Björn Morgan Enqvist (born 12 October 1977 in Lund, Sweden) is a Swedish footballer who last played for

Aris Limassol FC Aris Limassol (Greek: ''Άρης Λεμεσού'') is a Cypriot football club based in Limassol and one of the founder members of Cyprus Football Association. The club's colours are green, black and white, and their home is the Tsirion Stadiu ...

in the 2nd division in Cyprus.

Club career

Early life

Enqvist is a

centre midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

from the academy of

Malmö FF Malmö Fotbollförening, commonly known as Malmö FF, Malmö, or MFF, is a professional football club and the most successful football club in Sweden in terms of trophies won. Formed in 1910 and affiliated with the Scania Football Associatio ...

, where he started his career as a 10-year-old playing in a very successful youth team of boys born 1977. The team won two Swedish championships for under-16s. Both the national league for U16 and the National indoor 5-a-side championship. They also competed successfully in many European tournaments and the successful youth team produced five professional players for the senior team of Malmö FF, including Enqvist.

England

On 10 February 1995, Enqvist moved to 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 Foo ...

(at the age of 17) with

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition buildin ...

. He spent two years playing for the club mostly in the reserves but also reaching the

FA Youth Cup The Football Association Youth Challenge Cup is an English football competition run by The Football Association for under-18 sides. Only those players between the age of 15 and 18 on 31 August of the current season are eligible to take part. I ...

semi-final against Liverpool where he scored a memorable volley.

Scandinavia

Enqvist transferred back to Malmö FF in January 1997 under Dutch coach

Frans Thijssen Frans Thijssen (born 23 January 1952) is a Dutch former footballer. He started his professional career in 1970 with NEC Nijmegen. In 1973, he moved to FC Twente, where the midfielder played for nearly six seasons. Thijssen won fourteen caps fo ...

. In his two years in the senior squad of Malmö FF he was an important player when the team finished third in the league 1997, and also influential in 1998 where the team also took part in the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, cla ...

where they for the second year running got knocked out by Croatian side Hajduk Split. In 1999 Enqvist transferred to

VPS Vaasa Vaasan Palloseura (or VPS) is a Finnish football club, based in Vaasa. It currently plays in the first tier of Finnish football (''Veikkausliiga''). The club's current manager is Jussi Nuorela. The club plays its home matches at Hietalahti. V ...

in Finland where he in two years playing for the club managed to win two league cup titles and again took part in the UEFA Cup. In January 2000 he signed for Swedish side

GAIS , neighboring_municipalities= Altstätten (SG), Appenzell (AI), Bühler (AR), Eichberg (SG), Rüte (AI), Schlatt-Haslen (AI), Trogen (AR) , twintowns= } Gais () is a village and a municipality in the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden ...

where he played two years. Enqvist caught the eye of several European clubs including

West Ham West Ham is an area in East London, located east of Charing Cross in the west of the modern London Borough of Newham. The area, which lies immediately to the north of the River Thames and east of the River Lea, was originally an ancient ...

Espanyol Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona (; "Royal Spanish Sports Club of Barcelona"), commonly known as Espanyol, is a professional sports club based in Barcelona, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish football league s ...

NEC Nijmegen NEC Nijmegen (''Nijmegen Eendracht Combinatie''), commonly known as NEC (), is a professional Dutch association football club based in Nijmegen. The club currently competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, following promotion f ...

and Italian sides

Ternana Ternana Calcio, commonly referred to as Ternana, is an Italian football club based in Terni, Umbria. The club was founded in 1925 and refounded in 1993. In its history, Ternana has twice played in Serie A (in the 1972–73 and 1974–75 ...

and

Pistoiese Unione Sportiva Pistoiese 1921 is an Italian association football club, based in Pistoia, Tuscany. Currently, Pistoiese plays in Serie D. Originally founded on 21 April 1921 and later restored after bankruptcy, the team plays their home games ...

. But player and clubs could never agree on a transfer fee. He remained in Scandinavia until January 2003 when he made a free transfer to Greece.

Greece

Enqvist arrived in Greece on 3 January signing for Athens-based Apollon Athinon. He then moved on to sign for

Panahaiki Panachaiki F.C. (Greek: Παναχαϊκή ΓΕ ΠΑΕ ) is a Greek professional football club based in Patras, Greece and they play in Super League Greece 2, the second tier of greek football. Founded in 1891, they have reached the Greek Cup semi ...

in July 2004 where he enjoyed his most successful period in Greece playing under coach Ivan Jovanovic. He also played for

Kastoria Kastoria ( el, Καστοριά, ''Kastoriá'' ) is a city in northern Greece in the modern regions of Greece, region of Western Macedonia. It is the capital of Kastoria (regional unit), Kastoria regional unit, in the Geographic regions of Gree ...

in Northern Greece for one year under coach Gjoko Hadzievski. In Greece Enqvist played successfully with close to 90 games in B-Ethniki scoring 13 times as a defensive playmaker. In 2009 Enqvist returned to Greece after playing in Cyprus and signed for Veria FC, where he after a successful season won the league and promotion to the 2nd division.

Cyprus

His career then continued in Cyprus where on 7 January he signed for

Nea Salamina Nea Salamis Famagusta or Nea Salamina Famagusta ( el, Νέα Σαλαμίνα Αμμοχώστου) is a Cypriot sports club based in Ammochostos (also known by its romanized name, Famagusta), Cyprus. The club is named after Salamis (or Sala ...

. In July 2007 Enqvist transferred within Cyprus and signed for

APEP Pitsilia APEP ( el, ΑΠΕΠ; ''Aθλητική Ποδοσφαιρική Ένωση Πιτσιλιάς'', Athlitiki Podosfairiki Enosi Pitsilia, Athletic Football Union Pitsilia) is a Cypriot football club, based in Kyperounta, a village in Pitsilia, whi ...

, for whom he has enjoyed two successful seasons. His first season saw him guide the team to promotion to the Cypriot top league playing as a defensive playmaker. Enqvist has currently completed his second successful season 2008–09 again playing regularly as a central defensive midfielder. This team made history as the first APEP side ever, which managed to stay up in the top league. In June 2010 Enqvist signed a contract with

in the 2nd division where he again managed to play a big part in the team's league title and promotion to the premier league.

International career

Enqvist was capped for Sweden on all levels from u-16 to u-21, representing his country (Sweden). Captaining the u-18 side and taking part in Sweden's U-21 European qualifiers against England and was also capped against strong opposition France and Spain among others.

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Enqvist, Bjorn Morgan 1977 births Living people Sportspeople from Lund Swedish footballers Association football midfielders Malmö FF players Crystal Palace F.C. players Vaasan Palloseura players GAIS players Apollon Smyrnis F.C. players Panachaiki F.C. players Kastoria F.C. players Nea Salamis Famagusta FC players APEP FC players Veria F.C. players Aris Limassol FC players Allsvenskan players Superettan players Football League (Greece) players Cypriot First Division players Swedish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Finland Expatriate footballers in Greece Expatriate footballers in Cyprus