| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Matias Tapio Ritari [1] | ||
| Date of birth | 15 July 2005 | ||
| Place of birth | Finland | ||
| Position(s) | Midfielder | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | Gnistan (on loan from HJK) | ||
| Number | 16 | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 2011 | PPJ | ||
| 2011–2023 | HJK | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 2023– | Klubi 04 | 51 | (9) |
| 2023– | HJK | 3 | (0) |
| 2025– | → Gnistan (loan) | 2 | (1) |
| International career‡ | |||
| 2023 | Finland U18 | 2 | (0) |
| 2023 | Finland U19 | 3 | (0) |
| 2024– | Finland U21 | 1 | (0) |
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals as of 27 July 2025 ‡ National team caps and goals as of 30 August 2024 | |||
Matias Tapio Ritari (born 15 July 2005) is a Finnish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Gnistan, on loan from HJK Helsinki.
Ritari started football in a youth team of PPJ in 2011 when aged five, but after a few training sessions he joined a newly established district youth team of HJK Helsinki in Töölö neighbourhood. [2] [3]
Ritari captained the HJK U17 team in 2022, and helped the team to win the league of their age group. He signed his first contract with HJK organisation on 7 November 2022. [4]
Ritari made his senior debut for HJK in a Finnish League Cup match against Inter Turku in February 2023. In the 2023 season, he played for the club's reserve team Klubi 04 in third-tier Kakkonen. He represented HJK in the 2023–24 UEFA Youth League in all four games, [5] where the team advanced by winning Malmö FF, but was eventually knocked out by Nantes in the 2nd round on penalties, after a 1–1 aggregate draw.
In 2024, Ritari captained Klubi 04 in the new third-tier Ykkönen. He also made two appearances scoring a goal in Finnish League Cup, and two appearances in Finnish Cup for HJK first team. On 30 August 2024, he signed a professional contract with the club, on a deal until the end of 2026 with a one-year option. [6] At the end of the season, Klubi 04 won the Ykkönen title and earned a promotion to Ykkösliiga. On 19 December 2024, in a UEFA Conference League match against Real Betis, Ritari came on from the bench as a late substitute to Georgios Kanellopoulos, in a 1–0 away loss at the Estadio Benito Villamarín. He made his league debut on 11 May 2025, in a 3–0 away win over Jaro.
| Club | Season | League | Cup [a] | League cup [b] | Europe | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| Klubi 04 | 2023 | Kakkonen | 23 | 3 | 0 | 0 | — | — | 23 | 3 | ||
| 2024 | Ykkönen | 25 | 6 | — | — | — | 25 | 6 | ||||
| 2025 | Ykkösliiga | 3 | 0 | — | — | — | 3 | 0 | ||||
| Total | 51 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 51 | 9 | ||
| HJK | 2023 | Veikkausliiga | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2024 | Veikkausliiga | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 [c] | 0 | 5 | 1 | |
| 2025 | Veikkausliiga | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 1 | |
| Total | 3 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 17 | 2 | ||
| Gnistan | 2025 | Veikkausliiga | 0 | 0 | – | – | – | 0 | 0 | |||
| Career total | 54 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 68 | 11 | ||
HJK
Klubi 04