Joakim Alexandersson (born 27 January 1976) is a Swedish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager and former

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 defender. He currently serves as the head coach of the India U20 and India U17 women's football teams. He also served as the interim head coach of the India women's national football team. A youth product of Dalstorps IF, Alexandersson spent the majority of his career with

IF Elfsborg Idrottsföreningen Elfsborg, more commonly known as IF Elfsborg or simply Elfsborg (), is a professional association football, football club based in Borås, Sweden, and is affiliated to the Västergötlands Fotbollförbund. They play in the Alls ...

, with whom he made 175

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 ...

appearances, won the

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 ...

twice, played in the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

, and was the club's player of the year in 1999. He spent two years in Norwegian football with Aalesund, with whom he gained promotion to and played in the 2007 Tippeligaen, and on loan to Skeid. He returned to Sweden for a brief spell in the

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 ...

with

Mjällby AIF Mjällby Allmänna Idrottsförening, also known simply as Mjällby AIF, Mjällby or (especially locally) MAIF, is a Swedish professional football club based in Hällevik in Sölvesborg Municipality. The club is affiliated to Blekinge Fo ...

before five years playing and coaching in the regional leagues of

Västergötland Västergötland (), also known as West Gothland or the Latinized version Westrogothia in older literature, is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden (''landskap'' in Swedish), situated in the southwest of Sweden. Vä ...

. He was capped once for Sweden at under-21 level.

Early life and IF Elfsborg career

Alexandersson was born in

Borås Borås ( , , ) is a city (officially, a locality) and the seat of Borås Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 114,556 inhabitants in 2024. It is widely known for being a textile city, home to worldwide brands and companie ...

, Sweden, in 1976. As a youngster he played football with Dalstorps IF, and he joined the main club in Borås,

, as an 18-year-old in 1994. He was a member of the squad that gained promotion from the second tier in 1996, and in a nine-year spell, between 1997 and 2005, scored seven goals from 175

appearances, 167 as a starter. In January 1998, he won his only

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

for Sweden under-21s, in a 1–1 friendly draw with

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

. The following year, he was chosen as IF Elfsborg's player of the year. He was on the winning side in two

finals. Elfsborg beat AIK in

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

in a lengthy

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

Alexandersson took and scored with his side's fourth attempt; the match was eventually decided after 24 kicksand enjoyed a more comfortable victory over

Assyriska FF Assyriska Fotbollsföreningen, also known simply as Assyriska FF, is a Swedish football club based in Södertälje, Stockholm County. The club, formed in 1974 by Assyrian immigrants, has advanced through the league system and is currently play ...

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

. The cup wins meant that Elfsborg qualified for the

, and Alexandersson made his debut in European competition in the 2001–02 UEFA Cup qualifying round second leg at home to Estonian club Narva Trans, a 5–0 win. He made no further appearances in that edition of the competition. In the 2004–05 UEFA Cup second qualifying round, goalless with three minutes left to play of the away leg against

Glentoran Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club based in East Belfast, Northern Ireland, that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882 and has since won more than 130 major honours. They are one of three Northern Iris ...

, Alexandersson "volleyed in a free-kick from the right swung over by left-winger Andreas Klarström." He also scored the winner in the home leg. He started in the first leg of the 2004–05 UEFA Cup first round match, in which Elfsborg lost 2–0 away to

Dinamo Zagreb Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb (), commonly referred to as simply Dinamo Zagreb (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Zagreb. Dinamo play their home matches at Stadion Maksimir. They are the most successful club in Cr ...

; the second leg ended goalless.

Football in Norway

In January 2006, Alexandersson signed a three-year contract with Aalesund, newly relegated to the

Norwegian First Division The Norwegian First Division, also called 1. divisjon () and OBOS-ligaen (due to sponsoring ties with :no:OBOS, OBOS), is the second-highest level of the Norwegian football league system. Each year, the top finishing teams in the 1. divisjon ...

. He played in ten matches as Aalesund were promoted as runners-up and a further five in the 2007 Tippeligaen before finishing that season back in the First Division with six appearances on loan to Skeid. Ahead of the 2008 season, Alexandersson wanted regular football and Aalesund needed to free up space in the squad. Talk of a return to the First Division with

Kongsvinger Kongsvinger () is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Glåmdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Kongsvinger. Other settlements in the municipality include Aust ...

or Sandnes Ulf came to nothing, and in February 2008, he was released by mutual consent and returned to Swedish football.

Later life and career

After three appearances in the

2008 Superettan The 2008 Superettan was part of the 2008 in Swedish football, 2008 Swedish football season, and the ninth season of Superettan, Sweden's second-tier Association football, football division in its current format. A total of 16 teams contested the le ...

(second tier) for

, Alexandersson moved into the Västergötlands Fotbollförbund district leagues where he began to coach as well as play. After two seasons as player and assistant coach with Dalstorps IF, he spent the 2011 campaign as

player-coach A player–coach (also playing coach, captain–coach, or player–manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. Player–coaches may be head coaches or assistant coaches, and they may make chang ...

with Grimsås IF, and then returned to the Borås area where he took a job at a school in Sandared. He joined Bollebygds IF as player-coach, and said ahead of the 2012 season that his priority would be coaching rather than playing. He played 16 league matches over a two-year spell, and his team were twice relegated. Alexandersson was appointed as head of youth at IF Elfsborg in November 2018, and spent two years in the role.

References

External links

''BornYellow.com''
an IF Elfsborg statistics database {{DEFAULTSORT:Alexandersson, Joakim 1976 births Living people Swedish football managers Swedish women's football managers Footballers from Borås Swedish men's footballers Sweden men's under-21 international footballers Men's association football defenders IF Elfsborg players Aalesunds FK players Skeid Fotball players Mjällby AIF players Allsvenskan players Norwegian First Division players Eliteserien players Superettan players Swedish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Norway Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Norway Association football coaches IF Elfsborg non-playing staff Swedish expatriate football managers India women's national football team managers Expatriate football managers in India