Jan Jonsson

Jönsson in March 2009

Jan Anders Jönsson (born May 24, 1960 ) is a Swedish former football player who now works as a coach. With 557 appearances, he is the player with the most games for Halmstads BK , including 217 games in the Allsvenskan . If he was denied a title as a player - he was not awarded in the championship season 1979 - he was more successful as a coach and won the Norwegian championship with Stabæk Fotball .

Career

13 years at Halmstads BK and career end in Japan

Jönsson first played for Trönninge IF before he came to Halmstads BK before the first division season in 1979. Initially still a supplementary player, he played in his debut season in two games and thus contributed slightly to the championship title. However, due to the small number of games played, he was not one of the players awarded the medals. Also in the following season, mainly a substitute, he made his breakthrough in the 1981 season and played all 26 games of the season. When coach Jan Mak subsequently forced a generation change, he was still among the regulars and was regularly on the field alongside Mats Jingblad , Frenk Schinkels , Peter Larsson and Peter Andersson .

With the team Jönsson reached from 1982 with Mak or his successor Stefan Lundin regularly by a place in the middle of the table in the championship finals. However, she had no chance here and failed in each quarter-finals. After a restriction he final round participants to four teams from the 1985 season, the club missed the final round in the first year as seventh in the table clearly. In the following season, Jönsson and his teammates fought their way up to the second half of the season after a mixed start to the season and a coach change in the summer - Kenneth Rosén took over the coaching position of Lundin, who had moved to Portugal, and had to finish fifth in the table against competitor IFK Norrköping with the same points only because of the better goal difference give way. In the season 1987 the disillusionment followed. Although he lost only two season games with the team around Sven-Åke Landgren , Ulf Jönsson and Stefan Lindqvist in Örjans vall at home , they only got four points with four draws on a foreign pitch. With 17 points from 22 games, the goal difference was again the decisive factor that the club finished behind GIF Sundsvall a relegation place.

After relegation, the club signed a new coach with Stuart Baxter . Under his leadership the immediate return to the Allsvenskan succeeded. At the side of Torbjörn Arvidsson , Björn Nordberg , Tommy Frejdh and Jonas Dahlgren , Jönsson, who scored four goals this season, finished fifth with the promoted team and missed a medal one point behind third-placed GAIS and fourth Örebro SK . The rejuvenated team with players like Niclas Alexandersson or Niklas Gudmundsson could not confirm the success and slipped into the lower part of the table. In the 1991 season , the club was still fighting for participation in the championship finals after a winless first half of the season. After a 1: 2 defeat against AIK on the last day of the match, the club missed participation with the same point and goal difference compared to competitor IFK Norrköping due to two fewer goals scored in the course of the season and had to compete in the promotion and relegation round. There after half of the series still placed in the middle of the table, the team lost five of their seven games in the second half of the season and got down from the Allsvenskan.

After relegation, Baxter left the club for Japan. Jönsson followed him as a playing assistant coach, first to Sanfrecce Hiroshima and then Vissel Kobe , where he ended his active career in 1996.

First steps as a trainer in Sweden

In 1997 Jönsson was still working for Vissel Kobe in Japan together with Baxter. While Baxter returned to Sweden for the Allsvenskan season in 1998 and took over the management of training at AIK, Jönsson also returned to Sweden, but was hired as a coach at Panos Ljungskile SK . With the first division relegated he played in the front table area of ​​the second division Division 1 Södra and qualified in 1999 as fourth in the table for the newly created Superettan as the second division . In the opening season of the new series, he occupied with the team next to Gunnilse IS and Åtvidabergs FF only one relegation place.

Then Jönsson took over the coaching position at Landskrona BoIS . He led the team around Daniel Nannskog , Jesper Ljung , Johnny Lundberg and Alexander Farnerud back into the first division as runner-up in the Superettan behind Kalmar FF . There he played with her against relegation and regularly placed himself in front of the relegation places. In the summer of 2004, he was in acute danger of relegation, however, the club dismissed him and replaced him with his former teammate Mats Jingblad.

