Jon Dahl Tomasson

Jon Dahl Tomasson (born 29 August 1976) is a Danish football manager and former player.

He is currently managing the Sweden national football team.

In November 1992, at 16, he made his senior debut for the club.

During the next two years he helped the club to get promoted twice in a row: at the end of the 1993 season, when the club was promoted from the Denmark Series to the second Division; and at the end of the 1994 season, when the club was promoted to the first Division.

In December 1994, aged 18, he agreed on a transfer from Køge to the Dutch club Heerenveen, of the Eredivisie.

A first-team regular by the 1995–96 season, Tomasson was the club top scorer for the season as well, netting 14 goals in 30 league matches.

He increased this tally in the 1996–97 season to 18, and was top-scorer for the club once again.

On top of that, he also won the Best Dutch Football Talent of 1996, beating the likes of Boudewijn Zenden and Patrick Kluivert to the prize.

His success attracted the interest of other clubs, and he completed a high-profile move to FA Premier League club Newcastle United in July 1997.

Newcastle's manager at the time, Kenny Dalglish, saw Tomasson as the perfect link-up player to England national team striker Alan Shearer.

The partnership initially worked well, with Tomasson impressing during a pre-season friendly tournament in the Republic of Ireland.

However, a career threatening injury to Shearer, combined with the transfer of striker Les Ferdinand to Tottenham Hotspur, meant that Tomasson was moved from his traditional attacking midfield position to that of striker.

He struggled to adapt to his new position on the field, and to the English game, due to his lack of physical strength.

He scored only four goals in 35 appearances in all competitions during the 1997–98 season.

Tomasson returned to the Eredivisie in July 1998, where he joined Feyenoord, once again as an attacking midfielder.

The club won the Eredivisie championship for the 1998–99 season, and the Dutch Super Cup.

Although Feyenoord did not manage to remain as champions in the following years, they still performed well enough to capture third place in 1999–00, second place in 2000–01, and third place again in 2001–02.

He played at the UEFA European Championship in 2000 and 2004 and the FIFA World Cup in 2002 and 2010.

After his playing career, Tomasson went into coaching, being both assistant and manager in the Netherlands, before becoming assistant manager in the Denmark national team under Åge Hareide.

A forward, his most notable run of football came in his first stint at Feyenoord, with whom he won the 2002 UEFA Cup, and Italian club AC Milan, with whom he won the UEFA Champions League in 2003 and reached the final in 2005.

He also played top-flight football in England, Germany and Spain.

He is the joint all-time top goalscorer for the Denmark national team with 52 goals in 112 games and was also honoured with the Danish Player of the Year award in both 2002 and 2004.

In his latter two seasons, Tomasson scored 15 and 17 Eredivisie goals respectively, forming a partnership with Pierre van Hooijdonk, who was 2002's league top scorer with 24 goals.

In 2002, Tomasson was an integral player in the Feyenoord team, that won its first international trophy in 26 years, when the club triumphed in the 2001–02 UEFA Cup tournament.

He scored four goals in the tournament and also had an impressive collaboration on the field with striker Pierre van Hooijdonk.

During the tournament, they defeated SC Freiburg, Rangers, PSV Eindhoven and Internazionale, before meeting German team Borussia Dortmund in the final.

Tomasson scored the goal to 3–1, in a game that ended 3–2 to Feyenoord, and he was subsequently voted man of the match.

On 2 May 2002, as Tomasson's contract with Feyenoord was expiring before their UEFA Cup victory, he agreed a move to Italy on a four-year free transfer, to play for Serie A club A.C. Milan.

He joined compatriots Martin Laursen and Thomas Helveg at the San Siro club.

The 2002–03 season, Tomasson's first at Milan, saw them winning the Italian Cup.

Tomasson was most often used as a late substitute, but did manage to score three goals in the UEFA Champions League; and thereby also held his share of the trophy, when Milan won the prestigious tournament in May 2003.

Tomasson missed the final because of an injury that he picked up in the first leg of the 2003 Coppa Italia Final.

During the 2003–04 season, Tomasson was given more playing time and managed to score 12 Serie A goals in a title-winning campaign.

In August 2004, he was also a part of the Milan team that won the Italian Super Cup, with a 3–0 victory against the Coppa Italia champions Lazio.

For the next 2004–05 season, he struggled to secure a regular starting place in the line-up of Milan.

In 2020, Tomasson became the manager of Malmö FF and left two years later after winning the Swedish championship for two consecutive seasons.

In June 2022, he was appointed the head coach of Blackburn Rovers.

He left Blackburn by mutual consent in February 2024.

Born in Copenhagen, son of Bjarne Tomasson and Leila Dahl Petersen, Tomasson first started playing football as a five-year-old in the youth team of Solrød.

At nine years of age, he moved to the biggest club in the area, Køge.