Roland Nilsson

Born in Helsingborg, Nilsson began his playing career, during which he played predominantly as a right back, as a seventeen-year-old with his hometown club Helsingborgs IF. He quickly established himself as a first-team player with Di Röe, earning himself the reputation of being one of the top youngsters in Swedish football. The quality of his performances was such that in 1983 he was signed by IFK Göteborg, who at that point were the pre-eminent team in Sweden. Despite the promise that he had shown at Helsingborg, Nilsson spent most of his first two seasons with IFK on the bench. However, he did eventually establish himself in the team, first becoming a regular starter during the 1985 season. It was during the latter end of that season that IFK began their run to the semi-final of the European Cup; IFK knocked out the likes of Fenerbahçe and Aberdeen before eventually falling to Barcelona on penalties. Nilsson missed one of the penalties in the shootout. On 1 May 1986, shortly after IFK's European Cup exit, Nilsson made his international debut. Sweden's opponents in that game were Greece, the match ended 0–0. During the year that followed he played a key role in IFK's UEFA Cup success, during which the team knocked out, amongst others, Internazionale before beating Dundee United in the final. Besides this, IFK also won the Allsvenskan in 1987. Nilsson left IFK in December 1989, joining Sheffield Wednesday of the English Football League First Division for £375,000. Despite…

International

Scores and results list Sweden's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Nilsson goal.

Coventry City

Coventry City were relegated from the Premier League in May 2001, and following a poor start to their first season in Division One, Gordon Strachan resigned from the club. Nilsson was brought in as a player-caretaker manager, despite having no managerial experience, in place of Strachan. Following a number of wins in his caretaker role, Nilsson was given the manager's job on a permanent basis, and the club briefly topped Division One after the turn of the new year. However, Coventry City failed to live up to this early promise and the team were dogged by inconsistency for most of the season. In January 2002 vetern manager Jim Smith was appointed as Nilsson's assistant and in April 2002 Nilsson announced his retirement from playing in order to focus on managing the club. This was not to prove successful, and, with Coventry out of the play-off chase, Nilsson and Smith were sacked in April 2002. Nilsson was manager for 43 league games and achieved a win percentage of 44.13%, a return bettered by only four other Coventry City managers.

GAIS

After leaving Coventry, Nilsson briefly worked as a youth team coach at Helsingborg, before he was appointed GAIS manager on 18 December 2003. The club was promoted to Allsvenskan in 2005 for the first time in six years, after beating Landskrona BoIS 2–1 on aggregate in the promotion/relegation play-off.

Malmö FF

On 10 October 2007, Malmö FF announced that Nilsson had signed a four-year contract as…

Player

IFK Göteborg

Allsvenskan: 1983, 1984, 1987 UEFA Cup: 1986–87 Sheffield Wednesday

Football League Cup: 1990–91; runner-up: 1992–93 FA Cup runner-up: 1992–93 Helsingborgs IF

Allsvenskan: 1999 Sweden

FIFA World Cup third place: 1994 Individual

Guldbollen: 1996 Swedish Defender of the Year: 1996, 1999 Årets Ärkeängel: 1988

Manager

Malmö FF

Allsvenskan: 2010 Individual

Swedish Manager of the Year: 2010