Published 2024-02-26 16.41
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Jon Dahl Tomasson, 47, will be the new national team captain for Sweden’s men’s national football team.
The Dane takes over the role – 96 days after Janne Andersson left.
– I am very much looking forward to starting this fine assignment, says Tomasson to SvFF’s website.
- Jon Dahl Tomasson, 47, will be Sweden’s first foreign national football captain.
- The Dane takes over together with assistant national team captain Remy Reijnierse and begins his duties on March 1.
- Despite his new job, Tomasson will not live in Sweden. Communication with the Swedish players will mostly be in English.
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The search for the next Swedish national team captain is over. For the first time, the national team gets a foreign national team captain – in Jon Dahl Tomasson.
– I am very much looking forward to starting this great assignment and to meeting supporters, players and of course the media in Sweden. And to think, speak and dream in blue and yellow, says the Dane to the Swedish Football Association’s website.
The duo takes over
With him as assistant national team captain, Tomasson brings Dutchman Remy Reijnierse. The duo will begin their assignments on March 1 and the agreements extend over the qualification for the WC 2026 and are automatically extended in case of promotion.
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full screenJon Dahl Tomasson. Photo: Jess Hornby/Getty Images
– With Jon Dahl Tomasson’s experience from international football, the men’s national team is taking steps towards a new era. I am extremely happy and proud that we can tie a national team captain of Jon’s caliber to us and I am very satisfied with the work that has been done and the process we had to find the best solution, says the Swedish Football Association’s general secretary Andrea Möllerberg.
Will not live in Sweden
Football manager Kim Källström says that the Swedish tactics will change and become more offensive.
At a press conference after the announcement, Källström also says that Tomasson will not live in Sweden.
– He will be here in Stockholm as much as is needed. Most of our players live abroad. Initially, he needs to meet our players, key players, and build relationships with them. It is a difference from previous national team captains who were in the office often. But there is no manual for how it should look.
The communication between Danish Tomasson and the Swedish players?
– Initially, I think it will be English. I think Jon will conduct everything in English at first, says Källström.
Left Blackburn
Since the time in Malmö FF, which meant SM gold in 2020 and 2021, Tomasson has spent his time in the Championship club Blackburn Rovers. The coach left the team on February 9 in what the club described as “a mutual decision”.
Tomasson has also previously had a coaching role in national team football. He was an assistant coach for the Danish national team between 2016 and 2019.
Most goals in Denmark’s history
The Dane is one of the country’s greatest soccer players of all time. He has scored 52 goals in 112 international matches. That makes him Denmark’s best goalscorer in modern times.
With his three goals in the EC and five goals in the WC, he is also the country’s top scorer in championships.
FACT
Jon Dahl Tomasson
Born: 29 August 1976 (aged 47).
Position as a player: Attacker.
International matches/goals for Denmark: 112/52.
Clubs as players: Køge, Denmark, Heerenveen, Netherlands, Newcastle, Great Britain, Feyenoord, Netherlands, Milan, Italy, Stuttgart, Germany, Villarreal, Spain.
Merit in selection: Dutch league champion (Feyenoord, 1998–1999), Uefacup champion (Feyenoord, 2001–2002), Champions League champion (Milan, 2002–2003), Italian league champion (Milan, 2003–2004), German league champion (Stuttgart, 2006– 2007). Appointed footballer of the year in Denmark in 2002 and 2004.
Coach assignments: Excelsior, Netherlands (2011–2013, both manager and assistant), Roda, Netherlands (2014), Vitesse, Netherlands (2015–2016, assistant), assistant national team captain for Denmark (2016–2019), Malmö FF 2020–2021, Blackburn 2022–2024.
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