Lauri Dalla Valle

Lauri Dalla Valle (born 14 September 1991) is a Finnish professional footballer who plays as a striker.

After playing youth football for JIPPO and Inter Milan, Dalle Valle moved to England in 2008 to join Liverpool. After two seasons he joined Fulham, and while there spent spells with Bournemouth, Dundee United, Exeter City and Crewe Alexandra, leaving the club in 2013. After spells in Norway (with Molde) and Belgium (with Sint-Truiden), he returned to England in 2014 to rejoin Crewe Alexandra.

Dalla Valle is also a former youth international, representing Finland at every level up to and including under-21.

Dalla Valle was born in Kontiolahti, near the city of Joensuu, Finland on 14 September 1991, one of three children to Loreno, an Italian former police officer and mushroom company boss, and Marketta, who is Finnish.

Early career

He began his career in Finland with JIPPO, and his talent saw him join Internazionale's youth team in 2005. However, Dalla Valle, struggling with the language, soon became homesick and returned to Finland after a few months. He started the 2007 season with JIPPO in the Finnish First Division, but was seriously injured in the fourth round of the Finnish Cup in May 2007, and was out for several months. He scored his only senior goal of the 2007 season in that match before being injured. In the end he only played in 8 matches in Finnish Division I (Miesten Ykkönen) in the 2007 season. He was a transfer target for Chelsea in October 2007.

Liverpool

In early November 2007 he trialled with Liverpool, for the second time (the original time being in November 2006) and he signed a three-and-a-half-year contract with the club a few days later, arriving at the club in January 2008. He was part of the Liverpool team that reached the final of the FA Youth Cup in 2009 scoring 8 goals, including 4 against Birmingham in the two-legged semi-final. He was promoted to the Liverpool Reserves squad in June 2009 and started the 2009–10 season as a senior member of the reserves at Melwood. On 12 January 2010, Lauri scored a 32-minute hat-trick in the FA Youth Cup 5–1 win against Leicester City at the Walkers Stadium.

On 29 July 2010, he made his first and only appearance for Liverpool, coming on as a substitute for Alberto Aquilani in the 83rd minute of the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League Third qualifying round tie against FK Rabotnički.

Fulham

On 31 August 2010, both Dalla Valle and fellow youngster Alex Kačaniklić signed for Fulham, as part of the deal that took left-back Paul Konchesky to Liverpool.

On 4 March 2011, Dalla Valle joined Bournemouth on a one-month loan. On 5 March 2011, Dalla Valle scored on his league debut for Bournemouth in a 3–0 home win over Oldham Athletic. He scored his second goal for Bournemouth in a 1–3 defeat against Southampton on 12 March 2011.

Dalla Valle made his Fulham debut as a substitute for the Europa League match against NSÍ Runavík on 30 June 2011, before joining Scottish Premier League side Dundee United two months later on loan until mid-January.

Dalla Valle joined Exeter City on a one-month loan deal on 19 March 2012. He returned to Fulham on 19 April 2012 after his loan expired.

On 5 November 2012, Lauri joined Crewe Alexandra on loan until 8 December 2012. He scored on his debut the next day as Crewe won at Doncaster Rovers, and then scored on his home debut in a 3–2 win over Colchester United. On 24 November, he scored both goals in a 2–0 win against Crawley Town.

Molde

Fulham confirmed that Dalla Valle had left the club on a permanent basis on 25 February 2013 to join Norwegian team Molde managed by ex–Manchester United player Ole Gunnar Solskjær. Dalla Valle played four matches without scoring a goal for Molde, until he left the club after half a year in July 2013.

Sint-Truiden

On 5 July 2013, Dalla Valle joined Belgian Second Division side Sint-Truiden on a three-year contract. He was released on 13 June 2014 after a single season. He then went on trial with Vicenza in July.

Crewe

He re-joined Crewe in December 2014, signing a contract until June 2016. Dalle Valle was released by Crewe at the end of the 2015–16 season.

Dalla Valle's father is Italian, and consequently he is eligible to represent Italy at international level, but some have said that it is unlikely that he will opt for Italy, and Dalla Valle has represented the Finnish under-17 side in qualifying for the 2006 UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship. Dalla Valle, however, has since refused to play for the Finnish under-21 side team in the 2011 European Championship qualification. U21 manager Markku Kanerva and the A national team coach Stuart Baxter criticised the decision. Stuart Baxter was supposed to invite Dalla Valle to Finland national football team training camp on January 2009, but Liverpool forbid him to join based on club obligations.

Dalla Valle was likened to a young Fernando Torres in the way he plays the game, due to his speed, workrate and finishing ability.