Daniel Jerry Andersson (; born 28 August 1977) is a Swedish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

executive and former manager and player who played primarily as a

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

but could also play as a

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

. He is currently the

sporting director A sporting director, or director of sport, is an executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many types of sports. The ...

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; ), also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan (, ) is a professional association football league in Sweden and the highest level of the Swedish football league system. Founded in 1924, it operates on a system of promotion and relegatio ...

club

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

. Andersson played the majority of his career for

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 or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

between 2006 and 2011. He also had a successful period playing for

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

club

Bari Bari ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia Regions of Italy, region, on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy. It is the first most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy. It is a port and ...

. Andersson also had a long international playing career, playing 74 matches for

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. He is part of a prosperous football family as both his father Roy and brother Patrik had successful football careers.

Club career

Early career

Andersson played for Bjärreds 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 , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

and

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Florence, Tuscany. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while ...

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 ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

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. History The name came from t ...

and

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

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

Return to Malmö FF

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

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

, 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 In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

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 that year. By this change he became the third Andersson family member after his father Roy 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 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 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 as player only in the away match against

Austria Wien Fußballklub Austria Wien AG (), known in English as Austria Vienna, and Austria Wien in German-speaking countries, is an Austrian professional association football club from the capital city of Vienna. It has won the most trophies of any Aust ...

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 ...

. 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 association football, football club based in Borås, Sweden, and is affiliated to the Västergötlands Fotbollförbund. They play in the Alls ...

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 national under-21 football team, Romania were chosen as the hosts of the final stages, consisting of four ...

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 e ...

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 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

and

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

World Cup finals. At

, he was a regular starter in Sweden's line-up. As a result of Tobias Linderoth 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 The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

, 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 ...

pick the starting eleven. On 14 May 2018, Andersson took over as the caretaker manager at Malmö, following the sacking of

Magnus Pehrsson Karl Magnus Pehrsson (born 25 May 1976) is a Swedish Association football, 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 p ...

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

Executive career

On 9 January 2014, Andersson assumed the role of

, taking over the position from Per Ågren who stepped down.

Personal life

Daniel Andersson is the son of

Roy Andersson Roy Arne Lennart Andersson (born 31 March 1943) is a Swedes, Swedish film director, best known for his distinctive style of absurdism, absurdist humor and Melancholia, melancholic depictions of human life. His personal style is characterized by ...

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

and have been team captain of Malmö.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Malmö FF *

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 60 ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Individual * Swedish Midfielder of the Year: 1997 *

Swedish Goal of the Year Fotbollsgalan is an official and annual Swedish sports awards ceremony honoring achievements in Swedish football. It is organised by Swedish Football Association The Swedish Football Association (, SvFF) is the governing and body of football ...

: 1997

Footnotes

References

External links

Malmö FF profile
(archived) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Andersson, Daniel 1977 births Living people Swedish men's footballers Footballers from Skåne County Sweden men's international footballers Sweden men's 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 Malmö FF managers Serie A players SSC Bari players Venezia FC players AC ChievoVerona players AC Ancona players Swedish expatriate men's footballers Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Men's association football defenders Men's association football midfielders