Filip Viktor Helander (born 22 April 1993) is a Swedish 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 plays 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 ...

for Cypriot club

AC Omonia Athletic Club Omonia Nicosia (; ''Athlitikós Sýllogos Omónoia Lefkosías''), commonly known as Omonia Nicosia, or simply Omonia (also Romanization of Greek, transliterated as Omonoia), is a Cyprus, Cypriot professional multi-sport club, esta ...

and for the Sweden national team.

Club career

Malmö

Helander made his

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 ...

debut in a match against Syrianska on 17 October 2011. Helander played the first matches beside

Pontus Jansson Pontus Sven Gustav Jansson (; born 13 February 1991) is a Swedish professional association football, footballer who plays as a centre-back for Malmö FF. Jansson started his career with local club Malmö FF before moving to Italy to join Torino ...

in defence before being replaced by Daniel Andersson after the second round of matches. On 17 July 2012, Helander signed a first team contract with Malmö until the end of the 2015 season. When Andersson played less and less after the summer break Helander established himself in the starting lineup and finished the season as a regular starter in the defence. Helander played a total of 12 league matches for Malmö during the 2012 season. The league title winning 2013 season proved to be the real breakthrough season for Helander as he played 18 matches for the club. He was injured in the early stages of the season and was replaced in the starting line-up by Erik Johansson but later reclaimed this spot in the second part of the season. For the 2014 season Helander played regularly throughout the entire season as the club defended their league title and qualified for the group stage of the

2014–15 UEFA Champions League The 2014–15 UEFA Champions League was the 60th season of Europe's premier club association football, football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 23rd season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions Lea ...

. He also scored his first league goal for Malmö in 2014 on 23 August in a 3–0 home win against

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

. For his performances in the league Helander was nominated for the award of Allsvenskan defender of the year. He was also nominated for Swedish defender of the year at

Fotbollsgalan Fotbollsgalan is an official and annual Swedish sports awards ceremony honoring achievements in Swedish football. It is organised by Swedish Football Association The Swedish Football Association (, SvFF) is the governing and body of football ...

Hellas Verona

On 22 July 2015, Helander signed for

Hellas Verona Hellas Verona Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Hellas Verona (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Verona, Veneto, that currently plays in Serie A. The team won ...

in the Italian

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 ...

. On 23 September, he made his debut against

Internazionale Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Since 1 ...

in a 1–0 defeat at the San Siro. In the next game against Lazio at home he again was in the starting line up and in the 33rd minute he scored his first Serie A goal. Lazio went on to win the game 2–1.

Bologna

On 31 August 2016, Helander joined

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

on a season-long loan deal, with an obligation to sign outright at the end of season. As part of the deal,

Nicolò Cherubin Nicolò Cherubin (born 2 December 1986) is an Italian football coach and former player, who played as a defender. He is the current assistant coach of Serie D club Luparense. Playing career Early career Bologna Cherubin joined Bologna in Jul ...

moved to Verona. On 12 June 2017, Helander joined Bologna on a definitive basis. The following season, his second with the Rossoblù, Helander found more space in the rotation under coach

Roberto Donadoni Roberto Donadoni (; born 9 September 1963) is an Italian football manager and former midfielder. A skilful and versatile winger, Donadoni was capable of playing on either flank, or in the centre. He began his career with Atalanta, and late ...

, playing 29 games. His club season ended early in April 2018 because of an injury, but without risking the World Cup in which he participated as a reserve.

Rangers

Helander was announced as a new signing for

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

in the

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, also known as the William Hill (bookmaker), William Hill Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Scotland and the highest level of the Scottish football league system. Th ...

on 13 July 2019. Helander's cost was £3.5 million. He made his debut in a

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup, also known as the Premier Sports Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League cup in ...

tie against East Fife, scoring a goal as Rangers came out 3–0 victors. On 11 March 2021, Helander scored the equaliser for Rangers in a 1–1 draw away to

Slavia Prague Sportovní klub Slavia Praha – fotbal (Sports Club Slavia Prague – Football, ), commonly known as Slavia Praha or Slavia Prague, is a Czech professional football club in Prague. Founded in 1892, they are the second most successful club in t ...

in their Europa League Round of 16 first leg match. On 29 August 2021, Helander scored the only goal of the game for Rangers against

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

in the first

Old Firm The Old Firm is a collective name for the Scottish football clubs Celtic and Rangers, which are both based in Glasgow. The two clubs are the most successful and popular in Scotland, and the rivalry between them has become deeply embedded i ...

derby of the 2021–22 season. On 15 September 2021, Rangers manager

Steven Gerrard Steven George Gerrard MBE (born 30 May 1980) is an English professional football manager and a former player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest midfielders of all time and one of Liverpool's greatest ever players,St Johnstone St Johnstone Football Club is a professional association football club in Perth, Scotland. The team competes in the , the second division of Scottish football. The club's name is derived from St John's Toun (or Saint Johnstoun)—an old name o ...

four days prior. Rangers confirmed on 23 May 2023 that Helander would leave the club at the end of the 2022–23 season.

OB

On 31 August 2023, Helander joined

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga (, ) is a professional association football league in Denmark and the highest level of the Danish football league system. The league is currently contested by 12 teams each year, with 2 teams relegated. It is the current ...

side OB on a one-year deal. Made his debut in a 3-0 defeat to

Silkeborg IF Silkeborg Idrætsforening, (; commonly known as Silkeborg IF or SIF in short) is a professional football club based in Silkeborg, Denmark. The club was founded in 1917, reached the highest level of Danish football in 1987, and afterwards became ...

on 18 September 2023. He left OB at the end of the season.

AC Omonia

On 4 July 2024 his signing by cypriot club

was announced.

International career

Helander was called up to the senior Sweden squad to face

Moldova Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe, with an area of and population of 2.42 million. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. ...

in October 2015. He was part of Sweden's squad for 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 ...

in Russia. In May 2021, he was named in Sweden's 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 ...

tournament.

Career statistics

UEFA EURO qualifiers Sweden vs Romania 20190323 Filip Helander 13

Club

International

Honours

Malmö FF *

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Svenska Supercupen Svenska Supercupen, ''Swedish Super Cup'', was a one-off fixture in Swedish football played between the Allsvenskan champions and the winners of Svenska Cupen. The fixture was played in November, after the Allsvenskan season. In the event of a ...

Rangers *

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,2021–22 *

runner-up: 2019–20 Sweden U21 *

UEFA European Under-21 Championship The UEFA European Under-21 Championship, the UEFA Under-21 Championship or simply the Euro Under-21, is a biennial football competition contested by the European men's under-21 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Since 1992, the comp ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

Individual * UEFA European Under-21 Championship – Team of the Tournament:

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Helander, Filip Living people 1993 births Footballers from Malmö Swedish men's footballers Men's association football defenders Sweden men's international footballers Sweden men's under-21 international footballers Sweden men's youth international footballers 2018 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2020 players Allsvenskan players Serie A players Kvarnby IK players Malmö FF players Hellas Verona FC players Bologna FC 1909 players Rangers F.C. players Odense Boldklub players Scottish Professional Football League players Swedish expatriate men's footballers Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark AC Omonia players 21st-century Swedish sportsmen