Yksel Osmanovski ( Turkish: Yüksel Osmanoğlu; born 24 February 1977) 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 striker. 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 mid-1990s, he went on to represent Bari,

Torino Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. T ...

, and

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...

before retiring at Malmö FF in 2007. A full international between 1998 and 2006, he won 15

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

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 ...

Early life

Born in Skrävlinge,

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal pop ...

, Osmanovski grew up in

Rosengård Rosengård (literally "Rose Manor") was a city district ( sv, stadsdel) in the center of Malmö Municipality, Sweden. On 1 July 2013, it was merged with Husie, forming Öster. In 2012, Rosengård had a population of 23,563 of the municipality' ...

, where fellow Swedish footballer

Zlatan Ibrahimović Zlatan Ibrahimović (, ; born 3 October 1981) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a striker for club AC Milan and the Sweden national team. Ibrahimović is renowned for his acrobatic strikes and volleys, powerful long-range sho ...

also grew up. In an early interview, Zlatan said that "within a few years, I will play in Italy, and eventually the national team. I want to follow in Yksel's footsteps. We know each other, even if he is four years older than me. I got his autograph when he started playing for Malmö FF, when I played in Malmö BI. When he came to Rosengård and played and dribbled with us kids, we were all shouting "Yksel, Yksel, Yksel!" - ''Ibrahimović, in 2000''.

Club career

Osmanovski played for Malmö BI and

IFK Malmö Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Malmö, more commonly known as IFK Malmö, is a Swedish sports club with several departments, located in Malmö. The club was founded on 23 April 1899. The football department of IFK Malmö is one of the oldest footb ...

as a child, but joined

in 1987 where he eventually made his debut in 1995. He gradually became a star in the Swedish league, and was bought by Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

outfit Bari. After three seasons he moved on to

, but struggled to capture a first team place. He had a loan spell at Bordeaux, where he was on the bench when they won the 2002 Coupe de la Ligue Final, before returning to Malmö FF in 2004. There he was part of the team that won the Allsvenskan league title, although Osmanovski himself did not receive a winner's medal, because he took part in too few matches. Still he played the crucial role, in stopping a ball on the goal line against title rivals

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

. Had it gone in, Malmö would certainly not won the league title, but thanks to a 2–2 draw, they kept themselves within a shot. In February 2008, Osmanovski announced his retirement from professional football, having not had his contract with Malmö renewed.

International career

Osmanovski was the first Muslim to represent Sweden. He played 15 international matches. and was a squad player for the

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 ...

Coaching career

On 14 January 2013, it was announced that Osmanovski would return to football, working as U21 coach for his previous club Malmö FF.

Career statistics

International

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

Honours

Malmö FF * Allsvenskan: 2004

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Osmanovski, Yksel 1977 births Living people Footballers from Malmö Swedish people of Turkish descent Swedish Muslims Men's association football forwards Swedish men's footballers Sweden men's international footballers Sweden men's under-21 international footballers Swedish expatriate men's footballers UEFA Euro 2000 players FC Rosengård 1917 players Malmö FF players SSC Bari players Torino FC players FC Girondins de Bordeaux players Serie A players Serie B players Ligue 1 players Allsvenskan players Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in France Malmö FF non-playing staff