Oscar Joakim Wendt (born 24 October 1985) is a Swedish 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 ...

who plays as a

left 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 ...

for

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 ...

club

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 ...

. A product of the

IFK Skövde IFK Skövde is a Swedish handball club from the city of Skövde, whose roots can be traced back to 1907. The current organization, however, got its shape through a reorganization in 1991. The team has been in the Handbollsligan (Swedish highes ...

youth academy, Wendt started off his professional career with IFK Göteborg in 2003 before signing with

FC Copenhagen Football Club Copenhagen ( da, Football Club København, ), commonly known as FC København, FC Copenhagen, Copenhagen or simply FCK, is a professional Danish football club in Copenhagen, Denmark. FCK was founded in 1992 as a superstructure on ...

in 2006. In 2011, he joined

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

club

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e. V. Mönchengladbach, commonly known as Borussia Mönchengladbach (), Mönchengladbach () or Gladbach (; abbreviated as Borussia MG, BMG), is a professional Association football, football club based in ...

on a free transfer. After ten seasons in Germany, Wendt returned to IFK Göteborg in 2021. A full international between 2007 and 2016, he won 28 caps for the Sweden national team.

Club career

IFK Göteborg

After playing for

, he joined

in 2003. He became an important first team player, earning 14 appearances on the Swedish U21 team and a call-up for the Swedish national team. In his time at the club he played 91 matches, before moving to the Danish champions

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

on a four-year contract for 6 million DKK. After his departure to Copenhagen, a huge gap arose in the defence, later filled by Argentine defender José Shaffer coming from

Racing Club Racing Club may refer to: Football * Racing Club Abidjan, Ivory Coast * K.R.C. Genk, Belgium * Racing Club Bafoussam, Cameroon * Racing Club Beirut, Lebanon * Racing Club de Avellaneda, Argentina * Racing Club Haïtien, Haiti * Racing Club Port ...

Copenhagen

In his first two years at Copenhagen, he struggled to become a first team regular, first being a back-up for former Norwegian international

André Bergdølmo André Bergdølmo (born 13 October 1971) is a Norwegian former football defender. He was capable of playing in all defensive positions on the field, and while most often taking up a position on the left side, his favourite was that of right full ...

and later Danish international

Niclas Jensen Niclas Christian Monberg Jensen (born 17 August 1974) is a Danish former professional football player and current football agent. He played as a left-back, and most notably won three Danish Superliga championships with F.C. Copenhagen. He playe ...

. However, in 2008, he managed to become a first choice on the left back position for his team, earning him a call-up to the Swedish national team, his first in over 18 months. His strong performances also had him linked with both English club

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 ...

and Italian club

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

. With an injured Bergdølmo in Copenhagen's 2006–07 UEFA Champions League campaign, Wendt played regularly as a left back, and in the team's 3–1 win against

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

, he alongside fellow Copenhagen defender

Michael Gravgaard Michael Julius Gravgaard (born 3 April 1978) is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a centre back. He began his career at Randers Freja. During his stay at Viborg FF he occasionally played as a forward. With Copenhagen he won th ...

was chosen for the

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through Warner Bros. Discovery Sports#Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe properties, its international sports unit, it operates two ...

"Team of the Round".

Borussia Mönchengladbach

Wendt joined

club

on a free transfer on 10 June 2011.

Return to IFK Göteborg

On 23 March 2021, it was announced that Wendt would return to IFK Göteborg on a free transfer. Signing a one-and-a-half-year contract, he returned on 1 July 2021.

International career

upWendt playing for Sweden in 2013 Having represented Sweden at U17, U19, and U21 levels, Wendt made his senior Sweden debut in January 2007 in a friendly game against

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

. Wendt was overlooked for a spot in Sweden's

UEFA Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe o ...

squad despite a strong season in

. Wendt retired from the national team in March 2017, having represented his country a total of 28 times.

Personal life

He is the son of former footballer Joakim Wendt, who played two seasons with

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Copenhagen *

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 yea ...

: 2006–07, 2008–09, 2009–10,

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

Danish Cup The Danish Cup ( da, Landspokalturneringen; often referred to as Pokalen) is the official "knockout" cup competition in Danish football, run by the Danish Football Association. The cup has been contested annually since 1955. The winner will quali ...

: 2008–09

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wendt, Oscar 1985 births Living people Footballers from Gothenburg Association football fullbacks Swedish footballers Sweden international footballers Sweden youth international footballers Sweden under-21 international footballers IFK Göteborg players F.C. Copenhagen players Borussia Mönchengladbach players Allsvenskan players Danish Superliga players Bundesliga players Swedish expatriate footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark Expatriate footballers in Germany