Glenn Ingvar Hysén (; born 30 October 1959) 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 lea ...

who played as a defender. Starting off his career with

IFK Göteborg Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Göteborg (officially IFK Göteborg Fotboll), commonly known as IFK Göteborg, IFK (especially locally) or Blåvitt, is a Swedish professional Football team, football club based in Gothenburg. Founded in 1904, it ...

in 1978, he went on represent

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional association football, football department, which has pla ...

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 ...

, and

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

before retiring at

GAIS Gais () is a village and a municipality in the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden in Switzerland. The area of Gais is . In 1977, the village Gais received the Wakker Prize for the development and preservation of its architectural heritage. The ...

in 1994. A full international between 1981 and 1990, he won 68

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 Java ...

for the Sweden national team and represented his country at the

1990 FIFA World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second ...

. He was awarded

Guldbollen Guldbollen (''Golden Ball'') is a Swedish Association football, football award given by ''Aftonbladet'' and the Swedish Football Association to the best male Swedish footballer each year. History The award was created by Bengt Liljedahl and betw ...

as Sweden's best footballer of the year in both 1983 and 1988.

Early life

Glenn Ingvar Hysén was born in Gothenburg to a football family. His grandfather

Erik Hysén Erik Valter Hysén (18 May 1906 – 25 April 1988) was a Swedish Association football, footballer who played as a Midfielder (association football), midfielder. He played for IFK Göteborg between 1926 and 1938. Personal life Hysén was the b ...

played for

as did his great-uncle Carl Hysén. Hysén's father Kurt Hysén also played for IFK Göteborg's B-Team. Hysén started playing football at IF Warta when he was a boy. As a child, he wanted to become a member of Swedish

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

group

ABBA ABBA ( ) were a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. They are one of the most popular and successful musical groups of all time, and are one of the List ...

Club career

IFK Göteborg

Hysén started his professional career with IFK Göteborg and made his competitive debut for the team on 14 May 1979 in an

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 ...

game against

IFK Norrköping Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Norrköping, more commonly known as IFK Norrköping or simply Norrköping, is a Swedish professional association football, football club based in Norrköping. The club is affiliated to Östergötlands Fotbollför ...

that ended 2–2. During his first stint with Göteborg, he helped the team win the

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...

and

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

Swedish Championships, and the

1981–82 UEFA Cup The 1981–82 UEFA Cup was the 11th edition of the UEFA Cup, the third-tier club football competition organised by UEFA. The final was played over two legs at Ullevi, Gothenburg, Sweden, and at the Volksparkstadion, Hamburg, Germany. The final w ...

PSV Eindhoven

He was named Sweden's

Footballer of the Year Footballer of the Year may refer to: Association football World * FIFA World Player of the Year (1991–2009) * FIFA Ballon d'Or (2010–2015) * The Best FIFA Men's Player (since 2016) Other * African Footballer of the Year * Asian Footballer o ...

in 1983 and his form earned him a move to

in the Netherlands. He was often forced to play out of position, midfielder and even as a forward, and did not enjoy his time in the Netherlands.

Return to IFK Göteborg

In 1985, he returned to IFK Göteborg and helped the team reach the semi-finals of the

1985–86 European Cup The 1985–86 European Cup was the 31st season of the European Cup, UEFA's premier club football competition. The European Champion Clubs' Cup was won by Steaua București on penalties in the final against Barcelona. Steaua București became t ...

before being eliminated by

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

on penalty kicks. He also helped the club win another Swedish Championship in

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

and win their second UEFA Cup title in

Fiorentina

Following his success with IFK Göteborg and the Sweden national team, Hysén turned down an offer from

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

and their manager

Alex Ferguson Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson (born 31 December 1941) is a Scottish former professional football manager and player, best known for managing Manchester United from 1986 to 2013. He is widely regarded as the greatest manager of all time and ...

to instead join his former IFK Göteborg manager

Sven-Göran Eriksson Sven-Göran Eriksson (; 5 February 1948 – 26 August 2024) was a Swedish association football, football player and Coach (sport), manager. After a playing career as a right-back, Eriksson went on to experience major success in club management ...

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 ...

