Jens Niclas Alexandersson (born 29 December 1971) 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

right winger 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 boundarie ...

and

right back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. Beginning his career with

Halmstads BK Halmstads Bollklubb, also known simply as Halmstad () or (especially locally) HBK or Bollklubben, is a Swedish football club located in Halmstad in the county of Halland. The club, formed 7 February 1914 and approved membership in the Swedish ...

in 1989, he went on to represent

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 ...

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot ...

, Everton, and

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

before retiring in 2009. A full international between 1993 and 2008, he won 109 caps for the Sweden national team and represented his country at two

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

s ( 2002 and 2006) and two

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations ( UEFA). The competition is conte ...

s (

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

and

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

Club career

After starting his career with local club Vessigebro BK he moved to

in 1988. He played for the team until 1995, when he joined

, with whom he won Allsvenskan in 1996 and played in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

. After one year in Gothenburg, he moved on to England, where he was signed for £750,000 by

Ron Atkinson Ronald Frederick Atkinson (born 18 March 1939), commonly known as "Big Ron" or "Mr. Bojangles", is an English former football player and manager. In the 1990s and early 2000s, he was regarded as one of Britain's best-known football pundits. Nic ...

for

. He played for three seasons in Sheffield, where he became a fans favourite and won the Player of The Season award the year the team was relegated from the

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 ...

. After relegation he was signed by Everton for £2.5 million where he played for from 2000 to 2003, until he moved back to Gothenburg, where he played from 2004 to 2008. After an initial retirement in 2008 Alexandersson worked at IFK Göteborg's youth academy, Änglagårdskolan. On 27 September 2009, newspapers reported that he was to make a comeback and would start training again on 29 September 2009. On 2 October 2009 it was revealed that Alexandersson has sign a contract for the rest of the season. After the season, he retired for good. In 2017, Alexandersson made a brief comeback when appearing in a Division 3 Sydvästra Götaland game for

Västra Frölunda IF Västra Frölunda Idrottsförening (English: Västra Frölunda Sports Association) is a Swedish football club located in Gothenburg. It was formed on 2 January 1930 and has played ten seasons in the Allsvenskan, the highest Swedish league. In t ...

against

Kungsbacka IF Kungsbacka IF is a Swedish football club located in Kungsbacka. Background Kungsbacka IF currently plays in Division 4 Halland Elit which is the sixth tier of Swedish football. They play their home matches at the Tingbergsvallen in Kungsbacka. ...

, appearing as a substitute in the 78th minute and playing alongside his son Noah Alexandersson in a 6–0 win.

International career

He made his debut for the Sweden national team in 1993, and participated in 109 international games, scoring seven goals. His participation in the national team includes the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial football world championship for men's national teams organized by FIFA. It was held from 31 May to 30 June 2002 at sites in South Korea an ...

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host th ...

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 was ...

and

Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of Europea ...

. He was also a member of the Swedish squad that competed 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 ...

in Barcelona. One of his goals came in Sweden's 1–1 draw against England, which he shot powerfully from outside the box and passed through

David Seaman David Andrew Seaman (born 19 September 1963) is an English former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. In a career lasting from 1981 to 2004, he is best known for his time playing for Arsenal. He won 75 caps for England, and is the country's ...

during the group stages of the 2002 World Cup. The day after Sweden's exit from

he decided that he would retire from the national team alongside

Marcus Allbäck Marcus Christian Allbäck (; born 5 July 1973) is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a striker. He was known for his sharp finishing ability and represented clubs in Sweden, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, England, and Germ ...

, however he also said that if it was needed, due to injuries, he would play for the national team again.

Personal life

Alexandersson was born in Halmstad on 29 December 1971 to father Lennart Alexandersson, a former Halmstads BK player. He grew up in

Falkenberg Falkenberg is a locality and the seat of Falkenberg Municipality, Halland County, Sweden, with 27,813 inhabitants in 2019 (out of a municipal total of about 45,000). It is located at the mouth of river Ätran. The name consists of the Swedish ...

, where he started playing football in the local club Vessigebro BK. In 1978, his brother

Daniel Alexandersson Daniel Alexandersson (born 3 December 1978) is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder or forward. He is the younger brother of Niclas Alexandersson. Career Alexandersson started his youth career at Vessigebro BK a ...

, who was also a professional football player, was born. In 1988, he moved to Halmstad to play for Halmstads BK. He attended Falkenbergsgymnasieskola 1987-1990. Alexandersson married his wife Frida. The couple had first child Tilda in 1999 and son named Noah in 2001. While playing football, Alexandersson's family has lived in numerous places including

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...

, Liverpool, and London before returning to

Gothenborg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

. His son Noah Alexandersson has gone on to play professional football for IFK Göteborg in Allsvenskan.

Career statistics

International

Appearances and goals by national team and year International goals

Honours

IFK Göteborg * Allsvenskan: 1996, 2007 *

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 ...

Svenska Supercupen Svenska Supercupen, ''Swedish Super Cup'', was a one-off fixture in Swedish football played between the Allsvenskan champions and the winners of Svenska Cupen. The fixture was played in November, after the Allsvenskan season. In the event of a ...

Individual * Swedish Midfielder of the Year: 1995 * Sheffield Wednesday F.C. Player of the Year: 1999–2000

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alexandersson, Niclas 1971 births Living people Sportspeople from Halmstad Swedish footballers Association football midfielders Sweden international footballers Sweden youth international footballers Olympic footballers of Sweden Footballers at the 1992 Summer Olympics UEFA Euro 2000 players 2002 FIFA World Cup players 2006 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2008 players FIFA Century Club Allsvenskan players Premier League players English Football League players Halmstads BK players IFK Göteborg players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Everton F.C. players West Ham United F.C. players Swedish expatriate footballers Swedish expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in England Sportspeople from Halland County