Roland Nilsson

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Roland Nilsson (disambiguation) .

Roland Nilsson
Nilsson in November 2011
Personnel
birthday	November 27, 1963
place of birth	Helsingborg ,  Sweden
position	Defender
Juniors
Years	station
1979-1981	Helsingborgs IF
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1981-1982	Helsingborgs IF	38 (3)
1983-1989	IFK Gothenburg	124 (7)
1990-1994	Sheffield Wednesday	151 (2)
1994-1997	Helsingborgs IF	64 (0)
1997-1999	Coventry City	60 (0)
1999-2000	Helsingborgs IF	40 (4)
2001-2002	Coventry City	9 (0)
2004-2006	GAIS Gothenburg	10 (0)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1986-2000	Sweden	116 (2)
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
2001-2002	Coventry City
	Helsingborgs IF youth
2004-2007	GAIS
2008-2011	Malmö FF
2011–2012	FC Copenhagen
2014-2017	Sweden U-17
2017–	Sweden U-21
1 Only league games are given.

Roland Nilsson (born November 27, 1963 in Helsingborg ) is a former Swedish football player who now works as a coach . The defender , who played 116 international matches for the Swedish national team , completed his active career in Sweden and England. Both as a player and as a coach, he won the Swedish championship.

Player career

debut

Nilsson made his debut in 1981 at the age of 17 in the Helsingborgs IF jersey in Division 1 . He was quickly able to assert himself as the right full-back in the team and was considered one of the great talents of Swedish football. In the same year he took part with the Swedish junior national team in the U-18 European Football Championship in 1981 , but as second in the group behind Poland, the semi-finals were missed.

Successful years at IFK Göteborg

In 1983 Nilsson moved to Allsvenskan at IFK Göteborg . Here, however, he found himself mainly on the bench for the first two seasons. It was not until the 1985 season that he was able to earn a regular position in the defense. As a Swedish champion in 1984, his club qualified for the 1985/86 European Cup and reached the semi-finals against FC Barcelona . After a 3: 0 first leg victory there was in the second leg after a hat-trick of Pichi Alonso a 0: 3 defeat, so that the penalties had to decide. Unfortunately, Nilsson and his team were eliminated 4-5. A short time later, Nilsson made his debut for the Swedish national team in a 0-0 draw against Greece on May 1, 1986.

That was followed by the successful year 1987, in which Nilsson was a pillar of the team in the UEFA Cup , which was won by a 1-0 home win and a 1-1 draw against Dundee United . In addition, he won the Swedish championship title.

First stay in England

After the end of the 1989 season , in which only the seventh place was occupied, Nilsson left Sweden and moved to England for first division club Sheffield Wednesday for £ 375,000 . Although the club missed relegation, Nilsson decided to stay and managed the immediate promotion to the Football League First Division with the club . In 1991 the League Cup was won and two years later the club was in the final in both the League Cup and the FA Cup . Curiously, both games were lost 2-1 to Arsenal . Due to his solid style of play, Nilsson made himself very popular with the fans and is considered by some to be the best foreign professional of all time at the club.

With reaching the World Cup in 1990 , the Swedish national team was able to qualify for an international tournament for the first time since the World Cup in 1978 and Nilsson was part of the Swedish squad at the tournament. However, the team retired after three 1: 2 defeats as group bottom in the preliminary round, Nilsson played all three games. The defender was also part of the regular staff at the European Championship 92 in his own country and made it into the semi-finals, where Germany prevailed 3-2.

Return to Sweden

In January 1994 Nilsson told his English employer that he wanted to return to Sweden. The club asked him to wait until the end of the season and then gave him clearance. He then returned to his hometown club Helsingborgs IF on a free transfer. In the summer he reached the semi-finals against Brazil with the national team at the 1994 World Cup . After a 0-1 defeat, they missed the final, but were able to look forward to the bronze medal after a clear 4-0 win against listless Bulgarians .

With Helsingborgs IF Nilsson was able to surprise in the Allsvenskan and the cup. Although the big title was missed, the runner-up in 1995 and third place a year later. 1996 was one of his best years. Neither in the league nor in the national team did he miss a game. At the end of the season he was awarded the Guldbollen as Sweden's Football of the Year.

