Per Anders Andersson (born 15 March 1974) is a Swedish former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a

defensive midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundari ...

. Starting off his career with

Malmö FF Malmö Fotbollförening, commonly known as Malmö FF, Malmö, or MFF, is a professional football club and the most successful football club in Sweden in terms of trophies won. Formed in 1910 and affiliated with the Scania Football Association ...

in the early 1990s, Andersson went on to play professionally in England, Denmark, and Portugal before returning to Malmö in 2005 to finish up his career. A full international between 1994 and 2005, Andersson won 27

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for the Sweden national team and represented them at

UEFA Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament wa ...

and 2004. He was also a squad player for the Sweden Olympic football team at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

Club career

Born in Tomelilla, Andersson played for Svenstorps IF as a child, but joined

in 1990. He gradually became a star in the Allsvenskan, and was bought by English

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

outfit

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

. There, he played four league matches, and scored once against Preston North End in the League Cup. He went on to play in Denmark and Portugal for Benfica, and returned to Malmö FF in July 2005. He remained in the club until the end of the 2008 season, when the team decided not to extend Anders contract. The news was received with dismay among Malmö supporters, and Anders himself has written about the situation at his blog at local newspaper Skånska Dagbladet. He later decided to retire from football, ending speculation that he might've been heading to local rivals Trelleborg.

International career

Youth

After having represented the Sweden U17, U19, and U21 teams, Andersson was selected to represent the Sweden Olympic football team at the

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

Senior

Andersson made his senior debut for the Sweden national team in a

friendly game Friendly may refer to: Places * Friendly, West Yorkshire, a settlement in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England * Friendly, Maryland, an unincorporated community in the United States * Friendly, Eugene, Oregon, a neighborhood in the United States ...

against

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on 24 February 1994. He scored his first international goal in a 1–0 King's Cup win against Japan on 13 February 1997. He was a squad player for Sweden at

, and came in from the bench in a

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...

0–0 draw against

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

before Sweden failed to advance to the second round. Four years later, he was a squad player for Sweden at

UEFA Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. The ...

and started in the final

game against

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

, before Sweden was eliminated in the quarter finals by the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. Andersson made his last international appearance on 9 February 2005 in a 1–1 draw with

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. He won a total of 27 caps, scoring 3 goals.

Career statistics

International

:''Scores and results list Sweden's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Andersson goal.''

Honours

AaB *

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga ( da, Superligaen, ) is the current Danish football championship tournament, and administered by the Danish Football Association. It is the highest football league in Denmark and is currently contested by 12 teams each ye ...

: 1998–99 Benfica *

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of Portugal") is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Placard since the 2015–16 sea ...

: 2003–04 Sweden * King's Cup:

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

References

External links

Malmö FF profile

Aalborg BK profile
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Andersson, Anders 1974 births Living people People from Tomelilla Municipality Swedish footballers Association football forwards Sweden international footballers Sweden youth international footballers Olympic footballers of Sweden UEFA Euro 2000 players Footballers at the 1992 Summer Olympics UEFA Euro 2004 players Allsvenskan players Premier League players Danish Superliga players Primeira Liga players Malmö FF players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players AaB Fodbold players S.L. Benfica footballers C.F. Os Belenenses players Swedish expatriate footballers Swedish expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in England Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate footballers in Portugal Swedish association football commentators Footballers from Skåne County