Alexander Ring

Alexander Ring (born 9 April 1991), is a Finnish professional football midfielder who plays for American MLS side NYCFC and represents Finland national team. Ring was born in Helsinki, Finland. He started his football career in German and Belgian youth teams. He began his senior club career playing for Klubi-04, before signing a full professional contract with HJK in August 2010 at age 19.
Ring made his international debut for Finland in June 2011, at the age of 20.

Early career

He moved to Bonn with his family when aged three, and grew up there and in Belgium. Ring went through the ranks of Bayer 04 Leverkusen before returning to Finland with his family in 2008.

HJK

He signed for HJK's reserve team Klubi-04 in 2009, and represented them until being promoted to the first team, and signed full professional contract with the club in August 2010. However, Ring was loaned out to the now defunct Tampere United for the rest of that season. He returned to HJK after the season, and was established as the first choice holding midfielder for HJK in early 2011. On 26 September 2011, he signed a contract extension with HJK, keeping him in the Finnish capital until 2015. During December 2011, it was rumored that German Bundesliga side Borussia Mönchengladbach were interested in signing the young Finn for approximately one million euros.

Loan to Mönchengladbach

On 5 January 2012, it was announced that Mönchengladbach had signed Ring on loan until the summer 2013, with having an option to buy at the end of the season. On 10 March 2012, Ring made his Bundesliga debut for Mönchengladbach against Freiburg, and on 21 August Ring scored his first goal for Mönchengladbach in a 1–3 defeat to Ukrainian Dynamo Kiev in the first leg of 2012–13 UEFA Champions League's playoff-round. However, despite some encouraging displays for the club, Ring soon fell out of favour, and in February 2013 it was announced that Borussia would not use their option to buy the player.

1. FC Kaiserslautern

In June 2013, he signed a contract with 1. FC Kaiserslautern to play in 2. Bundesliga. The clubs did not publish the transfer fee, but according to newspapers Kaiserslautern paid HJK Helsinki 500.000 Euros. After an encouraging start, and the club sacking of the first team coach Franco Foda in September 2013, he struggled to keep his position in the side. However, he was picked for the opening line-up in the cup games versus both Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern München. He scored his first goal for the club in August 2014 versus SV Sandhausen.

Ring's convincing performances in the Finnish League Cup and the Veikkausliiga earned him a call-up to the new coach Mixu Paatelainen's first gathering of the Finland national football team in May 2011. He made his senior national team debut on 7 June 2011 in 5–0 defeat against Sweden. On 11 October 2011, Finnish star Roman Eremenko described Ring as a soon-to-be key player in the Finland national football team, saying: "I knew Alex when he came to the national team, but I hadn't seen any of his games before. When he came, it was immediately obvious that he is here to stay. He plays without fear." He established himself as a regular in the national team during Finland´s qualification campaign for the UEFA Euro 2012. Ring scored his first goal for the national team on 26 March 2013 in Luxembourg in a match against Luxembourg.

International goals

Scores and results list Finland's goal tally first.

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	26 March 2013	Stade Josy Barthel, Luxembourg	Luxembourg	1–0	3–0	Friendly

Club

HJK

• Veikkausliiga: 2010, 2011
• Finnish Cup: 2011

Individual

• 2011: Veikkausliiga rookie of the year

• "Veikkausliiga palkinnot" (in Finnish). Veikkausliiga. Retrieved 17 February 2015. 

Club

As of 24 March 2015

International

As of 23 March 2015

Ring doesn't have German citizenship, even though he has lived most of his live in Germany. In Maali! 3/2011 he stated: "I have not even applied for German citizenship. It has been obvious for me that I represent Finland".