Mathias Svensson

Mathias Svensson

Personal information
Full name	Mathias Svensson
Date of birth	24 September 1974 (1974-09-24) (age 37)
Place of birth	Borås, Sweden
Playing position	Striker
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1996	IF Elfsborg	22	(15)
1996-1998	Portsmouth	45	(10)
1998	Tirol Innsbruck	6	(1)
1998-2000	Crystal Palace	32	(10)
2000-2003	Charlton Athletic	70	(8)
2003	→ Derby County (loan)	10	(3)
2003-2005	Norwich City	42	(11)
2005-2008	IF Elfsborg	48	(9)
National team
1997-2001	Sweden	3	(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 20 June 2007. † Appearances (Goals).

Mathias Svensson (born 24 September 1974 in Borås, Sweden) is a retired Swedish footballer. He played as striker and his last team was IF Elfsborg, having spent much of his career in England. He won three full international caps for Sweden during his career. He is currently assistant manager at Elfsborg.

Svensson began his career with Elfsborg, and was their top scorer when they won promotion to Allsvenskan in 1996. Following his success, he moved to England in the same year to play for Portsmouth. He then moved to Crystal Palace and Charlton, and had a spell on loan with Derby County before joining Norwich in December 2003, making his debut for the Canaries in the East Anglian Derby against Ipswich Town at Portman Road.

Norwich paid an initial fee of £50,000 for Svensson, which rose to £300,000 when the Canaries won promotion at the end of that season. It took Svensson some time to find his form at Norwich and he came in for criticism from some City supporters. However, he began scoring goals towards the end of the season - including two in a 5-3 win at Burnley and a long range effort in a televised match against Wigan - and ended the season with a first division championship medal as The Canaries won promotion to the Premiership.

Svensson scored 4 times in Norwich's premiership season of 2004-05, including two in a 3-2 win against Bolton Wanderers. Norwich were relegated at the end of the season and a clause in Svensson's contract allowed him to move to a top flight club in another country in the event that such a club showed interest to him. IF Elfsborg offered Norwich £100,000 for Svensson, and he returned to the club where he began his career.

After his return to Elfsborg Svensson played his first Allsvenskan game on 4 July 2005 against Kalmar FF, and he scored the only goal of the game. The 2006 season was very successful for Svensson. He started all games and scored 6 goals, and at the end of the season he won the first title of his career, as Elfsborg were crowned Swedish champions. In 2008 he was forced to retire due to a knee injury. He has remained at Elfsborg, with various duties.

Honours

• Football League First Division (2003–2004)

• Allsvenskan (2006)

External links

• Mathias Svensson career stats at Soccerbase

• Career info at ex-canaries.co.uk

Persondata
Name	Svensson, Mathias
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	24 September 1974
Place of birth	Borås, Sweden
Date of death
Place of death