Mikael Nilsson (footballer born 1978)

Mikael Nilsson ( * June 24, 1978 in Ovesholm, Kristianstad Municipality ) is a Swedish football player. The defender and midfielder, who made ​​his debut in the Swedish national team in 2002, won in 2000 with Halmstad BK the Swedish championship title.

Career

Breakthrough in Sweden

Nilsson began his football career with the seventh division Ovesholms IF before moving to Aahus Horna BK in the third-class Division 2 Södra Götaland 1999. There he was able to convince and after only one year of the first division side Halmstad BK signed him. In his first year for the club coach Tom Prahl put him in 13 games this season. On the side of players such as Petter Hansson, Håkan Svensson, Henrik Bertilsson, Stefan Selakovic and Tommy Jönsson he won the Von- Rosen's Cup for the Swedish championship, as the team with six points ahead of runner-up Helsingborgs IF dominated the league.

After the team had failed to qualify for the Champions League 2001 /02 Belgian representative at RSC Anderlecht and then in the UEFA Cup 2001/ 02 in the second round by Sporting Lisbon, left Prahl end of 2001 the club and was replaced by Jonas Thern. Also under new coach belonged to the tribe Nilsson players and recommended for the national team. On November 20, 2002, he made ​​his debut in the 3-3 draw with the Czech national team in the National Jersey and crowned his debut with two goals. While he still was one of the key players in his club and in the three seasons between 2001 and 2003 only missed one season game, he stood in the national selection initially only irregularly in the squad. During qualifying for the 2004 European Championships he won, however, a regular place and the Nationaltrainerduo Lars Lagerback and Tommy Söderberg took account of him in the squad for the tournament. During the tournament, he came in all four games of the national team for use until the quarter-finals in a penalty shoot-out against the Dutch national team after misses by Zlatan Ibrahimović, Olof Mellberg and on the opposite side Philip Cocu retired.

Move abroad

After the European Championship finals tournament in 2004 Nilsson Sweden left in the direction of the Premier League for Southampton FC. There he signed a contract with four years duration. When located in a relegation battle club he was in the team to Kasey Keller, Peter Crouch, Graeme Le Saux and James Beattie not prevail permanently and came infrequently used. At the end of the season the club was with two points behind the occupied West Bromwich Albion last non- relegation zone at the end of the table and were relegated from the Premier League.

After the descent Nilsson left England and moved to Greece to Panathinaikos Athens. In the season 2005/ 06 he came but only irregularly in a total of 17 league games for use. But he came five times in the UEFA Champions League action and was considered by now alone responsible coach Lagerback in the squad for the 2006 World Cup. During the tournament, however, he did not play. In the following years he could never prevail permanently located at Panathinaikos when he played more than half the league games in the seasons 2007/ 08 and 2008 /09. Nevertheless Lagerback still clung to him, and at the European Championship 2008, he was part of the national squad again. During the final round of the tournament he played in all three group games before the team was eliminated in the group stage after only one victory against Greece in third place.

After the expiration of his contract in Greece Nilsson moved free transfer to Brøndby IF in the Danish Superliga. When Kent Nielsen supervised club where he meets his countrymen Max von Schlebrügge, Jon Jönsson, Samuel Holmén and Alexander Farnerud, he signed a three-year contract. In his new employer, he established himself at once in the root formation and reached with the club the play- off matches for the Europa League 2009/10, in which the team was denied by the German representatives Hertha BSC.

After Nilsson had missed in October of the year with the Swedish national team as third in the group behind Denmark and Portugal to qualify for the World Cup 2010, he resigned after 64 international appearances at the end of his national team career in order to concentrate on the club can.