Master trainer in Norway

Jönsson as coach of Stabæk Fotball

At the beginning of 2005, Jönsson went to Norway to initially fill the coaching position of Stabæk Fotball, who had been relegated to the second division, for two years. Immediately successful, the club rose straight back to the Tippeligaen , where they just barely missed making it into the European Cup as fifth . In the 2007 season, he moved with the team around Bjørnar Holmvik , Jon Inge Høiland , Mike Kjølø and Morten Skjønsberg closer to the top of the table and was six points behind Brann Bergen as runner- up.

Jönsson and his team had played the opening game against Molde FK in the 2008 season with a 0-0 draw, but on the following day they took the lead after a 4-2 win over Lillestrøm SK for the first time. Released for a short time, the team again occupied the top position from the fifth day of the game. Meanwhile with a six point lead, a duel with Fredrikstad FK developed in the middle of the season , which was characterized by changing table leadership. Ultimately, the team coached by Jönsson proved to be more consistent and once again worked out a lead of several points in the second half of the season. With a difference of six points to the competition, Jönsson won with the team, especially due to the scoring danger of Daniel Nannskog, Johan Andersson and Veigar Páll Gunnarsson - while the former was top scorer with 16 goals this season, the other two were also among the top ten goalscorers in the league, so the Club showed a goal difference of 36 goals - the first championship title in the club's history. At the same time, the team moved into the final of the national cup and was about to win the double . In Oslo's Ullevaal Stadium , however , Vålerenga IF used his home advantage and prevailed with a 4-1 victory after goals from Daniel Fredheim Holm and Mohammed Abdellaoue , who each scored twice.

In early 2009, Jönsson won the next title for his club with the successful revenge for the cup final defeat against Vålerenga Oslo in the first-ever superfinal . The subsequent start of the season, however, failed, on the seventh matchday the club found itself on a relegation zone. With a series of successes, Jönsson had led the club to eighth place in the table until the end of the first half of the season and then kept him within reach of the European Cup places. On the 25th matchday as third in the table for the first time on a Europa League place, the club consolidated this position and ended the season behind Rosenborg Trondheim and Molde FK.

Minor failures and return to Sweden

In the summer of 2010 it became known that Jönsson was planned to succeed Nils Arne Eggen from January 2011 at the record champions Rosenborg Trondheim. He signed a four-year contract with his new club. After two seasons in which the club did not build on the successes of past days as third in the table and in some cases did not qualify for the European Cup until the end of the season, the paths parted again and the former RBK player and coach Per Joar Hansen took over in December 2012 Head coach.

In early 2013, Jönsson inherited Kjetil Rekdal , who had switched to Vålerenga IF, as a coach at Aalesunds FK . Here, too, he only partially built on the successes of his predecessor, who had won the national cup twice with the club and reached the qualifying rounds for the UEFA Europa League three times in a row with him . A fourth place in the table in the 2013 season was followed by seventh place in the 2014 season . In October of that year he asked for his contract to be terminated in order to be able to return to Sweden because of his family.

In November 2014, his home club Halmstads signed BK Jönsson as a new coach, he signed a three-year contract with the Swedish first division club.

Web links

Commons : Jan Jönsson  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Jan Jönsson in the Altomfotball.no database
• Jan Jönsson in the database of weltfussball.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ dn.se: "Jan Jönsson ny tränare i Stabaek" (accessed on November 5, 2010)
2. ↑ expressen.se: "Jan Jönsson heltklar för Rosenborg" ( Memento of the original from July 29, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on November 5, 2010) 
3. ↑ expressen.se: "Uppgifter: Jönsson ska lämna Ålesund" (accessed on January 13, 2015)
4. ↑ kuriren.nu: "Jan Jönsson tränare i Halmstad" (accessed on January 13, 2015)