Per Örjan Persson (27 August 1942) is a Swedish former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player. He played for

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

clubs Dundee United and

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

in the 1960s. He also represented

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

at the

1970 FIFA World Cup The 1970 FIFA World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's senior national teams. Held from 31 May t ...

in Mexico and the European Championship qualifiers in

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch ...

Career

Persson was the first of five Scandinavian imports signed by Dundee United manager Jerry Kerr who was one of the first managers in Scotland to tap into the Scandinavian market to find talented and experienced players at an affordable price. Persson moved to

Tannadice Tannadice Park ( gd, Pàirc Thanachais), usually referred to as Tannadice, is a football stadium in Dundee, Scotland. It is the home ground of Dundee United F.C., who have played at Tannadice since the club was founded as Dundee Hibernian in 1 ...

from Örgryte IS on 2 December 1964, the first overseas player to join the club. As there was no professionalism in Swedish football in the 1960s United did not have to pay a transfer fee. He made his debut along with the Danish striker

Finn Døssing Finn Døssing Jensen (27 April 1941 – 24 June 2022) was a Danish footballer who played as a centre forward. He began his career with Viborg FF and represented the Denmark under-21 team before joining Dundee United in 1964. He scored 76 go ...

. United had made a poor start to the 1964-65 First Division season and appeared to be heading towards relegation, which would have undone the great work done by Kerr since leading the team to promotion in 1959-60. Since then the club had enjoyed their longest ever spell in the top flight and were becoming established as a permanent fixture in the First Division although relegation in the Spring of 1965 may have doomed the club to obscurity. Kerr had taken a gamble in bringing players with no experience in Scottish football, like

Mogens Berg Mogens Berg (born 8 June 1944) is a Danish former Football (soccer), footballer, who played professionally as a Midfielder#Winger, winger for Scottish club Dundee United F.C., Dundee United. He played eight games and scored one goal for the Denma ...

and

Lennart Wing Lennart Wing (born 7 August 1935) is a Swedish former footballer and manager who played as a wing half. He began his senior career with Örgryte IS before moving to play professionally in Scotland, joining Dundee United in 1965. He returned to � ...

, to the club to help fight relegation. The gamble paid off, and Persson’s classy play on the wing and pinpoint crosses being complementary to Døssing's huge goal scoring talent. United managed mid-table security by the end of the season. In the following 1965-66 season Persson played a crucial role in helping United to finish in 5th place in the league qualifying for Europe for the first time. The 1966-67 was to be Persson's last at Tannadice, but arguably his most successful. Scoring 11 goals in 29 appearances from the wing as well as helping United to two victories over FC Barcelona and one over

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

in the Fairs Cup. Persson was immensely popular at United playing in 101 matches and scoring 17 goals. He has the distinction (shared with fellow countryman Lennart Wing) of being the first Dundee United player to win a full international cap. He won a total of 9 Sweden caps while with United. He moved to Rangers in May 1967 where he played 113 games, scored 31 goals (often spectacular ones) and won 6 caps, representing his country at the World Cup in 1970. Later that year he returned to Örgryte IS and went on to play for Sweden at the 1974 World Cup.

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Orjan Persson
Neil Brown * {{DEFAULTSORT:Persson, Orjan 1942 births Living people People from Uddevalla Municipality Dundee United F.C. players Rangers F.C. players Örgryte IS players Swedish footballers Sweden international footballers 1970 FIFA World Cup players 1974 FIFA World Cup players Expatriate footballers in Scotland Allsvenskan players Scottish Football League players Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Association football midfielders Swedish expatriate footballers Sportspeople from Västra Götaland County