Liverpool

Manchester United again expressed an interest in signing Hysén in 1989, and invited the player over to England for a tour of

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and is the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,197, it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after W ...

and buffet lunch. He returned to Italy with the deal all but sealed; Manchester United chairman

Martin Edwards Charles Martin Edwards (born 24 July 1945) is the former chairman of Manchester United F.C., Manchester United, a position he held from 1980 until 2002. He now holds the position of honorary life president at the club and Director of Inview Tech ...

even rang Alex Ferguson to report that Hysén had shaken hands on the deal. Negotiations stalled on the £300,000 transfer, and Edwards and Ferguson flew out to Italy to conclude matters in person. However, upon arrival in Florence, they were told by Hysén's agent that the player had signed for

a few days previously, prompting the United management to make a move for

Gary Pallister Gary Andrew Pallister (born 30 June 1965) is an English former professional footballer and sports television pundit. As a player he was a defender from 1984 to 2001 and is most noted for his nine-year spell at Manchester United, where he formed ...

instead. Hysén made a sensational debut against Arsenal in the 1989 Charity Shield win at Wembley which made him an instant hero. Hysén settled in immediately at Liverpool, scoring his first Liverpool goal in their club record 9–0 mauling of

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition buildin ...

soon afterwards. He scored Liverpool's eighth goal in this game, which was notable for having eight different players score for the same side. Alongside veteran club captain

Alan Hansen Alan David Hansen MBE (born 13 June 1955) is a Scottish former footballer and BBC television football pundit. Regarded as one of the greatest defenders of all time and one of Liverpool's best ever centre-backs, he enjoyed a highly decorated ...

and, in Hansen's injury-enforced absence, the young defender Gary Ablett, Hysén was a major part of Liverpool's success in the League championship of the 1989–90 season, when the Reds fought off a late challenge from

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...

and sealed their 18th top division title by a margin of nine points. It went slightly downhill for Hysén thereafter, with Hansen out with a long-term injury (which led to his retirement). Manager

Kenny Dalglish Sir Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish (born 4 March 1951) is a Scottish former association football, football player and manager (association football), manager. He is regarded as one of the greatest players of all time as well as one of Celtic's, Liv ...

's resignation in February 1991 heralded the beginning of Hysén's end. The new manager

Graeme Souness Graeme James Souness (; born 6 May 1953) is a Scottish former professional football player, manager and television pundit. A midfielder, Souness achieved his greatest period of success as an integral part of the Liverpool team of the late 19 ...

did not really share Dalglish's views on football which led to many changes being made upon his arrival, changes that did not suit the entire team and created some tension between him and some of the players, Hysén being one of those players. This tension together with some minor injuries made Souness less keen to keep him. Hysén did recover fitness for the 1991–92 season, but made just five league appearances, the last a 3–0 loss to Norwich City 22 February 1992, before being given a free transfer.

GAIS and retirement

He returned to Sweden in 1992 and played three seasons for

before retiring from professional football in 1994.

International career

Hysén represented the Sweden U17, U19, and U21 teams a total of 25 times between 1976 and 1980. He made his full international debut for the Sweden national team on 6 March 1981 against

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. He continued to play for the Sweden national team for the next nine years. In a

1990 FIFA World Cup qualification The FIFA World Cup qualification, qualification competition for the 1990 FIFA World Cup was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA FIFA#Structure, confederations. Each confederation — the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Confederat ...

match on 19 October 1988 against England at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

, Hysén was awarded six "

wasp A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder ...

s" out of five by ''

Expressen (''The Express'') is one of two nationwide evening newspapers in Sweden. Describing itself as independent liberal, was founded in 1944; its symbol is a wasp and its slogans are "it stings" or " to your rescue". The newspaper awards the cultu ...

'' for a heroic defensive performance. Hysén captained Sweden at the

in Italy, when they lost all three of their first-round matches and went home surprisingly early.

Coaching career

Hysén has been assistant coach for

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 ...

. This experience landed him a spot on reality show '' FC Z'' which takes 15 men between the ages of 18 and 31 who have never played football before and trains them so they can play against a real team. On the show, he is the coach of the football team FC Zulu which was pinned against his son Tobias's former team,

Djurgårdens IF Djurgårdens Idrottsförening, commonly known simply as Djurgårdens IF, Djurgården (), and (especially locally) Djurgår'n (), Dif or DIF – is a Swedish sports association with several sections, located in Stockholm. Djurgårdens IF is an s ...

. In November 2010, Glenn Hysén signed a contract making him co-head coach of Swedish division II team

Utsiktens BK Utsiktens BK is a Swedish football club located in Västra Frölunda, near Gothenburg. Background Since their foundation in 1935 Utsiktens BK has participated mainly in the middle and lower divisions of the Swedish football league system. Utsi ...

Personal life

Hysén and his first wife Kerstin had two children. On 9 March 1982

Tobias Tobias is the transliteration of the , which is a Graecisation of the Hebrew biblical name . With the biblical Book of Tobit being present in the Deuterocanonical books and Biblical apocrypha, Tobias is a popular male given name for both Chri ...

was born and three years later daughter Charlotte arrived. Kerstin and Glenn divorced. He married his second wife Helena and had three children. The first of which was son

Alexander Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here ar ...

