Bjorn Kindlund

Björn Åke Kindlund (born January 5, 1962 in Stockholm ) is a former Swedish football player . The defender , who won the Swedish championship and national cup with AIK , came to an international match for the Swedish national team .

Career

As a teenager, Kindlund also played football as a swimmer. So physically robust, he went through the junior teams of IF Brommapojkarna and IK Bele . In 1978 he moved to the youth division of the AIK, where he made his debut in the men's team in 1980 as an 18-year-old on the occasion of a preparatory game against HJK Helsinki . Until his debut in the Allsvenskan , however, it lasted until May 1981. In the 0-5 defeat against Östers IF he played on the side of Göran Göransson , Sven Dahlkvist and Anders Åslund in left midfield.

In the 1982 season , Kindlund was not used due to an injury because he suffered from Osgood-Schlatter's disease. In early 1983, however, he returned to the football field and played his way into the team. If he could not initially convince in midfield, he sat down after a change of position - he inherited Jyrki Nieminen in the defender position - as a regular player. In the league he reached the first place in the table with the team around Ove Rübsamen , Thomas Bergman , Lars Zetterlund and Bernt Ljung , but in the championship finals they failed in the semifinals at IFK Gothenburg . The following year, when they were runner-up in the table, they failed in the quarter-finals of the finals due to the away goals rule at IFK Norrköping , and AIK moved into the final of the national cup in the summer of 1985. Against Östers IF Thomas Andersson equalized the lead by Teitur Þórðarson in stoppage time , in the subsequent penalty shoot-out , in which Kindlund also converted his penalty, he prevailed with his team.

AIK had missed the championship finals after winning the cup in fifth place, but Kindlunds Klub moved into the final at the end of the 1986 season . There, however, the team from Malmö FF, peppered with players such as Martin Dahlin , Jonas Thern , Lasse Larsson and Ingemar Erlandsson , prevailed. As a result, AIK could not build on the successes and slipped into the relegation battle. Under the coaches Nils Andersson and Sanny Åslund , the club did not get beyond eighth place in the table. Nevertheless, he had recommended himself for the national team and came on the occasion of a four-nation tournament on January 15, 1988 for his only appearance in the Swedish national jersey, when the Finnish national selection was defeated with a 1-0 success. Meanwhile , he has risen to the team captain four years later, he led the team supervised by Tommy Söderberg around Wadym Jewtuschenko , Dick Lidman , Krister Nordin , Pascal Simpson and Peter Larsson to win the Von Rosens Cup for the Swedish champions as in the finals of the 1992 season IFK Norrköping, Östers IF and Trelleborgs FF were overtaken. Due to injury problems, however, he ended his first division career at the end of the following season and let his career at FK Vigör end between 1994 and 1996 . In 1997 he was in charge of Arlanda FF as a player-coach.

While Kindlund had been a full-time firefighter during his active career , in 1994 he started his own business as the manager of a betting office. In 2006 he became sports director of the Sunnersta AIF from Uppsala .

Web links

• aik.se: "BJÖRN KINDLUND - VÄNSTERBACKEN I 1980-TALETS OCH DET TIDIGA 1990-TALETS GULDLAG"
• Interview on aik.se: "John Jildefalk möter 90-talets AIK: are Björn Kindlund, back"