Per Jörgen Nilsson (born 15 September 1982) 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

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 ...

. Starting off his career with

IFK Timrå IFK Timrå is a Swedish football club located in Timrå in Västernorrland County. Background Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Timrå was formed on 9 January 1978 as a spin-off from Timra IK with the emphasis from an early stage on youth developmen ...

in 1998, he went on to represent

GIF Sundsvall Gymnastik- och Idrottsföreningen Sundsvall, more commonly known as GIF Sundsvall (), Giffarna or simply Sundsvall, is a Swedish professional association football, football club based in Sundsvall. The club is affiliated with Medelpads Fotbollf� ...

, AIK, Odd Greenland,

1899 Hoffenheim Turn- und Sportgemeinschaft 1899 Hoffenheim e.V. (), commonly known as TSG Hoffenheim (), are a German professional football club based in Sinsheim. Originally founded in 1899 as a gymnastics club, Hoffenheim came into being in their modern for ...

, and 1. FC Nürnberg before retiring at

F.C. Copenhagen Football Club Copenhagen (, ), commonly known as F.C. København, F.C. Copenhagen, Copenhagen, or simply FCK, is a Danish professional football club based in Copenhagen. FCK was founded in 1992 as a superstructure on top of Kjøbenhavns Boldklub ...

in 2016. A full international between 2001 and 2016, he won 16

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.

Club career

Sweden

Nilsson was born in

Härnösand Härnösand () is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Härnösand Municipality in Västernorrland County, Sweden with 25,012 inhabitants in 2023. It is called "the gate to the High Coast" because of the world heritage landscape just ...

and started his career in Stigsjö IK youth team in 1988, staying with the club until 1991 when he made a move to

, mainly being part of the club's youth team he then made his debut for the club in 1998, this attracted attention from

, who signed the player prior to the 1999 season. During his time in GIF Sundsvall he helped the club up to Allsvenskan in 1999. Nilsson's playing in Sundsvall had again attracted attention, this time from Allsvenska AIK, who made a deal with GIF Sundsvall that Per Nilsson would move to the club prior to the 2002 season in 2001, however due to a series of different circumstances, as several key players left AIK, made AIK change the deal so that he could join the club already in the autumn of 2001. Following his debut against IFK Norrköping he quickly established himself as a regular central defender, however a series of manager changes and other events made Per feel that he could not perform at top level.

Norway and Germany

Following AIK's poor performance during the 2004 season saw the club relegated from Allsvenskan and Per Nilsson leave the club for Norwegian club

Odd Grenland Odds Ballklubb, commonly known as Odd, is a Norwegian professional football club from Skien. Originally the football section of a multi-sports club, founded in 1894 nine years after the club's founding. Most sports other than football and gymnast ...

for approximately 3 million

Norwegian kroner The krone (, currency sign, abbreviation: kr (also NKr for distinction); ISO 4217, code: NOK), plural ''kroner'', is the currency of the Kingdom of Norway (including List of possessions of Norway, overseas territories and dependencies). It was t ...

. Odd Grenland rejected a £1 million offer from English side

Sunderland AFC Sunderland Association Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Formed in 187 ...

in August 2006. It was widely expected that he would leave for a bigger club, however no bids came until 13 July 2007 when it was announced that Nilsson signed a contract with 2. Bundesliga team

. On 14 July 2010, Hoffenheim confirmed that they had sold Nilsson to Bundesliga rivals 1. FC Nürnberg. On 23 March 2014, the Danish club

FC Copenhagen Football Club Copenhagen (, ), commonly known as F.C. København, F.C. Copenhagen, Copenhagen, or simply FCK, is a Danish professional football club based in Copenhagen. FCK was founded in 1992 as a superstructure on top of Kjøbenhavns Boldklu ...

announced that they had signed Nilsson on a three-year contract. On 15 December 2016, Nilsson officially announced his retirement as a player. In January 2017, RB Leipzig announced that Nilsson would be the assistant to sporting director Ralf Rangnick for the 2017/18 season. As such, he initially took on tasks in team management for the first team. Since July 2018 he has been the sporting director of the U16 to U19.

International career

Nilsson won a total of 16

for

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 ...

between 2001 and 2014.

Honours

Copenhagen *

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 ...

: 2015–16 *

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 ...

: 2014–15, 2015–16 Individual *

Kniksen award The Kniksen Award (), established in 1990, honors the best players in the Norwegian football premiership. The award is named after the legendary Norwegian football player Roald Jensen, nicknamed "Kniksen". Categories Category A A jury comp ...

: Defender of the Year in 2006 * ''

Verdens Gang (), generally known under the abbreviation ''VG'', is a Norway, Norwegian Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper. In 2016, circulation numbers stood at 93,883, declining from a peak circulation of 390,510 in 2002. Nevertheless, ''VG'' is ...

Norwegian Premier League Eliteserien () is a professional association football league in Norway and the highest level of the Norwegian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Norwegian First Division ...

Player of the Year: 2006

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nilsson, Per Living people 1982 births Sportspeople from Härnösand Swedish men's footballers Men's association football defenders Sweden men's international footballers Sweden men's youth international footballers Sweden men's under-21 international footballers GIF Sundsvall players AIK Fotboll players Odds BK players TSG 1899 Hoffenheim players 1. FC Nürnberg players F.C. Copenhagen players Allsvenskan players Eliteserien players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Danish Superliga players Kniksen Award winners Swedish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Norway Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Norway Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark Footballers from Västernorrland County 21st-century Swedish sportsmen