Tim Sparv

Tim Sparv
Tim Sparv (2013)
Personnel
birthday	February 20, 1987
place of birth	Oravais ,  Finland
size	194 cm
position	midfield
Juniors
Years	station
1993-2003	Norrvalla FF
2003-2006	Southampton FC
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
2007-2009	Halmstads BK	51 (1)
2008	→  Vaasan PS  (loan)	8 (0)
2010-2013	FC Groningen	92 (4)
2013-2014	SpVgg Greuther Fürth	28 (1)
2014–	FC Midtjylland	132 (3)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals) 2
	Finland U-16	6 (1)
	Finland U17	22 (1)
	Finland U-19	19 (0)
2007-2009	Finland U-21	19 (6)
	Finland B	5 (0)
2009–	Finland	57 (1)
1 Only league games are given. Status: July 13, 2020 2 As of November 3, 2017

Tim Sparv (born February 20, 1987 in Oravais ) is a Finnish football player who has been under contract with FC Midtjylland in Denmark since the 2014/15 season .

Career

Beginning in Northern Europe

Sparv, whose family belongs to the Finland Swedes group, started playing football at Norrvalla FF in 1993 and moved to England in 2003 at the youth academy at Southampton FC . With the club's junior team, in which he ran alongside players like Theo Walcott , he reached the 2005 FA Youth Cup final , which ended with a 3-2 defeat after overtime against the youth team from Ipswich Town . Since he could not play in the club's first team, he decided to change clubs at the end of 2006. On the recommendation of the Swede Michael Svensson, who was under contract in Southampton, and his father, he moved to the Swedish first division team Halmstads BK , as the club's concept promised him to want to focus primarily on young players.

On April 9, 2007 (1st matchday) he made his debut in a 2-1 home win against Helsingborgs IF when he came on for Andreas Johansson at half-time . Ultimately, he was only able to prevail over the course of the season and was in the starting line-up in five of his twelve season appearances. In the spring of the following year he fell ill with glandular fever during the training camp in Italy . In order to give him match practice, the club then loaned him to the Finnish first division club Vaasan PS from May of that year until the end of the summer break after the European Championship in 2008 . After only eight missions, he returned to Halmstad , where he again commuted between the starting eleven and the bench.

Before the start of the season in 2009 , the Finnish national team coach called him Stuart Baxter in the senior team , for Sparv on 4 February 2009 in Tokyo , in test international match in 1: 5 defeat to the choice of Japan , made its debut. In the following season he established himself alongside Mikael Rosén , Emir Kujović , Michael Görlitz and Tomas Žvirgždauskas as a regular player and stayed in the national team for long periods.

Change to the Netherlands

In the summer of 2009 Sparv took part with the U-21 national team at the European Championships in Sweden . Although he was eliminated with the selection team in the preliminary round , but aroused the interest of Italian, Swiss and Dutch clubs. As a result, he announced his departure from Sweden at the end of the year in August, as he had signed a contract with the Dutch first division club FC Groningen that was valid from January 2010 .

Move to Germany

For the 2013/14 season Sparv moved to the first division relegated SpVgg Greuther Fürth . He signed a contract dated June 30, 2015, and made his debut on July 21, 2013 (1st matchday) in a 2-0 home win against Arminia Bielefeld . After a year as a regular player, at the end of which was the narrowly missed promotion to the Bundesliga , Sparv moved on to the Danish Superligaen for FC Midtjylland . With the club he was twice Danish football champion in 2018 and 2020 and once cup winner in 2019.

Web links

• Tim Sparv on the website of Halmstads BK (Swedish)
• Tim Sparv on the website of the Finnish Football Association (Finnish)
• Tim Sparv in the database of weltfussball.de
• Tim Sparv in the database of fussballdaten.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kenneth Jensen: December 3rd: Tim Sparv, "Teddy Bear" and Miss Tjekkiet. In: Tipsbladet. Tipsbladet ApS, December 3, 2017, accessed June 17, 2019 (Danish). 
2. ↑ svenskafans.com: "Finländsk U21-landslagsman klar för HBK" (accessed on April 22, 2009)
3. ↑ sportal.nu: "Sparv lånas ut till Vaasa" (accessed on April 22, 2009)
4. ↑ hbk.se: "Sparv debuterade" ( Memento of the original from March 10, 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. (accessed April 22, 2009) 
5. ↑ fotbollskanalen.se: "Tim Sparv lämnar Halmstad - flyttar till Holland" (accessed on March 3, 2010)
6. ↑ greuther-fuerth.de: "Kleeblatt holt Tim Sparv" ( Memento of the original from June 8, 2013 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 31, 2013)