Markus Rosenberg

Markus Rosenberg ['markɵs 'ruːsəmbærj] (born September 27, 1982 in Malmö) is a Sweden football (soccer). As of 6 June 2007, Rosenberg, who is nicknamed Mackan, has played fifteen games and scored five times for the Sweden national football team. He managed to score a late equalizer in his debut versus South Korea national football team on November 12, 2005.

Biography

Markus Rosenberg started his playing career at Malmö FF, but struggled to become a first-team regular and as a result joined Halmstads BK on loan in 2004. Playing at Halmstad he became the top goalscorer of the 2004 season. Back in Malmö, he also topped the Royal League 2004-05 scoring list.

He joined Ajax Amsterdam at the start of the 2005/06 season for a fee of € 5,300,000. Manager Danny Blind showed his faith in Rosenberg by playing with him in the first eleven right away. Rosenberg started well, scoring at his debut against Brøndby IF in the UEFA Champions League qualifiers, and scoring at his Eredivisie debut versus RBC Roosendaal. During the season his performances dropped, until Blind decided to play in a 4-4-2 system with Rosenberg and Angelos Charisteas as their strikers instead of the 4-3-3 system with Rosenberg as the only central striker that was played before.

Under the new system Ajax were still underachieving in that period and during the winter break Klaas Jan Huntelaar joined them for a € 9,000,000 fee. Rosenberg did no longer play as a central forward, but as a left winger in the 4-3-3 system they switched back to. The second half of the season playing in this line-up Ajax performed better and were able to reach the newly born Eredivisie play-offs a being ranked 5th in the regular competition. In these play-offs they beat Feyenoord Rotterdam and FC Groningen to claim a spot in the UEFA Champions League preliminaries for the following season. Ajax also won the KNVB Cup in that season.

Rosenberg was called up in the Sweden national football team for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, but did not play any matches. When the 2006/07 season started he was no longer a regular first team player, but mostly used as a back-up for Huntelaar. He scored three goals in two UEFA Cup appearances versus IK Start, but could not take Huntelaar's place as main striker under the new coach Henk ten Cate.

On January 26 2007 He moved to German Bundesliga side Werder Bremen playing his first game two days later against Hannover 96. He scored his first goal for Werder Bremen against FC Bayern Munich, in a 1:1 draw.

Because of his aerial ability and his strength Markus Rosenberg is considered a dangerous header of the ball, but he is also dangerous when having the ball at his feet.
- Rosenberg was attacked by Christian Poulsen, which resulted in chaos.

Honours

- 2006: KNVB Cup