Stig Håkan Mild (born 14 June 1971) 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

central midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. He is best remembered for his time 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 ...

, with which he won four Swedish Championships. A full international between 1991 and 2001, he won a total of 74

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 was a part of the Sweden team that finished third at the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States w ...

. He also represented his country at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

and

UEFA 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 ...

. He was the sporting director of IFK Göteborg between 2006 and 2014, and is the club director of the club since January 2021.

Club career

Born in

Trollhättan Trollhättan () is the 23rd-largest city in Sweden, the seat of Trollhättan Municipality, Västra Götaland County. It is situated by Göta älv, near the lake Vänern, and has a population of approximately 50,000 in the city proper. It is loc ...

, Västra Götaland, Mild started his career with the local club Trollhättans FK, and was early on scouted by the then leading Swedish club

which he joined in 1988. He made his debut in the first team of IFK Göteborg the same year, in a friendly match 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 ...

, 29 September. He played his first league game the following season, when he came on as a substitute against

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

, 26 July. He then scored his first goal in a competitive match in 1990, and became Swedish champion for the first time that same year, playing in a majority of the club's matches during the season. He became a regular in the team and won another championship title the next season, as well as winning

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 ...

. He also scored his first goal in

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 ...

in 1991, and played four matches in the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

. He was at the time a member of the Swedish Olympic team that competed at the

, where he played all four matches. He returned to European football and played all ten matches in the

1992–93 UEFA Champions League The 1992–93 UEFA Champions League, originally known as the 1992–93 European Cup, was the 38th UEFA Champions League, European Cup, the premier European club Association football, football tournament, and the first season with the UEFA Champio ...

, against amongst others

A.C. Milan (), commonly referred to as Milan or AC Milan () mainly outside of Italy, is an Italian professional Football club (association football), football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Founded in 1899, the club competes in the Serie A, the top tie ...

and

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, Order of Prince Henry, MHIH, Order of Merit (Portugal), OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional association footbal ...

. Mild also scored a goal against

Lech Poznań Kolejowy Klub Sportowy Lech Poznań S.A., commonly referred to as KKS Lech Poznań or simply Lech Poznań (), is a Polish professional football club based in Poznań and currently competing in the Ekstraklasa, the nation's highest division. ...

in the qualifying round of the tournament. He became Swedish champion with IFK again in 1993. Håkan Mild then moved abroad to Swiss club

Servette FC Servette FC is a Swiss professional Association football, football club based in Geneva, founded in March 1890 with rugby as its first sporting activity, and named after the Geneva district of the same name. The football section was created on ...

where he won the

Swiss Super League The Super League (also known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a professional association football league in Switzerland and the highest level of the Swiss football league system. It has been played in its current fo ...

title the first season. He then played in the

1994 World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States w ...

, where he was substituted on in two games, and played the last three games—quarter-final, semi-final and third place match—from start scoring one goal and assisting one. He returned to Servette FC to play another season but his first visit on the

continent A continent is any of several large geographical regions. Continents are generally identified by convention (norm), convention rather than any strict criteria. A continent could be a single large landmass, a part of a very large landmass, as ...

was not very successful and he returned to IFK Göteborg for the second half of the 1995 season. He led the club to another Swedish Championship the following season, but left the club again, this time to play in Spain and

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad ( ; ''Royal Society'') in English, and Erreala or Reala in Basque language, Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Donostia / San Sebastián, ...

. He played 49 matches in Primera Division over two seasons, and was a member of the squad that finished third in 1997–98, the club's best result during the 1990s. He returned home to

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

and IFK a second time, but had to tamper with injury problems the second half of 1998. He played another three seasons before trying his luck in another club abroad, this time

Wimbledon F.C. Wimbledon Football Club was an English Association football, football club formed in Wimbledon, London, Wimbledon, southwest London, in 1889 and based at Plough Lane (1912–1998), Plough Lane from 1912 to 1991. Founded as Wimbledon Old Cent ...

in England. This proved to be his least successful stay abroad, playing only nine matches over a little more than one season. The low, but undisclosed, fee for his transfer to Wimbledon gave Mild a bad conscience, so he chose to not accept the almost 500,000 SEK (around US$50,000 at that time) of match bonuses he had not yet been paid.''Göransson, p. 108.'' This, amongst other things, has given Håkan Mild a special status amongst the IFK fans. He returned in time to help IFK stay in

during the worst season of the club since 1976—when the club played in Division 2—as they barely avoided relegation by winning a play-off after the season's end. Mild then played another three seasons, partially interrupted by injury problems. He played his last match 11 December 2005 home against

FC Lyn Oslo Lyn 1896 Fotballklubb () is a Norwegian football club and a department of the sports club Ski- og Fotballklubben Lyn based in Oslo, whose members also participate in Nordic skiing and orienteering. Until 2010, SFK Lyn had two football departm ...

in the

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 ...

tournament, and his name was sung during all 90 minutes of the match, as a final farewell.''Uefa.com
IFK hero Mild gets his due
' He then assumed the position of director of sports in the club. He played a total of 459 matches over 18 years for IFK Göteborg, and is regarded as one of the club's greatest players ever not only due to his work on the field, but also for his club spirit, leader qualities and work ethics. He has only represented one Swedish club on higher levels, and statements such as "IFK is my home"''Fagerlin, p. 22'' and "IFK has always meant so much to me that it sometimes has become a problem"''Göransson, p. 97.'' has only cemented the view on him amongst supporters as one of the greatest.

International career

He played 74 games for the Sweden national team, scoring eight goals, and besides participation in the

and the

, he also played in

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 ...

Personal life

In 2001, he did a running test called the Pacer test and scored a record high of 19.2 which is the best ever recorded.

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

IFK Göteborg *

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 ...

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

runner-up: 2004–05 Sweden *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

third-place:

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

Individual * Årets Ärkeängel: 1999

References

* Göransson, Mattias (2005). ''Blåvit gryning.'' Göteborg: Offside Fanatik. *

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

.com (2005)
IFK hero Mild gets his due
Retrieved 27 June 2006. * Fagerlin, Hans (July 2006). Överkörd på mitten av Mild. ''Blått&Vitt, 6.'' *

Notes

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mild, Hakan 1971 births Living people Footballers from Trollhättan Swedish men's footballers Sweden men's international footballers Sweden men's youth international footballers Swedish expatriate men's footballers Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Spain Swedish expatriate sportspeople in England Allsvenskan players IFK Göteborg players Servette FC players La Liga players Real Sociedad footballers Wimbledon F.C. players Olympic footballers for Sweden Footballers at the 1992 Summer Olympics 1994 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2000 players Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in England Men's association football midfielders Swiss Super League players English Football League players IFK Göteborg directors and chairmen