Andreas Granqvist (; born 16 April 1985) 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, rugby lea ...

who played as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

. Starting his career with Helsingborgs IF in the mid-2000s, he went on to play for clubs in England, the Netherlands, Italy, and Russia before retiring at Helsingborg in 2021. A full international between 2006 and 2021, he won 88

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 Java ...

for the Sweden national team and represented his country at four

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro or Euros, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition ...

s as well as the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded t ...

. He captained the national team between 2016 and 2021. However, due to injuries, he played his last international match in 2019. He was awarded

Guldbollen Guldbollen (''Golden Ball'') is a Swedish Association football, football award given by ''Aftonbladet'' and the Swedish Football Association to the best male Swedish footballer each year. History The award was created by Bengt Liljedahl and betw ...

(''the Golden Ball''), given to the Swedish player of the year, in 2017.

Club career

Born in Påarp, Granqvist started his career with his local club, Påarps GIF. He later transferred to

Helsingborgs IF Helsingborgs Idrottsförening, commonly referred to as Helsingborgs IF, Helsingborg or (especially locally) HIF (), is a Swedish professional football club located in Helsingborg. They play in the Swedish second tier, Superettan, following releg ...

and he made his debut in

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; ), also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan (, ) is a professional association football league in Sweden and the highest level of the Swedish football league system. Founded in 1924, it operates on a system of promotion and relegatio ...

, 2004. Two years later he was team captain, when the club won its third Swedish Cup title, beating

Gefle IF Gefle Idrottsförening, also known simply as Gefle IF, Gefle (, as if spelled ''Gävle''), or locally Gif (), also known as Gefle IF FF by the Swedish Football Association, are a Swedish professional association football, football club based in G ...

with 2–0. The victorious Helsingborg side also contained Swedish internationals

Henrik Larsson Edward Henrik Larsson (; born 20 September 1971) is a Swedish professional association football, football coach and former player who played many times for the Sweden men's national football team, Swedish national team. A Striker (association f ...

and Andreas Jakobsson as well as former Hibernian goalkeeper Daniel Andersson. In January 2007, he completed a loan move to

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club is a professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, they have p ...

with a view to a permanent deal in the summer. On 19 June 2007, he signed a two-year deal with Wigan, for a fee reported to be around £750,000. On 12 March 2008, he returned to Helsingborg on a loan deal until the end of the English season in June. On 9 July 2008, Granqvist signed a four-year contract with Dutch club,

Groningen Groningen ( , ; ; or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen (province), Groningen province in the Netherlands. Dubbed the "capital of the north", Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of ...

, with Wigan receiving a fee of around £600,000. On 13 September 2008, he scored after a 65-metre solo run, a remarkable feat, which he again managed to accomplish in the last match of the regular season on 10 May 2009. On 15 June 2011, Groningen sold Granqvist to

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

for €2 million. The Swedish international has signed a four-year contract with the Italian club. On 16 August 2013, Granqvist moved from Genoa to

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

side

Krasnodar Krasnodar, formerly Yekaterinodar (until 1920), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Krasnodar Krai, Russia. The city stands on the Kuban River in southern Russia, with a population of 1,154,885 residents, and up to 1.263 millio ...

. On 28 January 2018, it was announced that Granqvist would return to

after the World Cup. He would join the club on a 3.5-year player contract that would be followed by a three-year term as the director of sports for the club. He officially played his farewell game for Krasnodar on 13 May 2018. Granqvist officially retired on 17 July 2021, having played in 6 leagues in 17 years as a professional footballer;

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

and

Superettan Superettan (; ) is an association football league and the second highest league in the Swedish football league system, league system of Swedish football, Swedish men's football. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and rel ...

. He said that he wanted to continue, but his body wasn't feeling it. He continued working at Helsingborg IF as the director of sports.