, who was born on 12 May 1987. That same year, the family moved to Italy, while Hysén was playing for Fiorentina. Whilst Hysén was playing for Fiorentina, a man proposed to Helena and Hysén chased after him and threw him up against a wall, which he revealed in his biography. Hysén and Helena had son Anton, who was born in 1990, and a daughter, Annie, born in 1994.

Television

After Hysén's retirement from football, he has worked as an expert commentator for TV6 and

TV3 Channel 3 or TV 3 may refer to: Television *Canal 3 (Burkina Faso), a commercial television channel in Burkina Faso * Canal 3 Niger, a commercial television channel in Niger * Canal 3 (Guatemala), a commercial television channel in Guatemala * Can ...

in Sweden. At the end of each transmission, he appoints three football players for the game's best player. He now works as a commentator for TV2 in Norway. Hysén competed as a celebrity dancer in '' Let's Dance 2014'' being the third to be eliminated. Since 2014 Hysén is also an ambassador for the gaming company

Unibet Unibet is a sports betting, online casino, bingo and online poker platform. Unibet is a part of Kindred Group–an online gambling operator which consists of 11 brands along with Maria Casino, Stan James, www.vladcazino.ro, 32Red, and iGame. Today ...

, and the cleaning company Sweden & Co.

Incident at Frankfurt Airport

Frankfurt Airport Frankfurt Airport ( ) , is Germany's busiest international airport by passenger numbers, located in Frankfurt, Germany's fifth-largest city. Its official name according to the German Aeronautical Information Publication is Frankfurt Main Airpor ...

in 2001, Hysén attacked a man who had groped him while in the public restroom. In 2007, Hysén spoke at

Stockholm Pride Stockholm Pride (styled as STHLM Pride) is an annual LGBT pride festival held in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. Since the start in 1998, Stockholm Pride has grown. In 2014, some 60,000 participated and 600,000 followed the parade at the stre ...

, the largest gay pride festival in the Nordic region. Many people from the gay community were surprised due to the earlier incident. At the Stockholm Pride, he delivered a speech denouncing sports homophobia and laid to rest his 2001 airport incident. He said, "I know that many

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

people have been the victims of assaults and hate crimes. I can therefore understand if some people have been upset by the airport incident, so I want to be clear: I think that it is completely unacceptable that anybody should be subjected to assaults, insults or hate crimes due to their sexual orientation or gender identity,...The incident had been blown out of proportion in the media...In order to finally flush the Frankfurt Airport punch down the toilet: it is not the case that I beat up a gay person. I categorically deny that. ...I'm not proud that I took a swing at him, but I am proud that I have integrity and that I reacted." In the same speech he asked "How easy would it be for a sixteen-year-old boy who plays football to come out as gay to his team mates?" In March 2011 his youngest son, Anton, a professional footballer himself, came out of the closet to the media.

Career statistics

International

:''Scores and results list Sweden's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Hysén goal''.

Honours

IFK Göteborg *

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

: 1981–82, 1986–87 * Swedish Champion:

Svenska Cupen Svenska cupen (, ), also known as the Swedish Cup in English, 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 ...

: 1981–82, 1982–83 Liverpool *

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was the top division of the Football League in England from 1888 until the end of the 1991–92 season, when its teams broke away to form the Premier League. From 1992 to 2004, the name First Division was g ...

: 1989–90 *

FA Charity Shield The Football Association Community Shield (formerly the Charity Shield) is English football's annual match contested at Wembley Stadium between the champions of the previous Premier League season and the holders of the FA Cup. If the Premier ...

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

(shared) Individual *

: 1983, 1988 *

Stor Grabb STOR may refer to: * ''Short Term Operating Reserve'', see National Grid Reserve Service * STØR, American furniture chain * STOR2RRD, an open-source software tool See also *JSTOR, digital library *Stor (born 1987), Swedish rapper *Stör, a rive ...

: 1983 * Årets ärkeängel: 1981 * Guerin Sportivo All-Star Team: 1983 *

World XI The World XI, also known as the FIFA World Stars, is an association football scratch team consisting of players from various countries. The World XI play one-off games against clubs, national teams, collectives of continental teams. The official ...

: 1987

References

External links

Profile
at the Liverpool F.C. website * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hysen, Glenn 1959 births Living people Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Swedish men's footballers Swedish expatriate men's footballers Sweden men's international footballers Sweden men's under-21 international footballers Sweden men's youth international footballers Swedish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Swedish expatriate sportspeople in England Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Italy PSV Eindhoven players IFK Göteborg players GAIS players ACF Fiorentina players Allsvenskan players Eredivisie players Serie A players English Football League players Liverpool F.C. players 1990 FIFA World Cup players Men's association football defenders Footballers from Gothenburg UEFA Europa League–winning players 20th-century Swedish sportsmen Hysén family