Denni Robin Avdić (born Deni Avdić; 5 September 1988) is a Swedish 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 lea ...

who plays as a

centre-forward In the sport of association football, a forward (attacker or striker) is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position which primarily plays further up the pitch than Midfielder, midfielders and Defender (association football), d ...

for

Vasalunds IF Vasalunds IF is a Swedish football club based in Solna, Stockholm. The club is affiliated with Stockholms Fotbollförbund. History Vasalund was formed in 1934 and play in the Swedish Third Division: Ettan Norra. In 2002 the club merged with Es ...

. Beginning his professional career with

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 ...

, he has gone on to play professionally in Germany for

Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen, Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, Werder are best known for their professional association foo ...

and in the Netherlands for

PEC Zwolle Prins Hendrik Ende Desespereert Nimmer Combinatie Zwolle, commonly known as PEC Zwolle, is a Dutch professional football club based in Zwolle, Netherlands. They play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football. They have played in the Ered ...

AZ Alkmaar Alkmaar Zaanstreek (), better known internationally as AZ Alkmaar, or simply and most commonly as AZ () in the Netherlands, is a Dutch professional Association football, football club from Alkmaar and the Zaan#The Zaan district, Zaan district. ...

, and

Heracles Almelo Heracles Almelo is a Dutch professional football club based in Almelo, founded in 1903. The club has won the Dutch national title twice, in 1927 and 1941. Heracles won the Eerste Divisie title during the 2004–05 season, gaining promotion to t ...

before returning to Sweden in 2016. He has won one

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

for the Sweden national team.

Club career

Early career

Avdić was born in

Huskvarna Huskvarna (; formerly spelled ''Husqvarna'') constitutes the eastern part of Jönköping, a city in the Swedish province of Småland, and has a population of about 24,000. The distance to central Jönköping is about 5 km. The name Huskv ...

, Sweden. At 15 years old he was signed by

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga (, ) is a professional association football league in Denmark and the highest level of the Danish football league system. The league is currently contested by 12 teams each year, with 2 teams relegated. It is the current ...

club

Brøndby IF Brøndbyernes Idrætsforening (, usually abbreviated to Brøndby IF (), is a Danish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Brøndbyvester. Brøndby IF denotes the professional football section of Brøndbyernes ...

, playing for Brøndby's reserve team in the

Danish 2nd Division East The 2nd Division () is a professional association football league for men and the third division in Denmark. It is organised by the Divisionsforeningen on behalf of the Danish Football Association (Danish FA; DBU) as part of the nation-wide Danm ...

– the third tier of Danish football; never played any senior games for the club. In 2006, Avdić was released by Brøndby, as he wanted to live closer to his family in Sweden.

IF Elfsborg

He was picked up by

in the Swedish

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 ...

championship. When he was signed by Elfsborg, he was praised by its officials as one of the greatest talents in Swedish football. Avdić made his debut for Elfsborg in November 2006. He played from the start in Elfsborg's first ever

Royal League The Royal League was an annual Scandinavian football tournament held three times in the 2000s between teams from the three Scandinavian monarchies (Denmark, Sweden, and Norway), starting after the end of the regular domestic seasons of Norway and ...

match, and scored two goals in the 4–0 win over AIK. In the 2010 season of Allsvenskan, Avdić changed position from attacking-midfielder to striker, his previous position as a youth player. He scored 19 goals, making him runner-up golden boot that season; Alexander Gerndt scored 20 goals. Due to this he was sold the same season for a transfer fee of £2 million to

Werder Bremen

On 3 January 2011, Avdić became Werder Bremen's first new signing of that winter, as confirmed by the website of the German Bundesliga club. He signed a contract until summer 2014. He featured for the team only on rare occasions during the 2011–12 Bundesliga season. due to his repeated injuries. Before his loan to

, Avdić played seven games in Bundesliga and 12 games for Werder's second team never scoring a single goal.

