Daniel Jerry Andersson (; born 28 August 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 le ...

who is the director of sports at

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, ...

. He played primarily as a

defensive midfielder 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 ...

but could also play as a

centre 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 ...

, which he mostly did later in his career. Andersson played the majority of his career for Malmö FF in two different periods where he also served as team

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

between 2006 and 2011, he also had a successful period playing for

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 Coppa ...

club

Bari Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy a ...

. He also had a long international playing career, playing 74 matches 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 ...

. Daniel is part of a prosperous football family as both his father

Roy Andersson Roy Arne Lennart Andersson (born 31 March 1943) is a Swedish film director, best known for ''A Swedish Love Story'' (1970), '' About Endlessness'' (2019) and his "Living trilogy," which includes '' Songs from the Second Floor'' (2000), '' You, ...

and brother

Patrik Andersson Patrik Jonas Andersson (; born 18 August 1971) is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a defender. Starting off his career with Malmö FF in the late 1980s, he went on to play professionally in England, Germany, and Spain, an ...

had successful football careers.

Club career

Early career

Andersson played for Bjärreds IF as a youngster, but joined

in 1994. He gradually became a star in the Swedish league, and was bought by Italian

outfit

Bari

Andersson enjoyed big personal success at Bari, being named captain as a foreigner at only 23 years, in his third year. This attracted the interest of

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

and

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fo ...

amongst other clubs, with both clubs putting bids on the table. Andersson was also on his way to Fiorentina, but due to their financial problems the transfer was cancelled in the last minute.

Venezia and loans to Chievo and Ancona

Instead he transferred to

Venezia Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The islan ...

for a fee of 6 million euro, where he had an average season. After that he had short loan stints with

Chievo Chievo (4,500 inhabitants) is a frazione of Verona located to the west of the city, around from the historic city centre, on the shores of the river Adige. It is best known for its football team, A.C. ChievoVerona, which competes in the second ...

and

Ancona Ancona (, also , ) is a city and a seaport in the Marche region in central Italy, with a population of around 101,997 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona and of the region. The city is located northeast of Rome, on the Adriatic S ...

. In 2004, he returned to Malmö FF together with former teammate

Yksel Osmanovski Yksel Osmanovski ( Turkish: Yüksel Osmanoğlu; born 24 February 1977) is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a striker. Starting off his career with Malmö FF in the mid-1990s, he went on to represent Bari, Torino, and Borde ...

Return to Malmö FF

Daniel Andersson returned to Malmö FF the same year as his brother,

, who was captain of the team at the time. The return of both Andersson brothers was a contributing factor to the club winning the league the same year. When Patrik retired due to injury problems in 2005 Daniel took over the captaincy and held it until retirement. After having played as

centre midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, 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 #Cent ...

for the majority of his career he took the position as

from the start of the 2010 season, where he enjoyed great success consistently being one of the best players in Malmö FF that year. By this change he became the third Andersson family member after his father

Roy Roy is a masculine given name and a family surname with varied origin. In Anglo-Norman England, the name derived from the Norman ''roy'', meaning "king", while its Old French cognate, ''rey'' or ''roy'' (modern ''roi''), likewise gave rise to ...

and brother Patrik to captain Malmö FF from the centre back position. He succeeded so well with the position change that he was nominated for Swedish defender of the year and Allsvenskan player of the year after he led Malmö FF to their 16th Swedish Championship. On 29 October 2011, Andersson announced that he would focus on his forthcoming coaching career as one of the three assistant managers for Malmö FF but emphasized that he would continue to play for the club when he was needed. On 15 December 2011, he played his last match for Malmö FF as player only in the away match against Austria Wien in the final fixture of the group stage of the

2011–12 UEFA Europa League The 2011–12 UEFA Europa League was the third season of the UEFA Europa League, Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 41st edition overall including its predecessor, the UEFA Cup. It began on 30 June 2011 with t ...

. Due to injury problems with the clubs younger defenders Andersson played 16 of 30 matches in the 2012 season, most of these matches were played before the summer break. His last match as a professional player was an away fixture against

IF 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 spent ...

on 12 August 2012. On 16 November Andersson announced the end of his professional playing career to be able to fully focus on his coaching duties.

International career

Youth

Andersson represented the Sweden U17, U19, and U21 teams between 1993 and 1998 and was part of the Sweden squad that reached the quarter-finals at the

1998 UEFA European Under-21 Championship The 1998 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, which spanned two years (1996–98), had 46 entrants. Before the quarter-finals stage, Romania were chosen as the hosts of the final stages, consisting of four matches in total. The exclusion (for po ...

Senior

Andersson was

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

74 times for

between 1997 and 2009. He was a squad member for

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 ...

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 European ...

, and the

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

and

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

World Cup finals. At

, he was a regular starter in Sweden's line-up. As a result of

Tobias Linderoth Tobias Jan Håkan Linderoth (; born 21 April 1979) is a professional football manager and former player, who is the current manager of Swedish club Skövde AIK. He played as a midfielder, and played professionally in Sweden, Norway, England, Denm ...

getting injured, he was once again a regular starter at

, although the team did not make it into the knockout stages of the competition. Andersson retired from the national team after the unsuccessful campaign to qualify for the

2010 World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

, in order to devote his energies to Malmö FF.

Coaching career

Andersson was appointed as one of three new assistant managers at

along with Jörgen Pettersson and Simon Hollyhead on 29 October 2011. His focus was primarily on the defensive side of training at first and helping former manager

Rikard Norling Rikard Olof Norling (; born 4 June 1971) is a Swedish football manager. Forced to retire early from his professional playing career due to an injury, Rikard Norling started a coaching career at the age of 22. In his early managerial career, Nor ...

with picking the starting eleven. On 9 January 2014, Andersson assumed the role of director of sports at the club, taking over the position from Per Ågren who was stepping down. On 14 May 2018, Andersson took over as the caretaker manager at Malmö FF, following the sacking of

Magnus Pehrsson Karl Magnus Pehrsson (born 25 May 1976) is a Swedish football manager and former professional player who is the Director of Football at Spanish club Vélez CF. Club career Pehrsson started his career in IFK Lidingö. He played for Djurgårde ...

; as the club was placed 10th in the league after nine rounds.

Personal life

Daniel Andersson is the son of

and the younger brother of

, all three of them being some of the most successful players in

. A notable fact is also that all three have played centre back and have been team captain of Malmö FF.

Career statistics

FC_Metalist_Kharkiv_-_Malmö_FF_(6525386389)

Club

International

Honours

Malmö FF *

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 ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

Individual * Swedish Midfielder of the Year: 1997 * Swedish Goal of the Year: 1997

Footnotes

References

External links

Malmö FF profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Andersson, Daniel 1977 births Living people Swedish footballers Footballers from Skåne County Sweden international footballers Sweden under-21 international footballers UEFA Euro 2000 players 2002 FIFA World Cup players 2006 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2008 players Allsvenskan players Malmö FF players Serie A players S.S.C. Bari players Venezia F.C. players A.C. ChievoVerona players A.C. Ancona players Swedish expatriate footballers Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate footballers in Italy Association football defenders Association football midfielders