Jonas Olsson

Early career

Olsson was born in Landskrona and made his debut in professional football in 2003 as part of the Landskrona BoIS squad. Olsson is considered to be a very tough defender, playing as a centreback or leftback. He considers fellow Sweden national team defender Olof Mellberg to be an inspiration. Two years later he was sold for €750,000 to Dutch side NEC Nijmegen. While playing in Sweden Olsson was known for his physical play and in 2004 he was the player who picked up the most cautions that year. Playing for NEC Nijmegen evolved his game and the cautions became a thing of the past. Olsson himself says that the Dutch man–man marking approach to defense has improved his game. He was linked with a move to the Premiership several times with Bolton Wanderers, Middlesbrough, Newcastle United and Everton. Olsson scored three goals in the Eredivisie in 2007–08.

West Bromwich Albion

On 22 August 2008, Olsson was linked with a move to West Bromwich Albion. On 31 August 2008 West Bromwich Albion confirmed his signing subject to a medical for an initial fee of £800,000 with a possible £360,000 of performance related add ons. Olsson made his first appearance on 13 September 2008, starting against West Ham United. He scored his first goal for West Brom in a 1–0 win away to Middlesbrough. He went on to get two more goals in the 2008–09 season, coming in the FA Cup against Peterborough and he scored the first goal in West Brom's 3–0 win over Sunderland on 25 April…

Olsson was a regular for the Sweden under 21-squad. He was capped 19 times, scoring one goal. Olsson was included in new coach Erik Hamrén's squad for the friendlies against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Belarus in 2010. He never came off the bench in the match against Bosnia and Herzegovina. The next match against Belarus saw Olsson play from start. On 15 May 2012, 29-year-old Olsson was named in the 23-man squad and handed the number 13 shirt for Euro 2012 held in Poland and Ukraine, along with two other Premier League stars, Blackburn's Martin Olsson and Sunderland's set-piece specialist Sebastian Larsson.

When Swedish cable network Viasat acquired the broadcasting rights for the 2010–11 Premier League season, the network hired several new television presenters and journalists. Olsson has signed up with Viasat and will appear via satellite link and telephone to provide a players perspective on the matches and the Premier League. He added that this will give him a chance to promote West Bromwich Albion in Sweden. On 15 April 2012, he appeared as a guest pundit on BBC's Match of the Day 2.

When not playing football, Olsson enjoys playing the guitar. He lists Bob Dylan, Nirvana, The Rolling Stones, Oasis, Babyshambles, Mando Diao, The Chardogs and The Who as some of his favourite artists. Olsson has stated that once he is done with his professional football career, he wants to qualify as a lawyer and work within the sphere of human rights. He has already taken introduction classes on the subject in Sweden.