Michael Svensson

He made his debut in the Sweden national team on 17 August 1999 against Austria. He was a member of the Sweden squad for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, where he was not played. He has 25 caps for his country. He was initially named in Sweden's UEFA Euro 2004 squad but had to withdraw through injury and was replaced by Alexander Östlund.

Following his retirement from playing, Svensson announced that he would return home to Sweden and take up a career as manager, stating that he would prefer to start in Division 2 or 3. Following that, his former club Halmstads BK were looking for a new manager and rumours started that he was going to get the position; on 17 December 2009 he was presented as the club's new assistant manager alongside Lars Jacobsson. As of 2016, Svensson is head coach for Halmstad BK:s U-19 team.

International

Early career

Svensson started his career in his home country, playing for various Swedish clubs including IFK Värnamo and Halmstads BK. He began to be noticed by bigger clubs when Halmstads BK won the Swedish championship in 2000.

Troyes

He was transferred to Troyes AC in 2001, helping the club to seventh position in the French First Division in his only season. On 25 June 2002, Svensson was signed by Premier League club Southampton F.C. for £2m.

Southampton

Svensson arrived at Southampton just after being a member of Sweden's squad at the 2002 World Cup. He immediately struck up a rapport with Claus Lundekvam at the centre of the Saints defence. He is a tough tackling, no nonsense centre-half but likes to play the ball out of defence and get forward to help out in attack. His nickname with both fans and press is "Killer". Svensson holds the honour of scoring the last ever competitive goal at Maine Road on 11 May 2003, in a game won by Southampton 1–0. Due to a serious knee injury sustained at the end of the 2003–04 season, he missed the entire 2004–05 season. He returned to action in October 2005 but, after only seven games, he broke down again and remained out of action for the remainder of the 2005–06 season. He failed to return to full fitness in time for the start of the 2006–07 championship season due to a kick in the knee during an Aldershot reserves game in the 2006 pre-season. Since then, he has flown to Germany to continue treatment with…