Mikael Antonsson (born 31 May 1981) 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 defender. He currently works for the

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 F.C. Copenhagen as assistant manager. As a player, he played professionally in Sweden, Austria, Greece, Italy, and Denmark during a career that spanned between 1996 and 2018. A full international between 2004 and 2015, he won 28

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 was a part of their

UEFA Euro 2012 The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th UEFA European Championship, European Championship for List of men's national association football teams#UEFA (Europe), men's ...

squad.

Club career

Antonsson was born in

Karlskrona Karlskrona (, , ) is a locality and the seat of Karlskrona Municipality, Blekinge County, Sweden with a population of 66,675 in 2018. It is also the capital of Blekinge County. Karlskrona is known as Sweden's only baroque city and is host to ...

. He began his career in a local Swedish team called Sillhövda AIK (1996) and after two years he was transferred to Swedish champions

IFK Göteborg Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Göteborg (officially IFK Göteborg Fotboll), commonly known as IFK Göteborg, IFK (especially locally) or Blåvitt, is a Swedish professional Football team, football club based in Gothenburg. Founded in 1904, it ...

. He played there until 2004, when

Austria Wien Fußballklub Austria Wien AG (), known in English as Austria Vienna, and Austria Wien in German-speaking countries, is an Austrian professional association football club from the capital city of Vienna. It has won the most trophies of any Aust ...

bought him for €450,000. In January 2006

Panathinaikos FC Panathinaikos Football Club ( ), known as Panathinaikos, or by its full name, and the name of its parent sports club, Panathinaikos A.O. or PAO (; ''Panathinaïkós Athlitikós Ómilos'', ), is a Greek professional Association football, footbal ...

brought him in Athens to play for them on a 2-year contract. In the summer 2007 he moved to the Danish champions F.C. Copenhagen. Mikael Antonsson started the season 2010–11 impressively with new teammate,

Sölvi Ottesen Sölvi Geir Ottesen Jónsson (born 18 February 1984) is an Icelandic former footballer and current manager, who played as a centre back; he earned 28 caps for the Iceland national football team. He is currently the manager of Icelandic team V ...

, which reminded fans of former steady partnership between

Michael Gravgaard Michael Julius Gravgaard (born 3 April 1978) is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a centre back. He began his career at Randers Freja. During his stay at Viborg, he occasionally played as a forward. With Copenhagen, he won ...

and

Brede Hangeland Brede Paulsen Hangeland (born 20 June 1981) is a Norwegian former professional footballer who played as a central defender. He began his career with Viking, where he won the Norwegian Cup in 2001. In 2006, he moved to Copenhagen, and went on to ...

. In the 2–0 win against former club and Greek champions

, Antonsson chosen for the Goal.com Champions League "Team of the Round". In 2011, Antonsson moved to

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 ...

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 a free transfer before wrapping up his career in Copenhagen between 2014 and his retirement in 2018. In 2024 Antonsson announced that he will make a comeback by playing for the Swedish tier 4 football club AIK Atlas.

International career

Antonsson won 28

between 2004 and 2015 and represented

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

Career statistics

International

Honours

Austria Wien *

Austrian Bundesliga The Bundesliga ( , "Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Austria and the highest level of the Austrian football league system. The competition decides the A ...

: 2005–06 *

Austrian Cup The Austrian Cup (), known as UNIQA ÖFB Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual football competition held by the Austrian Football Association, the ÖFB. During the 2008–09 season, Austria Wien won the tournament for a record 27th time. Wo ...

: 2004–05, 2005–06 Copenhagen *

: 2008–09, 2009–10,

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, 2015–16, 2016–17 *

Danish Cup The Danish Cup (; often referred to as Pokalen) is the official "single-elimination tournament, knockout" cup competition in Danish football, run by the Danish Football Association. The cup has been contested annually since 1955. The winner will ...

: 2008–09, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17 Individual * Årets Ärkeängel: 2003

References

External links

F.C. Copenhagen profile
*
National team profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Antonsson, Mikael 1981 births Living people Swedish men's footballers Sweden men's international footballers Sweden men's youth international footballers Sweden men's under-21 international footballers IFK Göteborg players Panathinaikos F.C. players F.C. Copenhagen players FK Austria Wien players Bologna FC 1909 players Allsvenskan players Danish Superliga players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Super League Greece players Serie A players Swedish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Austria Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Austria Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Greece Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Men's association football central defenders UEFA Euro 2012 players Footballers from Karlskrona 21st-century Swedish sportsmen