Andreas Granqvist is an active footballer, center-back for Helsingborg and the Swedish national team. He is very familiar to Russian fans, as from 2013 to 2018 he played in the Russian Premier League team Krasnodar.
Club career
Andreas Grankvist was born in 1985 in the small Swedish village of Poarp. He was addicted to football by his grandfather.
As a child, Andreas played for the club of his native village, and in 1999 he became a football player for the youth team "Helsingborg" from the town of the same name. He started his “adult” professional career in the same “Helsingborg” in 2004. Until January 2006, Granqvist played 77 matches for this club. By the way, during all this time he managed to score only one goal. However, it should be noted that as a player for Helsingborg, Granqvist won the Swedish Cup.
In early 2006, the young Swedish defender was loaned to the English team Wigan Athletic, playing in the so-called Championship (this is the second most important football division in England). As part of this team, he stayed until March 2008.
Then he spent a couple of months at Helsingborg, but in July 2008 he signed a rather lucrative four-year contract with the Dutch Groningen. At this club, Granquist almost immediately became one of the leading players. In the 2008/2009 season, he played all but two matches in the center of defense (they were missed due to disqualification).
In general, Andreas Granqvist played much better at Groningen than at Helsingborg. The first time he distinguished himself was in the debut match in which Groningen met with the football club Utrecht. And in the 2010/2011 season, he scored as many as 11 goals (this is a very good result for a central defender). Moreover, two of them were really amazing - a footballer under two meters tall, like Maradona in his best years, beat the entire defense of rivals and sent the ball into the net with a powerful blow, like from a cannon.
In the summer of 2011, Granquist moved to the Italian club Genoa, the amount of the transfer was equal to 2 million euros.
The deal between Genoa and Granquist was for four years, but he left Serie A much earlier. On August 16, 2013, the media reported that Granqvist was moving to the club of the Russian Premier League Krasnodar.
As a result, Granqvist spent almost five years in Russia. And during this time, according to sports journalists and experts, he has greatly improved as a player.
In the 2013/2014 season, Granqvist became the finalist of the Russian Cup. And in July 2015, Krasnodar fans recognized him as the best player in Krasnodar.
At the beginning of 2018, the management of Krasnodar offered Granqvist another contract for two years and a salary of 3.5 million euros per year. However, the Swede preferred to refuse this offer. On May 13 of the same 2018, Andreas Granqvist played his farewell match for Krasnodar, and the next day he flew out of Russia.
Andreas is now defending the colors of Helsingborg, where he once started his career. His contract with this club is for 3.5 years as a fielder plus three years as a sporting director.
Andreas Granquist's performance in the national team
Since 2004, Granqvist has defended the colors of the Swedish youth team. And his debut as a player of the "senior" national team took place on January 23, 2006 in a match against the national team of Jordan.
In the summer of 2008, he went to the Swedish national team for Euro 2008. In this tournament, Sweden was not even able to qualify from the group, that is, it played only three matches. And in all of them, Granqvist sat on the bench - coach Lars Lagerbek never let him out on the field.
But over time, he was still able to gain a foothold in the base, and in July 2016, Granqvist was appointed captain of the Swedish national team. In this post, he replaced the famous Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who decided to end his career in the national team at the end of Euro 2016.
In 2017, Granqvist won the Guldbollen award, which is presented annually by the Swedish Football Association to the best Swedish footballer.
In 2018, Granqvist, as a captain, went with his national team to the world football championship in Russia. And I must admit that he made a lot of efforts to get his team to the stage of the quarterfinals. In the match with Korea, it was he who scored the only goal against the opponents from the penalty spot. He flawlessly executed the penalty in the match Sweden - Mexico (the Swedes won it with a score of 3: 0)
In total, Granqvist has played more than 80 matches for the Swedish national team and scored 9 goals.
Personal life
Andreas Granqvist married a girl named Sofia in 2015 (her last name before marriage was Richter). He met her when he was still a teenager.
When Andreas moved to Russia, Sofia followed her husband and for several years attended almost all of Krasnodar's home games. At the same time, it must be added that it was she who influenced the decision of the footballer to return to Sweden in 2018. In an interview, Granqvist said that Sofia, being in our large country, missed her homeland very much.
Two wonderful daughters are growing up in the family of Andreas and Sofia. The eldest is called Nova, and the youngest is Mika. Mika was born on July 6, 2018 in Helsingborg. Andreas was not present at the birth, as he was at the World Cup in Russia and was preparing with his team for an important match against England. Unfortunately, this match, which took place on July 7 at the Samara Arena stadium, ended in a 0: 2 defeat to the Swedes.
