Erik Staffan Olsson (born 26 March 1964) is a Swedish

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...

coach and former player. Olsson, who always played with no 13, was a left-handed right backcourt player with one of the most feared shots of all the elite players. Later in his career he won praise for his great playmaking skills. From September 2022 he is the head coach of the Netherlands' men’s national team.

Player career

Olsson was born in

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inha ...

. He started his career, at the age of 10, in the Swedish team Skånela. Other clubs are Huttenberg, Niederwurzbach, HK Cliff,

THW Kiel THW Kiel is a handball club from Kiel, Germany. Currently, they compete in the Handball-Bundesliga and are the record champion with 22 titles. 2007 and 2012 were the most successful years in the club's history, as THW completed the treble, win ...

and Hammarby. He played 358 caps (852 goals) with the

Sweden men's national handball team The Sweden men's national handball team ( sv, Sveriges herrlandslag i handboll) is controlled by the Swedish Handball Association. Its most successful periods were under coaches Curt Wadmark (1948–1967) and Ben ...

. After a long career in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

he returned to Sweden and played his final season in Hammarby Handball, a club he later coached to three consecutive national championships.

Olympics

In 1988 he was a member of the Swedish handball team which finished fifth in the Olympic tournament. He played all six matches and scored 16 goals. Four years later he was part of the Swedish team which won the silver medal. He played six matches and scored seven goals. At the 1996 Games he won his second silver medal with the Swedish team. He played five matches and scored seven goals. His last Olympic appearance was at the Sydney Games in 2000 when he won his third silver medal with the Swedish team. He played six matches and scored twelve goals.

Resume

* Caps/Goals: 357/852 goals (1984–2002) * World champion 1990 (in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

) and 1999 (in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

) * European champion 1994, 1998, 2000 and 2002 * World champion runner up 1997 * 3rd place in the 1993 and 1995 World championships * German champion with

1998, 1999, 2000 and 2002 * Participated in four

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

: Seoul (1988), Barcelona (1992), Atlanta (1996) and Athens (2000) * Swedish champion with Hammarby 2006, 2007 and 2008 (as coach)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Olsson, Staffan 1964 births Living people Sportspeople from Uppsala Swedish male handball players Swedish handball coaches National team coaches Olympic handball players of Sweden Olympic silver medalists for Sweden Olympic medalists in handball Handball players at the 1988 Summer Olympics Handball players at the 1992 Summer Olympics Handball players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Handball players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Spain Liga ASOBAL players CB Ademar León players THW Kiel players Hammarby IF Handboll players Expatriate handball players Handball-Bundesliga players