Marcus Jonas Munuhe Olsson (born 17 May 1988) 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 le ...

who plays as a

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 ...

and a

left-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 ...

for

Halmstad Halmstad () is a port, university, industrial and recreational city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Socia ...

Club career

Halmstads BK

Born in

Gävle Gävle () is a city in Sweden, the seat of Gävle Municipality and the capital of Gävleborg County. It had 77,586 inhabitants in 2020, which makes it the 13th most populated city in Sweden. It is the oldest city in the historical Norrland (Swede ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, Olsson started his career at

Högaborgs BK Högaborgs BK is a Swedish football club from Helsingborg that was founded in 1927. They currently play in the Swedish fourth division ( Division 2). Background The club was founded in the spring 1927 by Sven Damberg and Lars Flodin and a group ...

. In 2008, he signed a contract with Halmstad, replacing Martin Fribrock as

left winger 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 ...

as Fribrock departed for

Esbjerg fB Esbjerg forenede Boldklubber (; commonly known as Esbjerg fB or EfB in short) is a Danish professional football club based in Esbjerg, West Jutland, that plays in the 2nd division, the third-tier of the Danish football league system. Foun ...

in the summer of 2008. Mainly featured as left winger, he also used as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

in several games, during

Josep Clotet Ruiz Josep Clotet Ruiz (born 28 April 1977) is a Spanish football coach, currently in charge of Italian Serie B club Brescia. As well as working as assistant at several clubs, he managed Cornellà, Figueres, Espanyol B, Halmstad, Málaga B, Oxfor ...

time at Halmstad and the lack of a natural left side defender, Olsson and Kujtim Bala took turns on playing on the position. As Halmstads BK was relegated from

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 ...

in 2011, Marcus announced that he would not sign a new contract with the club and that he would start searching for a new club to play for.

Blackburn Rovers

After rejecting a contract from

Djurgårdens IF Djurgårdens Idrottsförening, commonly known simply as Djurgårdens IF, Djurgården (), and (especially locally) Djurgår'n (), Dif or DIF – is a Swedish sports association with several sections, located in Stockholm. Name The club is named ...

, and being linked to

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège (; nl, Standard Luik ; german: Standard Lüttich ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the most ...

and

Viking FK Viking Fotballklubb, commonly known as Viking or Viking Stavanger internationally, is a Norwegian football club from the city of Stavanger. The club was founded in 1899. It is one of the most successful clubs in Norwegian football, having won 8 ...

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. T ...

confirmed on 31 January that Olsson had signed a two-and-a-half-year contract with the club, joining his twin brother there. Marcus Olsson made his debut for Blackburn Rovers in the 3–0 away defeat to Manchester City in the Premier League on 25 February 2012, playing on the left wing, in front of his twin Martin who played at left back, with both completing a full 90 minutes. He scored his first goal for Blackburn in a 3–3 draw with

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...

on 1 September 2012. Olsson was released by Rovers following the conclusion of his contract with the club on 1 July 2014, but after lengthy negotiations signed a new contract for the club on 11 July. He was voted

player of the season for the 2014–15 season.

Derby County

On 26 January 2016, Olsson was transferred from Blackburn to

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group. Founded in 1884 ...

for an undisclosed fee, signing a three-and-a-half year contract. Olsson played his full debut on 6 February 2016 against

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

, scoring an own goal after 17 minutes. He scored his first goal for the club in a 1–0 win over

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

on 19 March 2016. He was released by Derby County at the end of the 2018–19 season.

Return to Halmstads BK

Olsson missed most of the 2020 season and all of 2021 season due to

cruciate ligament Cruciate ligaments (also cruciform ligaments) are pairs of ligaments arranged like a letter X. They occur in several joints of the body, such as the knee joint and the atlanto-axial joint. In a fashion similar to the cords in a toy Jacob's la ...

injury. Upon recovering, on 28 January 2022 he returned to

International career

Marcus Olsson was called up to the annual January tour of the Sweden national team in 2012, facing

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

and Qatar U23. He made his national team debut against Bahrain when he came on as a substitute for

Tobias Hysén Glenn Tobias Hysén (born 9 March 1982) is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a forward or as a winger. Starting his career with Lundby IF in 1998, he went on to represent BK Häcken, Djurgårdens IF, Sunderland, IFK Götebo ...

at half-time, he made his second appearance against Qatar in the following match, again coming on as a substitute at half-time, this time replacing

Jiloan Hamad Jiloan Mohammed Hamad Amin Alla Werdi (born 6 November 1990), known as Jiloan Hamad ( ar, جيلوان حمد), is a professional footballer who plays as a winger for Allsvenskan club Örebro SK. Born in Azerbaijan and of Iraqi descent, Hamad m ...

Personal life

His twin brother

Martin Olsson Martin Tony Waikwa Olsson (born 17 May 1988) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a left back for Malmö FF and the Sweden national team. Olsson signed for Blackburn Rovers from Högaborgs BK in January 2006. In 2013, Premier Le ...

is also a professional footballer and plays for

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 Association, ...

. Their brother-in-law is former

Dallas Mavericks The Dallas Mavericks (often referred to as the Mavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Dallas. The Mavericks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference (NBA), Western Conferenc ...

basketball player

Dirk Nowitzki Dirk Werner Nowitzki (, ; born June 19, 1978) is a German former professional basketball player who is a special advisor for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Listed at , he is widely regarded as one of the gr ...

, who married their older sister Jessica.

Career statistics

Club

References

External links

*
HBK Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Olsson, Marcus 1988 births Living people People from Gävle Swedish footballers Sweden international footballers Sweden under-21 international footballers Association football midfielders Swedish twins Halmstads BK players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Derby County F.C. players Allsvenskan players Premier League players English Football League players Swedish expatriate footballers Swedish expatriate sportspeople in the United Kingdom Twin sportspeople Swedish people of Kenyan descent Swedish sportspeople of African descent Expatriate footballers in England Högaborgs BK players Sportspeople from Gävleborg County