Joel Ekstrand

Joel Ekstrand
Joel Ekstrand 2014
Personnel
Surname	Lars Henning Joel Ekstrand
birthday	4th February 1989
place of birth	Lund ,  Sweden
size	188 cm
position	Central defender
Juniors
Years	station
1997-2005	Lund IF
2006-2007	Helsingborgs IF
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
2008-2010	Helsingborgs IF	73 (1)
2011-2013	Udinese Calcio	12 (0)
2012-2013	→  Watford FC  (loan)	32 (1)
2013-2016	Watford FC	57 (1)
2016-2017	Bristol City	2 (0)
2017	Rotherham United	1 (0)
2018–	AIK Solna	0 (0)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
2005	Sweden U-16	4 (0)
2006	Sweden U-17	1 (0)
2007	Sweden U18	7 (0)
2008	Sweden U-19	4 (1)
2009-2010	Sweden U-21	9 (1)
2010-2014	Sweden	2 (0)
1 Only league games are given. As of January 16, 2018

Lars Henning Joel Ekstrand (born February 4, 1989 in Lund ) is a Swedish football player . The defender , who has had a career in his home country, Italy and England, made his debut for the Swedish national team in 2010 .

Career

Career start in Sweden and national team debut

Ekstrand started playing football at Lunds BK in his hometown of Lund. There he went through the various youth teams and played himself in the notebook of junior national coach Jörgen Lennartsson , who appointed him to the junior national teams . With this he aroused the interest of higher-class clubs and in 2006 he joined the youth department of Helsingborgs IF .

At first Ekstrand played exclusively in the youth teams of Helsingborgs IF. After Oskar Rönningberg was out due to injury, he made his first appearance in the professional central defense team alongside Andreas Jakobsson on the occasion of the UEFA Cup match against Dutch representative PSV Eindhoven in February 2008, which ended in a 3-0 defeat of the club. In the following season in 2008 he established himself directly as a regular player in the Allsvenskan and was in the starting line-up in 26 of the 30 first division games. Thus he contributed to fourth place in the table, which meant the renewed qualification for an international competition. At the end of the season he was therefore one of the nominees for the Årets Nykomling award, but Robin Söder was chosen as the newcomer of the year .

His club-based successes led Ekstrand into the Swedish U-21 selection. Under the coaching duo Tommy Söderberg and Jörgen Lennartsson, he made his debut on March 27, 2009 in the 1: 2 away defeat against Belgium's U-21 national team in the junior team. Although belonging to the younger age group, he stayed as a supplementary player in the squad of the older age group. At the end of May Lennartsson and Söderberg called him alongside his club mates Andreas Landgren and Pär Hansson to the squad for the U-21 European Championship finals in their own country in the summer. However, he was not used in the course of the tournament.

As a regular in the club team, Ekstrand extended his contract to 2012 in the summer of 2009. In the qualifying round for the 2009/10 UEFA Europa League , he played in five games, with the home game against the Georgian club FC Sestaponi scoring 2-1 - Intermediate result in stoppage time on the one hand scored his first competitive goal for the club and on the other hand forced extra time, in which Erik Sundin guaranteed promotion to the third round with the 2-2 equalization. With his good performances he established himself on the one hand in the U-21 national team, on the other hand he also played his way into the notebook of national coach Erik Hamrén . As one of three debutants in the starting line-up alongside Michael Almebäck and Emil Johansson , he played his first international match in the 1-1 draw against Syria after goals from Raja Rafa and Mathias Ranégie . In the following season 2010 he confirmed his good performances as a regular player, alongside Rasmus Jönsson , Mattias Lindström and Erik Edman he reached the runner-up and the cup final against Hammarby IF behind Malmö FF . There he was in the starting XI, with a goal from Jönsson he won the title with the team.

Moved abroad and returned to Sweden

After successful negotiations with his agent Martin Dahlin , Ekstrand signed a three-and-a-half year contract with the Italian club Udinese Calcio in January 2011. Helsingborgs IF received, according to press reports, a transfer fee of 1.6 million euros. In the second half of the Serie A season 2010/11 he only came to a short stint when he was supposed to strengthen the defensive as a substitute in the 2-1 win against Lazio Rome on the third last day of the match after defender Gabriele Angella was sent off. In the following season he was unable to establish himself in the team, although he played in both games in the placement round of the 2011/12 Champions League against Arsenal and five games in the 2011/12 Europa League until the elimination against the Dutch representative AZ Alkmaar participated in the round of 16.

Shortly before the end of the summer transfer period , Ekstrand moved to England on loan on August 31, 2012 and joined Watford FC, coached by Gianfranco Zola . In the summer of the following year, he signed a three-year contract with the club. In the second-rate Football League Championship he was a regular player in the following two years under Zola's successors Giuseppe Sannino and Slaviša Jokanović . At the end of the 2014/15 season he was promoted to the Premier League with the team . However, he was not used there due to an injury, in the summer of 2016 the club separated from the player after the contract expired.

After Ekstrand was without a club for a short time, he was able to join a new club outside of the transfer period. The English second division Bristol City made use of this option at the beginning of September 2016 , and after a trial period of several weeks they agreed a one-year contract. But the next move to Rotherham United followed in February, where he played until the end of the season. From July 2017 until the winter break he was without a club before he signed a two-year contract with AIK Solna .

Web links

• Joel Ekstrand on the Helsingborgs IF club page
• Joel Ekstrand in the svenskfotboll.se database
• Joel Ekstrand in the database of weltfussball.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ hd.se: "En debut som lovar mycket" (accessed on December 2, 2009)
2. ↑ svenskfotboll.se: "Årets Nykomling 2008"  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on December 2, 2009)  
3. ↑ svenskfotboll.se: "U21 mr yngre: Sverige föll mot Belgium" (accessed on December 2, 2009)
4. ↑ svenskfotboll.se: "U21 gentleman: EM troops uttagen" (accessed on December 2, 2009)
5. ↑ svt.se: “Ekstrand stannar i Helsingborg”  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on December 2, 2009)  
6. ↑ svenskfotboll.se: "1-1 borta mot Syrien" ( memento of the original from August 26, 2012 on WebCite ) 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 September 11, 2012) 
7. ↑ expressen.se: "Ekstrand är klar för italienska Udinese" (accessed on September 11, 2012)
8. ↑ fotbollskanalen.se: "Ekstrand lämnar Udinese for England - clear for Zolas Watford" (accessed on September 11, 2012)
9. ↑ watfordfc.com: "OFFICIAL: Hornets Confirm Retained & Released Players" (accessed on September 7, 2016)
10. ↑ bcfc.co.uk: "City secure Ekstrand deal - Defender signs one-year contract after successful trial" (accessed on September 7, 2016)
11. ↑ [1]