Mathias Svensson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Mathias Svensson | ||
| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Mathias Svensson | |
| Date of birth | September 24, 1974 (age 32) | |
| Place of birth | Borås, Sweden | |
| Playing position | Striker | |
| Club information | ||
| Current club | Elfsborg | |
| Number | 9 | |
| Senior clubs1 | ||
| Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
| 1996 1996-1998 1998 1998-2000 2000-2003 2003 2003-2005 2005- |
IF Elfsborg Portsmouth Tirol Innsbruck Crystal Palace Charlton → Derby County (loan) Norwich City IF Elfsborg |
22 (15) 45 (10) ? (?) 32 (10) 70 (8) 10 (3) 42 (11) ? (?) |
| National team | ||
| Sweden | 3 (0) | |
|
1 Senior club appearances and goals |
||
Mathias Svensson (born 24 September 1974 in Borås, Sweden) is a Swedish professional footballer. He is a striker who currently plays for IF Elfsborg, having spent much of his career in England. He has won three full international caps for Sweden during his career.
Svensson began his career with Elfsborg, and was their top scorer when they won promotion to Allsvenskan in 1996. Following his success, he moved to England in the same year to play for Portsmouth. He then moved to Crystal Palace and Charlton, and had a spell on loan with Derby County before joining Norwich in December 2003.
Norwich paid an initial fee of £50,000 for Svensson, which rose to £300,000 when the Canaries won promotion at the end of that season. It took Svensson some time to find his form at Norwich and he came in for criticism from many fans. However, he began scoring goals towards the end of the season - including 2 in a 5-3 win at Burnley and a long range effort in a televised match against Wigan - and ended the season with a first division championship medal as The Canaries won promotion to the Premiership.
Svensson scored 4 times in Norwich's premiership season of 2004-05, including 2 in a 3-2 win against Bolton Wanderers. Norwich were relegated at the end of the season and a clause in Svensson's contract allowed him to move to a top flight club in another country in the event that such a club showed interest to him. IF Elfsborg offered Norwich £100,000 for Svensson, and he returned to the club where he began his career.
After his return to Elfsborg Svensson played his first Allsvenskan game on 4 July 2005 against Kalmar FF, and he scored the only goal of the game. The 2006 season was very successful for Svensson. He started all games and scored 6 goals, and at the end of the season he won the first title of his career, as Elfsborg were crowned Swedish champions.