International career

Granqvist played for the Swedish national team, and, in May 2008, he was included in Sweden's 23-man squad for

UEFA Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial association football, football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA ( ...

. He was an unused substitute in all three of Sweden's games. In 2011, he played in the finals of the

Cyprus International Football Tournament The Cyprus International Football Tournament was an annual winter association football friendly competition for national teams that takes place in Cyprus. It was traditionally held in February as a friendly tournament since at least 1997, and last ...

, but Sweden lost to Ukraine. On 6 July 2016 Granqvist was appointed captain of Sweden by the new manager

Janne Andersson Jan Olof "Janne" Andersson (; born 29 September 1962) is a Swedish former professional football manager and player. From 2004 to 2009, Andersson coached Halmstads BK in the Swedish top tier league. In 2010, he managed Örgryte in the second tier ...

. Granqvist succeeded

Zlatan Ibrahimović Zlatan Ibrahimović (born 3 October 1981) is a Swedish former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Striker (association football), striker. Ibrahimović is known for his acrobatic strikes and Volley (association footba ...

after the latter's retirement from the national team following

UEFA Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's association football, football ch ...

. In May 2018 he was named in the 23-man Sweden squad for the

in Russia. He captained the team for their opening World Cup fixture against

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

on 18 June 2018. Over the course of the match he provided several long balls over the top which posed a threat to the South Korean defenders. In the 65th minute he scored the only goal of the game, calmly slotting home from the penalty spot. He was given the

Player of the match In team sport, a player of the match award (also known as man of the match or woman of the match) is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chose ...

award. Nine days later he scored another penalty, the second goal in a 3–0 win over

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

which meant Sweden qualified for the next round and topped the group. Overall, Granqvist played a full 90 minutes in all games as Sweden were eliminated by

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in the quarter final. In May 2021, Granqvist was somewhat controversially included in Sweden's 26-man squad for the postponed

UEFA Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international men's association footb ...

, since he had not made an appearance for the national team for nearly two years due to ongoing injury problems.He didn't appear in any of their games as Sweden would go on to lose to

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

2-1 in the round of 16.

Personal life

Granqvist goes by the nickname ; ),Andreas Granqvist med i EM-truppen
svt.se. originating from his last name which means "

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' ( ), a genus of about 40 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal (taiga) regions of the Northern hemisphere. ''Picea'' ...

twig".grankvist
Svenska Akademiens Ordlista Granqvist became a father for a second time after his wife Sofie gave birth in

Helsingborg Helsingborg (, , ), is a Urban areas in Sweden, city and the seat of Helsingborg Municipality, Scania County, Scania (Skåne), Sweden. It is the second-largest city in Scania (after Malmö) and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, ninth ...

on 6 July 2018, while he was with the Sweden team at the World Cup in Russia.

Career statistics

Club

International

''Sweden's score is listed first, and the score column indicates the score after each Granqvist goal.''

Honours

Helsingborgs IF *

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

Svenska Cupen Svenska cupen (, ), also known as the Swedish Cup in English, is a knockout cup competition in Swedish football and the main Swedish football cup. ''Svenska cupen'' usually refers to the men's tournament, although a women's tournament is also ...

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

Individual *

: 2017 * Swedish Defender of the Year: 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018 * FIFA World Cup Fantasy Team:

References

External links

* *
archive
*
archive
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Granqvist, Andreas 1985 births Living people People from Helsingborg Municipality Swedish men's footballers Helsingborgs IF players Wigan Athletic F.C. players FC Groningen players Genoa CFC players FC Krasnodar players Allsvenskan players Superettan players Premier League players Eredivisie players Serie A players Russian Premier League players Sweden men's international footballers Sweden men's under-21 international footballers UEFA Euro 2008 players UEFA Euro 2012 players UEFA Euro 2016 players 2018 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2020 players Swedish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Swedish expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Swedish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Russia Footballers from Helsingborg Men's association football defenders Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Russia 21st-century Swedish sportsmen