Alexander Arnold Mezan (born Jan Alexander Östlund on 2 November 1978) is a Swedish former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugb ...

who played as a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. He began his professional career with

AIK AIK Fotboll (), more commonly known simply as AIK (), an abbreviation for Allmänna Idrottsklubben (meaning ''the public'' or ''general sports club''), is a Swedish football club competing in Allsvenskan, the top flight of Swedish football. The ...

in 1995, and went on to play professionally in Portugal, the Netherlands, England, and Denmark before retiring in 2010. He won 22

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

for the Sweden national team between 2003 and 2006 and represented his country at

UEFA Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. Th ...

Club career

Early career

Mezan started his career in the club IFK Österåker in his hometown

Åkersberga Åkersberga is a locality and the seat of Österåker Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 28,033 inhabitants in 2010. History In 1901 a railway station named ''Berga'' was opened on this rural spot some 30 km from Stockholm. Some s ...

. At the age of 16 he was drafted for

AIK Fotboll AIK Fotboll (), more commonly known simply as AIK (), an abbreviation for Allmänna Idrottsklubben (meaning ''the public'' or ''general sports club''), is a Swedish football club competing in Allsvenskan, the top flight of Swedish football. The ...

, where he played as a striker. He scored the club's last goal of the 1998 season, which meant AIK won

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; en, the All-Swedish, also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan, en, the Football All-Swedish) is a Swedish professional league for men's association football clubs. It was founded in 1924 and is the top tier of the Swedish football lea ...

, the Swedish championship. He had a loan period at

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

but was not offered a contract, and in January 1999 had a trial at English club

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot ...

who were then in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

, however this did not lead to a transfer. He briefly represented

Vitória de Guimarães Vitoria or Vitória may refer to : People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Steven Vitória ...

in Portugal but did not receive any playing time. He was subsequently transferred to

IFK Norrköping Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Norrköping, more commonly known as IFK Norrköping or simply Norrköping, is a Swedish professional football club based in Norrköping. The club is affiliated to Östergötlands Fotbollförbund and play thei ...

and converted into a defender.

Hammarby IF

Mezan is one of the most beloved players in Hammarby IF in modern time, despite the fact that he made his break-through as an attacker in local rivals AIK. "Salle" immediately won the hearts of the Hammarby fans when he, in the very first minute of his very first appearance for Hammarby, dealt a hard tackle to his former teammate AIK player and legend Krister Nordin, in the indoors tournament "Nackas minne" ("Lennart "Nacka" Skoglund Memorial) 2003. Mezan returned to Hammarby after his career as a member of the board for Hammarby Football.

Feyenoord

In July 2004, Mezan signed with

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is ...

Feyenoord Rotterdam Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after its ...

, playing his first match against

Vitesse Arnhem Vitesse may refer to: * Vitesse Models, a diecast model car company * Vitesse (band), Dutch rock band * Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse, a car * Rover 216 Vitesse, a car * Rover 3500 Vitesse, a car * Rover 800 Vitesse, a car * Triumph Vi ...

Southampton

His nickname is "Salle", although the fans of Southampton have been calling him "Jesus" due to his flowing locks and

beard A beard is the hair that grows on the jaw, chin, upper lip, lower lip, cheeks, and neck of humans and some non-human animals. In humans, usually pubescent or adult males are able to grow beards. Throughout the course of history, societal at ...

, and he emerged as a cult hero for his hard tackles and marauding runs. On the final day of the 2005–06

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

season, replica number 2 shirts flew out of the club shop, as Saints fans could be heard in matches chanting "Jesus is our right-back". For the early part of the 2006–07 season he was in and out of the side but towards the end cemented his right-back position. He has always given whole-hearted commitment to the team and provided a more than useful option which allowed

Chris Baird Christopher Patrick Baird (born 25 February 1982) is a Northern Irish former professional footballer who last played for Derby County and represented the Northern Ireland national football team from 2003 to 2016. His preferred position was righ ...

to move into the centre of the defence. Mezan started 2007–08 well, having to compete for the No. 2 position with on-loan players Phil Ifil and

Christian Dailly Christian Eduard Dailly (born 23 October 1973) is a Scottish former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. Dailly started his professional career as a teenager, playing as a striker for Dundee United. He helped them win the 199 ...

, who both departed from the team in January 2008. On 2 July 2008, he was released by the Saints as a free agent.

Esbjerg fB

On 25 August 2008 he was presented as a new player in Danish club Esbjerg fB. His time in Esbjerg was blighted by injuries. On 25 January 2010, he was released from the club and he announced his retirement.

International career

Mezan made his debut for the Sweden national team in a friendly game against

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

in November 2003. He played for Sweden at the 2004 European Championship after being called up as an injury replacement for Michael Svensson. Despite being a regular fixture during the 2006 World Cup qualification stage, he was controversially overlooked for the

2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

squad.

Personal life

After his professional footballing career, Mezan changed his last name from Östlund to Mezan. His daughter Nelly Mezan (born in December 2002) is a promising tennis player.

Career statistics

International

Honours

AIK *

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

References

External links

Esbjerg fB profile
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mezan, Alexander 1978 births Living people Swedish footballers Association football fullbacks Sweden international footballers Sweden under-21 international footballers Sweden youth international footballers UEFA Euro 2004 players IF Brommapojkarna players AIK Fotboll players IFK Norrköping players Hammarby Fotboll players Feyenoord players Southampton F.C. players Esbjerg fB players Vitória S.C. players Allsvenskan players Eredivisie players Danish Superliga players Swedish expatriate footballers Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate footballers in Portugal Swedish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Swedish expatriate sportspeople in the United Kingdom Expatriate footballers in England Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Expatriate footballers in Denmark People from Österåker Municipality Sportspeople from Stockholm County