Back to England

In 1997, although already 33 years old, Coventry City made Nilsson an offer to return to England. Ron Atkinson , once the coach who brought Nilsson to Sheffield and now based in Coventry, wanted him back and the club transferred £ 200,000 for him. After a weak start to the season Atkinson was sacked and the team fought the whole season against relegation, which was only avoided on the last day of the game. Nilsson played another season for the club before returning to Helsingborgs IF in the summer of 1999.

Return to Helsingborgs IF

In October 1999 Nilsson was able to celebrate another championship title, the first championship HIFs since 1941. At the European championship in 2000 he competed for the last time in a tournament. After he made a mistake in the first game against Belgium shortly before the break, which led to 0-1 by Bart Goor , he was replaced at half-time. Then he was no longer used and the team was eliminated in the preliminary round. On October 11, 2000, he said goodbye to international football with a 0-0 international match against Slovakia . This was his 116th international match, which puts him in second place in the international list, behind Thomas Ravelli (143 appearances).

Coaching career

In England as a player-coach

After the end of the 2000 season, Nilsson returned as an intended interim solution as a player-coach to Coventry City, who were in acute danger of relegation. After a series of victories, he was offered a permanent position. A short time later, however, his luck ran out and after things went downhill again, Nilsson only concentrated on the coaching job and hung up his kick boots. This didn't bring back success and in April 2002 Nilsson was fired.

Trainer in Sweden

Nilsson returned to Sweden and initially took over a youth coaching position at Helsingborgs IF. In 2004 he accepted an offer from GAIS Göteborg to become their coach. As third in the Superettan 2005 he qualified with the club for the relegation games to Allsvenskan. After a 2-1 win in the first leg against Landskrona BoIS , a 0-0 draw in the second leg was enough to make the promotion perfect. In the 2006 season he reached relegation with 10th place.

In January 2008, Nilsson took over as coach at Malmö FF . In the first two seasons he finished with the team at the end of the season in the middle of the table. In the 2010 season , the team, which had been reinforced in previous years with young players such as Ivo Pekalski , Daniel Larsson , Agon Mehmeti , Guillermo Molins and Johan Dahlin , dueled with Helsingborgs IF for the championship title. With a two-point lead, the club won the Lennart Johansson Cup on the final day of the match .

Change abroad

After the championship success, rumors arose about a move to Denmark for FC Copenhagen . Actual negotiations between Malmö FF and the Danish club were first reported in March. On April 1, FC Copenhagen finally announced on its club website that they had signed the Swede as their new head coach from July 1. While he was at the top of the table with the club in the Danish championship, the team failed early in the European Cup . First, they missed against Viktoria Pilsen a place in the group stage of the 2011/12 UEFA Champions League , then they finished the group stage in the 2011/12 UEFA Europa League after just one win against FC Vorskla Poltava after the qualifying for the Round of Standard Liege and Hannover 96 as Group third. On January 9, 2012, the association announced that the collaboration with Nilsson was over.

Trainer in the youth field

In 2014, Nilsson became the coach of the Swedish U-17 national team , with whom he twice missed qualifying for the World Cup . After the U-21 European Championship in 2017 , he succeeded Håkan Ericson in the summer of 2017 as the coach of the Swedish U-21 national team .

successes

• Third in the world championship: 1994
• UEFA Cup winners: 1987
• Swedish champions: 1984, 1987, 1999 (player), 2010 (coach)
• League Cup: 1991
• Guldbollen: 1996

See also

• List of football players with at least 100 international matches

Web links

• Roland Nilsson in the database of weltfussball.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ expressen.se: "" Roland Nilsson förhandlar med FCK "" ( Memento of the original from March 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on May 5, 2011) 
2. ↑ fck.dk: "Roland Nilsson bliver ny cheftræner" (accessed on May 5, 2011)
3. ↑ Anders Hørsholt: Derfor er CV den rette ( Memento of the original from January 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Club homepage of FC Copenhagen from January 9, 2012