the first team squad in the Championship, but still featured regularly for Carlos Corberán's under-23 side[17] that won the 2018-19 Professional Development League Northern Section. They then became the national Professional Development League champions by beating Birmingham City in the final.[18]
On 3 July 2019, Halme joined Championship club Barnsley for an undisclosed six-figure fee.[19] He made his debut for Barnsley on 13 August in a EFL Cup match against Carlisle United.[20] He scored his first goal for Barnsley in a 2–2 draw with Derby County on 2 October 2019.[21]
On 25 July 2022 it was announced that Halme had signed a contract with HJK until the end of 2024.[22] He left the club after his contract expired at the end of November 2024.[23]
Halme has represented Finland at U16, U17, U18 and U19 levels. He made his debut for Finland U21s on 8 June 2017 against Ukraine U21s. On 23 March 2019, Halme captained Finland U21 to an 8–3 victory against Norway U21.[24]
Halme was called up for the UEFA Euro 2020 pre-tournament friendly match against Sweden on 29 May 2021 but he remained as an unused substitute.[25]
| Club | Season | League | Cup[a] | League cup[b] | Continental | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| Honka | 2014[26] | Veikkausliiga | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Klubi 04 | 2015[26] | Kakkonen | 15 | 1 | 0 | 0 | — | — | 15 | 1 | ||
| HJK | 2015[26] | Veikkausliiga | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 2016[26] | Veikkausliiga | 14 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1[c] | 0 | 18 | 0 | |
| 2017[26] | Veikkausliiga | 13 | 0 | 1 | 0 | — | 1[c] | 0 | 15 | 0 | ||
| Total | 29 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 35 | 0 | ||
| Leeds United | 2018–19[27] | Championship | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | — | 5 | 1 | |
| Barnsley | 2019–20[28] | Championship | 32 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | — | 34 | 4 | |
| 2020–21[29] | Championship | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | — | 20 | 0 | ||
| 2021–22[30] | Championship | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | — | 7 | 0 | ||
| Total | 55 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 61 | 4 | ||
| HJK | 2022[26] | Veikkausliiga | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3[c] | 0 | 5 | 1 |
| 2023[26] | Veikkausliiga | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7[d] | 0 | 15 | 0 | |
| 2024 | Veikkausliiga | 18 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5[e] | 0 | 23 | 2 | |
| Total | 27 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 15 | 0 | 43 | 3 | ||
| Career total | 131 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 17 | 0 | 161 | 9 | ||
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