Mats Rune "Matte" Werner (born 1 June 1953) 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 le ...

. He played for

Hammarby IF Hammarby Idrottsförening ("Hammarby Sports Club"), commonly known as Hammarby IF or simply Hammarby ( or, especially locally, ), is a Swedish sports club located in Stockholm, with a number of member organizations active in a variety of differe ...

throughout most of his career.

Club career

Trained in the youth ranks of

, Werner made his debut in

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; en, the All-Swedish, also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan, en, the Football All-Swedish) is a Swedish professional league for men's association football clubs. It was founded in 1924 and is the top tier of the Swedish football lea ...

, the domestic top tier, for the club in 1971, at age 17. Between

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events Ja ...

and

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

, Hammarby consistently finished mid-table, being unable to produce any sort of challenge for the Swedish champion title. During this period, Werner became one of Hammarby's most important players, together with experienced

Tom Turesson Tom Olov Turesson (17 May 1942 – 13 December 2004) was a Swedish football (soccer), football player and manager, best known for representing Hammarby Fotboll, Hammarby IF. A full international between 1962 and 1971, he won 22 Cap (sport), caps f ...

and other younger talents like

Jan Sjöström Jan Enar Christer "Janne" Sjöström (10 April 1948 – 12 September 2013) was a Swedish football player and manager, best known for representing Hammarby IF. A full international between 1972 and 1974, he won eight caps for Sweden. Early life S ...

Kenneth Ohlsson Lars Kenneth "Kenta" Ohlsson (born 7 September 1948) is a Swedish former football player and manager. He represented Hammarby IF throughout his whole playing career, as a one club man, and holds the club record for most league appearances in to ...

and

Ronnie Hellström Folke Ronnie Wallentin Hellström (21 February 1949 – 6 February 2022) was a Swedish professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He represented Hammarby IF and 1. FC Kaiserslautern during a career that spanned between 1966 and 1984 an ...

. Hammarby reached the final of

Svenska Cupen Svenska Cupen (, ''The Swedish Cup'') is a knockout cup competition in Swedish football and the main Swedish football cup. Svenska Cupen usually refers to the men's tournament, although a women's tournament is also held. Each year 96 teams compe ...

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic R ...

, the main domestic cup, but lost 0–1 to

Östers IF Östers Idrottsförening, commonly known as Östers IF or simply Öster, is a Swedish sports club located in Växjö, specializing in Association football, football, and playing in the second tier of Swedish football, Superettan. The club has ...

. In

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

, Werner had re-positioned himself from a tough defender to a physical forward, a move that proved highly successful. The same season, he became the first ever top scorer in Allsvenskan to represent Hammarby, scoring 14 goals in 26 league games. The highlight of Werner's career came in

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...

when Hammarby finished second in the table, going unbeaten the whole season. In the following playoff to decide the Swedish champion, the club went on to beat

Örgryte Örgryte is one of the 21 ''stadsdelsnämndsområden'' (a kind of district often translated as borough) of Gothenburg Municipality, Sweden. It is a largely upper middle class residential area, just to the east of the city centre. It has a populati ...

in the quarter-finals and

Elfsborg Idrottsföreningen Elfsborg, more commonly known as IF Elfsborg or simply Elfsborg (), is a professional football club based in Borås, Sweden, and is affiliated to the Västergötlands Fotbollförbund. They play in the Allsvenskan and have spe ...

in the semi-finals. In the finals against

IFK Göteborg Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Göteborg (officially IFK Göteborg Fotboll), commonly known as IFK Göteborg, IFK (especially locally) or simply Göteborg, is a Swedish professional football club based in Gothenburg. Founded in 1904, it is the ...

, Hammarby won 2–1 in the first leg away, but lost 1–3 in the home game at

Söderstadion Söderstadion ''(translated in English as Southern Stadium)'' was a football and bandy stadium in Stockholm, Sweden. It was opened in 1966 and closed in 2013, being replaced by nearby Tele2 Arena. Söderstadion had a capacity of 12,800 depending ...

to a record crowd, missing out on the gold medal. Throughout his time at Hammarby, Werner went on trial with German giants

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

and reportedly attracted interest from

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège (; nl, Standard Luik ; german: Standard Lüttich ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the most ...

Kaiserslautern Kaiserslautern (; Palatinate German: ''Lautre'') is a city in southwest Germany, located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfur ...

and

Toronto Blizzard Toronto Blizzard may refer to: *Toronto Blizzard (1971–1984), the original soccer club, a franchise of the North American Soccer League *Toronto Blizzard (1986–1993), the later club and franchise of the Canadian Soccer League *Toronto Azzurri B ...

. However, he remained with the club for the most of career, making 251 league appearances and scoring 46 goals in total. Halfway through 1984, Werner joined fellow Stockholm-based club

Vasalunds IF Vasalunds IF is a Swedish football club based in Solna, Stockholm. The club is affiliated with Stockholms Fotbollförbund. History Vasalund was formed in 1934 and play in the Swedish Third Division: Division 1 Norra. In 2002 the club merged with ...

in Division 1, Sweden's second tier. He played the remainder of the season with the club before retiring from football at the end of the year, aged 31. In 2004, Werner was voted as Hammarby's eleventh biggest profile throughout its history.

International career

In a period of three years, Werner won 6 caps for

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 ...

. He scored his only international goal in a 6–0 friendly win against

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

on 11 August 1976, home at

Malmö Stadion Malmö Stadion, often known simply as Stadion before the construction of the new Stadion between 2007 and 2009, is a multi-purpose stadium in Malmö, Sweden. As of 2015, it is the home of association football club IFK Malmö, presently of Div ...

Personal life

He is married to Yvonne Werner, who has been the long-term head chef at Hammarby's training ground Årsta IP.

Honours

Individual Hammarby IF *

top scorer:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Werner, Mats 1953 births Living people Swedish footballers Allsvenskan players Ettan Fotboll players Hammarby Fotboll players Vasalunds IF players Sweden international footballers Association football defenders