Johan Simon Thern (born 18 September 1992) 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 ...

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 ...

for the

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 le ...

club

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

Club career

Early career

Thern started his professional career in

IFK Värnamo IFK Värnamo is a Swedish football club located in Värnamo. The club plays in the Allsvenskan, the top tier of Swedish football. The most famous player from the club is Jonas Thern, who was captain of the Swedish national football team when they ...

. He was soon signed by

club

Helsingborgs IF Helsingborgs IF (full name Helsingborgs Idrottsförening), commonly referred to as HIF (), is a Swedish professional football club located in Helsingborg. They play in the Swedish first tier, Allsvenskan, following promotion in the 2021 Superett ...

but was immediately loaned to Värnamo for the entire 2010 season. Thern made his Allsvenskan debut for Helsingborg in the home fixture against

Syrianska FC Syrianska Football Club, also known as Syrianska FC or simply Syrianska, is a Swedish professional football club based in Södertälje in Stockholm County. The club was founded by Syriac-Aramean immigrants in 1977 as Suryoyo Sportklubb, or Sury ...

on 22 April 2011. He made his debut in the starting eleven against

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 nam ...

away on 4 July 2011. In total Thern played 23 matches and scored two goals in his debut season in Helsingborg who won a treble for the 2011 season. On 7 December 2011 Helsingborg announced that Thern had rejected a contract offer from the club and would leave when his contract runs out on 28 March 2012, several media has reported that Thern has signed a contract with Helsingborgs arch rivals

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 Associatio ...

Malmö FF

On 23 December 2011, Malmö FF confirmed that Thern had signed a three-year deal with the club. This was following an agreement with Helsingborg to terminate Thern's contract early, so he could join his new club for pre-season. He made his first competitive appearance for the club as a starter in the season opening game against Gefle on 2 April. Thern received more playing time than expected as he was used both in the central midfield but also on the left wing when needed. This was mainly due to the transfer of

Jimmy Durmaz Jakup Jimmy Durmaz (born 22 March 1989), formerly known as Jimmy Touma, is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a winger for Turkish club Fatih Karagümrük. He began his career at BK Forward and moved in 2008 to Malmö FF, where he wo ...

who played as left winger in the first half of the 2012 season and the fact that the competition for the starting spots in the central midfield much higher. Thern played 28 matches and scored 3 goals for Malmö FF in the league for the 2012 season. For the league title winning 2013 season Thern played 29 matches and scored 4 goals. He also played five matches for the club in its participation for the qualifying stages of the

2013–14 UEFA Europa League The 2013–14 UEFA Europa League was the 43rd season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the fifth season under its current title. The 2014 UEFA Europa League Final was played between Sevilla and Benfica at th ...

. Thern became the first player to win the league with both rival

and Malmö FF. During the season he scored against his former club for the first time in a 1–1 tie at

Swedbank Stadion Swedbank AB () is a Nordic-Baltic banking group based in Stockholm, Sweden, offering retail banking, asset management, financial, and other services. In 2019 Swedbank had 900,000 private and 130,000 corporate clients and a 60% market share of ...

on 29 May 2013. During Malmö FF's

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

league winning season Thern made 14 league appearances, missing parts of the season due to a broken bone. Thern recovered during the latter part of the season to be available to play in three fixtures in 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 football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 23rd season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. The final was p ...

Heerenveen

On 12 December 2014 it was announced that Thern would transfer to Dutch club

Heerenveen Heerenveen (, fry, It Hearrenfean ) is a town and municipality in the province of Friesland (Fryslân), in the Northern Netherlands. In 2021, the town had a population of 29,790 (1 January) while the municipality had a population 50,859 (1 July). ...

. The transfer went through when the Dutch transfer window opened on 5 January 2015. He made his debut on 18 January 2015 in the home game against

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Nethe ...

(2-1 win).

IFK Norrköping

Thern signed for

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

on 15 January 2018.

IFK Göteborg

On 22 February 2021, it was announced that Thern had signed for

International career

Youth

Thern made his debut for Sweden U21 on 10 August 2011 in a 3–0 win against Netherlands U21.

Senior

Thern was selected for the annual training camp for the Sweden national team in January 2012 after Malmö teammates

Mathias Ranégie Mathias Ranégie (; born 14 June 1984) is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a striker. Club career Early career He started his career in Masthuggets BK, but left Sweden to be with his Guadeloupean father in Paris, France, ...

and

Ivo Pękalski Ivo Dominik Pękalski ( born 3 November 1990) is a Swedish footballer who plays as a midfielder for Utsiktens BK. Beginning his career with Landskrona BoIS in 2007, he went on to represent Malmö FF, BK Häcken, Halmstads BK, and Oxford United be ...

had to withdraw from the squad. The squad selection for the camp traditionally feature the best Swedish players in domestic and other Scandinavian leagues. Thern was selected for the training camp once again in 2013 where he played in the first match of the

2013 King's Cup The 2013 King's Cup was an international football competition, the 42nd edition of the tournament. It was a two-round knockout tournament, with all matches held at the 700th Anniversary Stadium in Chiang Mai, Thailand between 23 January and 26 J ...

against

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and ...

Personal life

Simon Thern is the son of

Jonas Thern Jonas Magnus Thern (born 20 March 1967) is a Swedish football manager who manages Allsvenskan club IFK Värnamo. He is also a former professional player who played as a midfielder. Starting off his career with Malmö FF in 1985, he went on to ...

who had a very successful career as a professional football player in clubs such as

, Benfica,

Napoli Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council * Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

and

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

. Jonas Thern also played 75 matches and scored six goals for Sweden. Both Jonas and Simon started their careers in

before moving on to

Controversy

In the Scanian derby between Malmö FF and Helsingborgs IF on 24 September 2012 at

Olympia The name Olympia may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Olympia'' (1938 film), by Leni Riefenstahl, documenting the Berlin-hosted Olympic Games * ''Olympia'' (1998 film), about a Mexican soap opera star who pursues a career as an athlet ...

Helsingborg Helsingborg (, , , ) is a 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 Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edit ...

, a group of Helsingborg supporters unfurled a banner reading "''Simon Thern skall dö''" (''Simon Thern shall die'') along with an effigy of Thern hung from a noose. Officials allowed the game to continue. Thern had previously played for Helsingborg before moving to their rivals Malmö FF in early 2012.

Career statistics

Club

:''As of 29 January 2018.''

International

:''As of 11 January 2019.'' Appearances and goals by national team and year International goals :''Scores and results list Sweden's goal tally first.''

Honours

;Helsingborgs IF *

: 2011 *

Svenska Cupen Svenska Cupen (, ''The Swedish Cup'') 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 held. Each year 96 teams co ...

: 2011 *

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 ...

: 2011 ;Malmö FF *

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Thern, Simon 1992 births Living people Swedish footballers Sweden youth international footballers Sweden under-21 international footballers Sweden international footballers Swedish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands IFK Värnamo players Helsingborgs IF players Malmö FF players AIK Fotboll players IFK Norrköping players IFK Göteborg players SC Heerenveen players Allsvenskan players Ettan Fotboll players Eredivisie players People from Värnamo Municipality Association football midfielders Sportspeople from Jönköping County