Almgren is different

Anders Almgren (born December 27, 1968 in Stockholm ) is a Swedish former football player . The goalkeeper , who won the Swedish national cup with Djurgårdens IF and AIK - but only as a substitute in the final - became goalkeeping coach after the end of his active career .

Career

Almgren began playing football at Djurö / Vindö IF in 1977 , but joined Djurgårdens IF the following year. There he went through the individual youth teams and developed into a goalkeeper in various Swedish junior national teams. Accordingly, he also moved up as a young player in the squad of the men's team of his club, for which he appeared as a substitute goalkeeper in the second division. After promotion to the Allsvenskan he was in the first division season in 1988 behind Joacim Sjöström still second goalkeeper, but came to his first four first division games. After the departure of his competitor to local rivals AIK before the beginning of the following season, he became his successor and played all 22 season games alongside Krister Nordin , Jens Fjellström , Steve Galloway , Glenn Schiller and Stephan Kullberg .

In the summer of 1990 Almgren won the Swedish Cup with the club when he did not concede a goal in the final in a 3-0 win over BK Häcken . As a current U-21 selection player , he was subsequently in the discussion for the squad at the 1990 World Cup , ultimately Olle Nordin decided on the experienced trio of Thomas Ravelli , Lars Eriksson and Sven Andersson . In the 1991 season , in which he was temporarily represented by Kjell Frisk in the regular season , he moved into the championship finals with the team under coach Lennart Wass , but missed the European Cup . Shortly after the start of the following season, he was injured in a 4-4 draw in the local derby against AIK. Without further play in the course of the season, he could not prevent his club's relegation to the second division at the end of the season.

Almgren left Djurgårdens IF after the end of the season and joined local rivals Vasalunds IF , who also played in the second division. In a three-way battle between the Stockholm clubs Hammarby IF , Vasalunds IF and Djurgårdens IF for promotion to the Allsvenskan, he reached second place in the table with his new team and had to compete in the relegation games against Örebro SK . After a 2-2 draw on their own pitch, a 0-0 draw away due to the away goals rule meant missing promotion. Also in the following years he placed with the team in the front area.

At the beginning of 1996 Almgren accepted an offer from the AIK and returned to Allsvenskan. At his new club goalkeeper Magnus Hedman had gone through a period of weakness in the 1995 season , but his deputy Matts Andersson struggled with back problems, so the club had been looking for a suitable competitor. However, Almgren injured himself in January and was also out for a longer period after a cruciate ligament tear . After his return to the field in early September, Hedman had proven himself to be an outstanding goalkeeper and was undisputedly a regular goalkeeper. Under coach Erik Hamrén , he played his first competitive game in the spring of 1997 as part of the national cup, which is why he can call himself the cup winner after the cup final against IF Elfsborg in the summer - Hedman stood between the posts in the 2-1 win.

In the summer of 1997 Hedman left AIK and joined the English club Coventry City . Although the club signed another goalkeeper as a substitute in Claes Green from Östers IF , Almgren initially prevailed as the regular goalkeeper. In the first European game of his career, however, he made a fatal mistake. In the first round of the 1997/98 European Cup Winners' Cup against the Slovenian representative NK Primorje , he used his hands outside the penalty area to defend himself and was sent off the field . As a result, he lost the space between the posts to the competitor, while coach Hamrén's work as AIK coach was limited to the time until the end of the year after the resulting early elimination from the European Cup. After AIK had signed two more goalkeepers with Mattias Asper and Lee Baxter in late 1997, Almgren left the club.

Since he had initially not found a club, Almgren joined Väsby IK in January 1998 as an assistant coach. Subsequently, Assyriska Föreningen reported interest in him, so that he gave up the coaching job again in March to play for the club in the second division. With the club he reached second place in the northern season of the second division behind GIF Sundsvall in 1999 , but failed with the team in the relegation after extra time again at Örebro SK. With that, however, the team had qualified for the new, single-track Superettan . He played there for two years before ending his career with IFK Stockholm .

In 2003 Almgren returned to AIK as a goalkeeping coach. At the side of coach Richard Money , Patrick Englund and Rikard Norling , he looked after the club's goalkeepers in the following years. In autumn 2006 he was reactivated for a short time and sat on the bench after an injury to Nicklas Bergh as a substitute in the game against Halmstads BK . After having worked as a goalkeeper coach for both AIK and the cooperation partner Väsby United from 2007, his area of ​​responsibility at Väsby United was expanded to include management at the beginning of 2008 and he was then replaced again at AIK by Lee Baxter.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ svenskafans.com: "Anders Almgren ersätter skadad Bergh" (accessed on September 30, 2010)

Web links

• aik.se: "DIFFERENT ALMGREN - MÅLVAKT OCH MÅLVAKTSTRÄNARE"