John Rune Alvbåge (; born 10 August 1982) 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, rugb ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting ...

. Beginning his career with

Torslanda IK Torslanda IK is a local sports club in Torslanda, Gothenburg, Sweden. History Torslanda IK was founded in 1944 by Anders Tullock, Bengt Tullock and Erik Danielsson. In the 1950s the sports club created sections for football, table tennis, handb ...

in 1999, he went on to play professionally in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, the United States, and Cyprus before announcing his retirement in 2022. A full international between 2006 and 2009, he won four

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 football team The Sweden national football team ( sv, svenska fotbollslandslaget) represents Sweden in men's international football and it is controlled by the Swedish Football Association, the governing body of football in Sweden. Sweden's home ground is ...

and was a squad member at the

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 ...

Club career

Early career

After playing for local club

, he joined

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 ...

and debuted in the Swedish

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 ...

, only 18 years old. He then moved to

Örebro SK Örebro Sportklubb, more commonly known as Örebro SK, Örebro or (especially locally) ÖSK, is a Swedish professional football club based in Örebro. The club are affiliated to Örebro Läns Fotbollförbund and play their home games at Behrn ...

in 2003, before joining

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 ...

in 2005. He only stayed half a season at IFK Göteborg, where he was a backup for former Swedish international goalkeeper Bengt Andersson.

Viborg FF

He moved abroad later that same year, being bought by Danish club

Viborg FF Viborg Fodsports Forening ("Viborg Footsport Association"), or Viborg F.F. and VFF for short, is a Danish professional football club based in Viborg. The club was founded in 1896 and waited more than a century before winning its only national ...

in July 2005. Bought as a replacement for

Danish international Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

goalkeeper Jesper Christiansen, Alvbåge quickly established himself in the Viborg team, and debuted for the Swedish national team in January 2006.

Return to Örebro SK

He returned to

during the summer of 2008.

Return to IFK Göteborg

Before the start of the 2012 season, he returned to IFK Göteborg where he was the first-choice goalkeeper. He helped the club win two

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 ...

titles ( 2012–13 and 2014–15) during his time there.

Loan to Minnesota United

In January 2017 it was announced that Alvbåge had been loaned to

Minnesota United FC Minnesota United FC is an American professional soccer club based in Saint Paul, Minnesota that plays in the Western Conference of Major League Soccer. The club began play in 2017 as the league's 22nd club, and replaced the North American Soc ...

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Cana ...

until July 2017 with the option for an additional 18 months.

Retirement

Alvbåge announced his retirement from professional football on 27 July 2022.

International career

Alvbåge represented Sweden at all youth levels, including U17, U19, and U21 level. He represented the Sweden U21 team at the

2004 UEFA European Under-21 Championship The 2004 UEFA European Under-21 Championship was the 14th staging of UEFA's European Under-21 Championship. The final tournament was hosted by Germany between 27 May and 8 June 2004. Italy U-21s won the competition for the fifth time. Italy's A ...

where Sweden finished fourth. He made his full international debut 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 countries, Nordic c ...

in a

friendly game Friendly may refer to: Places * Friendly, West Yorkshire, a settlement in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England * Friendly, Maryland, an unincorporated community in the United States * Friendly, Eugene, Oregon, a neighborhood in the United States ...

against

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

on 23 January 2006. Later that year, he was selected for the

squad as the third-choice goalkeeper behind

Andreas Isaksson Jan Andreas Isaksson (; born 3 October 1981) is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Isaksson began his career at local Trelleborgs FF, before briefly representing Juventus. He would later return to Sweden, where ...

and Rami Shaaban. In total, he made four appearances for Sweden between 2006 and 2009.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

IFK Göteborg *

: 2012–13, 2014–15 Individual *

goalkeeper of the year:

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...

*Archangel of the Year: 2015

References

External links

John Alvbåge
at

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alvbage, John 1982 births Living people Swedish footballers Association football goalkeepers Sweden international footballers Sweden youth international footballers Sweden under-21 international footballers 2006 FIFA World Cup players Allsvenskan players Superettan players Division 2 (Swedish football) players Danish Superliga players Cypriot First Division players Major League Soccer players IFK Göteborg players Viborg FF players Örebro SK players Torslanda IK players AC Omonia players IK Sirius Fotboll players Minnesota United FC players Swedish expatriate footballers Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Expatriate footballers in Cyprus Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Expatriate footballers in Denmark Swedish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate soccer players in the United States Footballers from Gothenburg