Mats Magnusson

Mats Magnusson
Personal information
Full name Mats Ture Magnusson
Date of birth (1963-07-10) 10 July 1963
Place of birth Helsingborg, Sweden
Height 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing position Striker
Senior career*
Years Team Apps† (Gls)†
1981–1985 Malmö FF 38 (20)
1985–1986 Servette 22 (14)
1986–1987 Malmö FF 25 (14)
1987–1992 Benfica 122 (65)
1992–1994 Helsingborg 47 (27)
Total 254 (140)
National team
1986–1992 Sweden 30 (9)

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

† Appearances (goals)

Mats Ture Magnusson (born 10 July 1963) is a Swedish retired footballer who played as a striker.

Club career

Magnusson was born in Helsingborg. During his career he played for Malmö FF (two spells), Servette FC, S.L. Benfica and Helsingborgs IF. Upon his return home he helped the latter side, featuring a young Henrik Larsson, reach the Swedish first division.

At the Lisbon club, where he arrived in 1987 as a replacement for another Nordic, Michael Manniche, Magnusson developed as a top flight goalscorer, winning two national leagues and appearing at the European Cup finals in 1988 (lost to PSV Eindhoven in a penalty shoot-out) and 1990 (losing to A.C. Milan).[1] In 1989–90, even though Benfica lost to FC Porto in the league, he finished as top scorer of the competition with 33 goals in 32 games; during his time with the Eagles he shared team with countrymen Jonas Thern (1989–92), Stefan Schwarz (1990–94) – also his teammates at Malmö – and coach Sven-Göran Eriksson (1989–92).[2]

International career

Magnusson gained 30 caps for the Swedish national team, and played in the 1990 FIFA World Cup finals in Italy where he suffered an injury that made him miss nearly one year of football.

International goals

Scores and results list Sweden's goal tally first.
# Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1. 11 September 1985 Idrætsparken, Copenhagen, Denmark  Denmark 3–0 3–0 Friendly
2. 25 September 1985 Råsunda, Solna, Sweden  West Germany 2–2 2–2 1986 World Cup qualification
3. 16 November 1986 Ta' Qali, Attard, Malta  Malta 2–0 5–0 Euro 1988 qualifying
4. 18 April 1987 Dinamo Stadium, Tbilisi, Soviet Union  Soviet Union 2–0 3–1 Friendly
5. 3–1
6. 26 August 1987 Råsunda, Solna, Sweden  Denmark 1–0 1–0 Friendly
7. 1 June 1988 El Helmántico, Salamanca, Spain  Spain 3–1 3–1 Friendly
8. 8 October 1989 Råsunda, Solna, Sweden  Albania 1–1 3–1 Friendly
9. 27 May 1990 Råsunda, Solna, Sweden  Finland 1–0 6–0 Friendly

Post-retirement

Sixteen years after his retirement, Magnusson made a short comeback to the footbaling scene. He accepted an invitation from old club Benfica to take part in a charity match to raise money for victims of the Haiti earthquake, on 25 January 2010, which also coincided with the 68th birthday of club legend Eusébio: his team, Benfica All Stars, consisted of both retired and current Benfica players, which played "against" Zidane XI, a team consisting of players hand-picked by former French legend Zinedine Zidane.

Even though Magnusson had obviously gained a considerable amount of weight since his active days of footbaling, and made the crowd laugh on several occasions (including two occasions where he fell while trying to dominate the ball[3]), he entered the pitch in the closing minutes, and was cheered by an adoring crowd with chants of "Mats Magnusson".[4]

Honours

Club

Benfica
Malmö

Individual

References

  1. ↑ "Champions' Cup 1989–90". RSSSF. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
  2. ↑ Tovar, Rui Miguel (2 January 2015). "Magnusson. "O Estádio da Luz assustava qualquer um. Até a mim"" [Magnusson. "The Estádio da Luz frightened anyone. Even me"]. iOnline (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2 January 2015.
  3. ↑ "Magnusson: "Caí porque houve falta"" [Magnusson: "I fell down because there was a foul"] (in Portuguese). Record. 26 January 2010. Retrieved 13 September 2010.
  4. ↑ "Mats Magnusson (Benfica) – Match Against Poverty (25-01-2010)". YouTube. Retrieved 27 January 2010.
  5. 1 2 "Bicampeões para a história" [Back-to-back champions to history]. Visão (in Portuguese) (Portugal: Impresa Publishing): 57. May 2015. ISSN 0872-3540.

External links

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