Thomas Wernerson

Thomas Wernerson
Personnel
birthday	June 15, 1955
place of birth	Nässjö ,  Sweden
position	goalkeeper
Juniors
Years	station
	Åtvidabergs FF
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1975-1980	Åtvidabergs FF
1981-1987	IFK Gothenburg
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1979-1985	Sweden	9 (0)
1 Only league games are given.

Thomas Wernerson (born June 15, 1955 in Nässjö ) is a former Swedish football player . The goalkeeper , who played for the Swedish national team between 1979 and 1985 , won the UEFA Cup twice with IFK Göteborg .

Career

Wernerson initially played unorganized football for a long time in his spare time before a youth coach from Åtvidabergs FF discovered him. At the club he went through the individual youth teams and made his debut in the 1975 season at the age of 19 in the Allsvenskan . With the departure of the calculating machine manufacturer Facit two years earlier, the club had lost its main supporter and was therefore no longer able to build on the successes at the beginning of the decade. The team placed sixth in the table in Wernerson's debut season, he rose with her the following year in the second division.

After the immediate resurgence, Wernerson played with the club against relegation. He distinguished himself in the course of the 1979 season with good performances, so that national coach Georg Ericson appointed him to the national selection in autumn 1979. After the two previous internationals against Italy and Czechoslovakia as a substitute of January Möller belonged to the squad, he made his debut in the 1: 1 draw in the context of qualifying for the European Championship finals in 1980 against the Luxembourg national team - Nico Braun via penalty for early lead on Luxembourg and Anders Grönhagen on the Swedish side were the goalscorers - on October 23 of that year in the national jersey. After he had managed to keep up the league the following year at the side of Glenn Martindahl and Conny Torstensson and had established himself as a regular goalkeeper for the national team at the end of 1980, he followed Sven-Göran Eriksson's call to IFK Göteborg .

At the Gothenburg club, which is about to go bankrupt, Wernerson was supposed to solve the goalkeeping problem and was therefore immediately placed in the regular formation. In the 1981 season he fought on the one hand with his club in a duel with Östers IF for the championship title, on the other hand he fought with Thomas Ravelli , the goalkeeper of the competitor, for the regular place in the goal of the national team. In each case he drew the short straw and found himself on the one hand under the new national coach Lars Arnesson on the substitute bench and on the other hand qualified for the UEFA Cup after the runner-up with the team supervised by Eriksson . After victories over Valkeakosken Haka , SK Sturm Graz and Dinamo Bucharest , the team reached the quarter-finals against FC Valencia . Due to the ailing coffers, the fans had to finance the flight to the away game to Spain before the team around team captain Conny Karlsson , Glenn Strömberg , Tommy Holmgren and Glenn Hysén prevailed against 1. FC Kaiserslautern here and in the semifinals . In the 1981/82 UEFA Cup finals , the club faced Hamburger SV , who started the finals as a big favorite and lost 1-0 in the first leg in Sweden with a late goal from Tord Holmgren . In the second leg, the Gothenburg club showed a consistent counter-attack from a safe defensive chain and the scorers Dan Corneliusson , Torbjörn Nilsson and Stig Fredriksson led the Scandinavian club to a European Cup triumph with a 3-0 away win in the Hamburg Volksparkstadion . Was the club a short time later successful in the final of the national cup, Wernerson brought by winning the championship at the end of season 1982 the Triple .

After the European Cup success, a number of players such as Corneliusson, Karlsson and Strömberg left the club. Nevertheless, Wernerson remained successful with the team that was supplemented by players like Stephan Kullberg , Roland Nilsson or Steve Gardner and defended after a 3-0 win and a 1-1 draw against Östers IF in the championship final and a 1-0 win in the final National Cup against Hammarby IF the Swedish double . This was followed by two years without a title win, in which the club reached the championship finals, but lost to local rivals Örgryte IS in the final or was eliminated in the semifinals against AIK . This meant that the team, which had meanwhile been trained by Gunder Bengtsson , had qualified again for the UEFA Cup and reached the finals again in the 1986/87 edition . Stefan Pettersson scored the decisive goal against Scottish representatives Dundee United in the first leg, before Lennart Nilsson made the preliminary decision in the second leg with the interim lead, as the Scottish club could only equalize through John Clark .

Until the end of the season 1987 Wernerson still guarded the goal of the club, with which he reached the championship finals again as third in the regular season. If he had prevailed with the club in the semifinals against IFK Norrköping , after a 1-0 home win and a 1-2 away defeat against Malmö FF, the away goals rule led to the fourth championship win of his career. He then ended his career and was inherited by the Norwegian Erik Thorstvedt .

Wernerson now works as a football expert and commentator for various media.

Web links

• svenskafans.com: "Blåvita legendarer: Thomas Wernerson"