Loan to PEC Zwolle

On 29 August 2012, Avdić agreed to a loan until the end of season 2013 to the Dutch football team PEC Zwolle in

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

. He scored as a substitute his debut goal for the club in his fourth game. On 17 February 2013, in his 14th game, against

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Netherlands, Dutch professional association football, football club based in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football league system, Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the ...

, Avdić made the match-winning 3–2 goal for Zwolle. This was at the time his seventh cumulative goal count, the second best Swedish goalscorer in the 2012–13 season, exceeded by

Zlatan Ibrahimović Zlatan Ibrahimović (born 3 October 1981) is a Swedish former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Striker (association football), striker. Ibrahimović is known for his acrobatic strikes and Volley (association footba ...

. Where experts claimed that he deserved a place in the Sweden national team, due to Sweden's unavailability of good strikers.

AZ Alkmaar

In summer 2013, Avdić joined

. He made his debut on 30 October in a

KNVB Cup The KNVB Beker (; ), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organised by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Outside the N ...

match against

Achilles '29 Achilles '29 is a football club from Groesbeek, Netherlands, competing in the seventh-tier Tweede Klasse. The club is known for its successes in the Dutch domestic cup, having knocked FC Volendam, Heracles Almelo, RKC Waalwijk, Telstar and ...

, scoring two goals. AZ won the match with 7–0.

Loan to Heracles Almelo

On 15 August 2014, as a result of having no prospect with AZ, he was sent on loan to

until the end of the season.

Return to Sweden

He signed with AIK in 2016, and was a part of the AIK team that won the

2018 Allsvenskan The 2018 Allsvenskan, part of the 2018 Swedish football season, was the 94th season of Allsvenskan since its establishment in 1924. A total of 16 teams participated. As the 2018 FIFA World Cup will start on 14 June, the last round before stoppag ...

. In February 2019, joined

AFC Eskilstuna Athletic Football Club Eskilstuna, also known as AFC Eskilstuna or simply AFC, is a Swedish professional football club based in Eskilstuna. The club has previously been known under the names FC Café Opera and Väsby United before switching owne ...

, newly promoted to Allsvenskan. He left the club at the end of the year. After a long time without a club he signed for

in March 2021. In March 2021, Avdić joined

International career

Avdić scored a total of 19 goals in 57 games for the Sweden U17, U19, and U21 teams, and was a part of the Sweden U21 squad that reached the semi-finals of the

2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship The 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship began on 15 June 2009, and was the 17th UEFA European Under-21 Championship. This was the first tournament after the competition reverted to a two-year format, following the single-year 2007 UEFA Europ ...

on home soil. He made his full international debut 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 ...

on 28 January 2009 in a

friendly game An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sport, sporting event whose prize money and impact on th ...

against

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, coming on as a substitute for

Daniel Nannskog Daniel Paul Gustav Nannskog (born 22 May 1974) is a Swedish former professional association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), striker. During a club career that spanned between 1994 and 2010, he represented H� ...

in the 66th minute.

Career statistics

Honours

IF Elfsborg *

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 ...

Svenska Supercupen Svenska Supercupen, ''Swedish Super Cup'', was a one-off fixture in Swedish football played between the Allsvenskan champions and the winners of Svenska Cupen. The fixture was played in November, after the Allsvenskan season. In the event of a ...

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

AIK * Allsvenskan:

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

Individual * Allsvenskan top scorer runner-up:

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 ...

References

External links

* *
Voetbal International profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Avdic, Denni 1988 births Living people People from Huskvarna Sportspeople from Jönköping Municipality Men's association football wingers Men's association football forwards Swedish people of Bosnia and Herzegovina descent Swedish men's footballers Sweden men's youth international footballers Sweden men's under-21 international footballers Sweden men's international footballers IF Elfsborg players SV Werder Bremen players SV Werder Bremen II players PEC Zwolle players AZ Alkmaar players Heracles Almelo players AIK Fotboll players AFC Eskilstuna players Vasalunds IF players Allsvenskan players Bundesliga players 3. Liga players Eredivisie players Swedish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Swedish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Footballers from Jönköping County 21st-century Swedish sportsmen