Mikael "Micke" Nilsson (; born 24 June 1978) 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

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 ...

and defender. He is best remembered for representing

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

, Panathinaikos, and Brøndby. A full international between 2002 and 2009, he played 64 matches for Sweden and was a part of their

UEFA Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. 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 ...

, and

UEFA 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 ...

squads.

Club career

Nilsson started his career with Ovesholms IF, where he stayed until 1998 when he moved to Åhus Horna BK. He played for the club for only one season before moving to

in 2000. His first season was mostly spent on the bench, but eventually he became one of the team's more important players until, during the 2004 season, he was sold to English club

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

. At Southampton, he was not able to establish himself as a regular member of the first team and in 2005 he was sold to Greek club Panathinaikos. On 4 March 2008, he stated that when returning to Sweden he would play for

, but he would live in

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 ...

since he wanted to live in a larger city. On 8 April 2009, Nilsson announced a transfer to Brøndby IF. He signed a three-year contract and will move to the club on 1 July 2009. Nilsson's Brøndby contract expired on 30 June 2012 after which Nilsson left the club following three years playing as both a right back, midfielder and occasionally right midfielder. In his last six months at Brøndby, Nilsson did not play much as Brøndby did not see Nilsson as part of the club's future. In August 2012 he agreed to play for the Copenhagen-based club

Fremad Amager Boldklubben Fremad Amager (meaning in English: The Ball Club Forward Amager ; abbreviated Fremad A) is a Danish professional football club based in the district of Amager Vest, Copenhagen. As of the 2020–21 season, the club's senior men's tea ...

due to the new assigned coach Per F. Hansen, as he was the former assistant coach of Brøndby IF. Although on 8 August 2012, Nilsson officially announced his retirement as a player.

International career

He has played in the Sweden national team since 20 November 2002, when he made his debut against the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

in which he scored two goals in a 3–3 draw. He has been a part of Sweden's squad to the

and

, mainly playing as a defender. He started out as a midfielder, but once when the national team lacked defenders, Nilsson was moved back, since then he generally played as a defender for the national team. During the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification Sweden changed to 3–5–2 formation, placing Nilsson again on the midfield. On 6 June 2009, Sweden played a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against

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at the Råsunda Stadium in

Solna Solna Municipality ( sv, Solna kommun or , ) is a municipality in Stockholm County in Sweden, located just north of Stockholm City Centre. Its seat is located in the town of Solna, which is a part of the Stockholm urban area. Solna is one of the ...

. Nilsson made a terrible mistake that caused Sweden to lose 0–1 and eventually miss the World Cup. A cross came in from the right and Nilsson was going to clear it out of Swedish penalty area. He was not under pressure when the ball came. Somehow, he managed to get the ball on his left leg, causing it to roll across the goal-line and to the Danish midfielder

Thomas Kahlenberg Thomas Zeuthen Kahlenberg (; born 20 March 1983) is a Danish former footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. He started his career with Brøndby IF, winning two Danish Superliga championship, and played four seasons at French club A ...

who scored easily. Following Sweden's failure to reach the

2010 FIFA 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 ...

, Nilsson announced his retirement from international football, stating he would not be able to balance playing for both Brøndby IF and the Sweden national team.

Career statistics

International

Appearances and goals by national team and year International goals

Honours

;Halmstads BK * Allsvenskan:

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nilsson, Mikael 1978 births Living people UEFA Euro 2004 players 2006 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2008 players Allsvenskan players Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark Halmstads BK players Super League Greece players Panathinaikos F.C. players Premier League players Southampton F.C. players Danish Superliga players Brøndby IF players Swedish footballers Sweden men's international footballers Swedish expatriate footballers Fremad Amager players Men's association football midfielders Swedish expatriate sportspeople in England Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Greece Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Denmark People from Kristianstad Municipality Footballers from Skåne County