Mats Magnusson


Mats Tuve Magnusson is a retired Swedish professional footballer who played as a striker.

Club career

Magnusson was born in Helsingborg. During his career he played for Malmö FF, Servette FC, S.L. Benfica and Helsingborgs IF. Upon his return home he helped the latter side, featuring a young Henrik Larsson, reach the Allsvenskan.
At the Lisbon club, where he arrived in 1987 as a replacement for another Nordic, Michael Manniche, Magnusson developed as a top flight goalscorer, winning two Primeira Liga championships and appearing at the European Cup finals in 1988 and 1990. In 1989–90, even though they lost to FC Porto in the league, he finished as top scorer of the competition with 33 goals in 32 games; during his time with Benfica he shared team with countrymen Jonas Thern, Stefan Schwarz – also his teammates at Malmö – and coach Sven-Göran Eriksson.

International career

Magnusson earned 30 caps for the Sweden national team, and played in the 1990 FIFA World Cup finals in Italy where he suffered an injury that made him miss nearly one year of football. His debut came on 22 August 1984, as he started in a 1–1 friendly draw to Mexico played in Malmö.

International goals

#DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1.11 September 1985Idrætsparken, Copenhagen, Denmark3–03–0Friendly
2.25 September 1985Råsunda, Solna, Sweden2–22–21986 World Cup qualification
3.16 November 1986Ta' Qali, Attard, Malta2–05–0Euro 1988 qualifying
4.18 April 1987Dinamo Stadium, Tbilisi, Soviet Union2–03–1Friendly
5.18 April 1987Dinamo Stadium, Tbilisi, Soviet Union3–13–1Friendly
6.26 August 1987Råsunda, Solna, Sweden1–01–0Friendly
7.1 June 1988El Helmántico, Salamanca, Spain3–13–1Friendly
8.8 October 1989Råsunda, Solna, Sweden1–13–1Friendly
9.27 May 1990Råsunda, Solna, Sweden1–06–0Friendly

Post-retirement

Sixteen years after his retirement, Magnusson made a short comeback to the footballing scene. He accepted an invitation from old club Benfica to take part in a charity match to raise money for victims of the Haiti earthquake, on 25 January 2010, which also coincided with the 68th birthday of club legend Eusébio: his team, Benfica All Stars, consisted of both retired and current Benfica players, which played "against" Zidane XI, a team consisting of players hand-picked by former French legend Zinedine Zidane.
Even though Magnusson had obviously gained a considerable amount of weight since his active days of footballing, and made the crowd laugh on several occasions, he entered the pitch in the closing minutes, and was cheered by an adoring crowd with chants of "Mats Magnusson".

Honours

Club

Benfica
Malmö