Jon Dahl Tomasson

Early career

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 BK near Køge. At nine years of age, he moved to the biggest club in the area; Køge BK. In November 1992, aged 16, he made his senior debut for the club. During the next two years he helped the club to get promoted two times in a row. First time by the end of the 1993 season, where the club qualified from the lower league Denmark Series to the 2nd Division; and by the end of the 1994 season the club once again qualified to play the next season in the 1st Division (the second tier of Danish football).

Heerenveen

In December 1994, aged 18, he agreed on a transfer from Køge BK to the Dutch club SC Heerenveen, in the top-flight Eredivisie championship. 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 & Patrick Kluivert to the prize.

Newcastle United

His success attracted the interest of other clubs, and he completed a high-profile move to the English FA Premier League club Newcastle United in July 1997, managed at the time by Kenny Dalglish. 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 serious career threatening injury to Shearer, combined with the controversial transfer of popular 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 also struggled to adapt to the English game, due to his lack of physical strength, and therefore he only managed to score four goals in 35 appearances in all competitions. The bad performance of Tomasson came at a time, where the entire team also played a season below their previous standard. In the previous two seasons, Newcastle United had achieved a runner up position in the Premier League, but for the 1997–98 season they only managed to get a 13th place.

Feyenoord

He returned to the Eredivisie in July 1998, where he joined Feyenoord and once again took the position of attacking midfielder. His first season there, the 1998–99 season, turned out successfully for the club, as they won the Eredivisie championship, as well as the Dutch Super Cup. Even though the club did not manage to repeat the win of the Dutch championship in the following years, they still performed well in the Eredivisie with a third place in 1999–00, a second place in 2000–01, and a third place in 2001–02. In this era of his career, Tomasson each season managed to score a high number of goals, and had the honour of being top scorer of Feyenoord in 2000–01 with a tally of 15 Eredivisie goals. This was followed by 17 Eredivisie goals in 2001–02, in a season where he formed a powerful duo with his teammate Pierre van Hooijdonk, who managed to become top scorer of the Eredivisie 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 a total of four goals in the tournament, and most importantly also had a great collaboration on the field with towering striker Pierre van Hooijdonk. During the tournament, they defeated SC Freiburg, Rangers F.C., PSV Eindhoven and Internazionale Milano 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. In summer 2002, Tomasson's contract with Feyenoord was expiring, and after their UEFA Cup victory, he agreed a move to Italy on a free transfer, to play for Serie A club A.C. Milan.

Milan

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. 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, winning the Italian Super Cup 3–0, against the Coppa Italia champions from Lazio.

For the next 2004–05 season, he struggled to secure a regular starting place in the line-up of Milan. He was once again in the role of substitute, and therefore also scored fewer goals compared to the previous season. At the 2005 UEFA Champions League Final against Liverpool, he was again used by Milan as a late substitute, and when the final had to be decided in penalty shootout, he was selected to kick. Tomasson scored on his attempt, but Milan lost as Serginho, Andrea Pirlo and Andriy Shevchenko missed their shots. When striker Christian Vieri joined the club in July 2005, Tomasson was deemed as potential surplus, and he therefore agreed with Milan to be placed at their transfer list.

Years later, prior to the 2010–11 UEFA Champions League round of 16 match between Chelsea FC and FC Copenhagen former Milan manager Carlo Ancelotti, now manager of Chelsea, was asked about his view on Danish footballers: "Above all the Danish work ethic surprised me, their special ability to give everything in training. These were very professional and skilled players. The one who performed best and showed the most continuity, was Jon Dahl Tomasson, who always had to fight for playing time against world class strikers. He never had an easy time, but he never gave up and tried to take every chance he got".

Stuttgart

In July 2005, the German Bundesliga club Stuttgart paid a transfer fee to Milan at 7.5 million euro, in order to sign a new four-year contract with Tomasson. At Stuttgart, Tomasson joined fellow Danish national team player Jesper Grønkjær, but the upcoming 2005–06 season was not successful for either of them. Even though Tomasson managed to become the top scorer of Stuttgart with a tally of eight Bundesliga goals, the team struggled throughout the season to create enough chances and goals, and as a consequence Stuttgart only finished in ninth position of the Bundesliga. After the season, Grønkjær left the club, while Tomasson was linked with a switch to English club Birmingham City. By the end of the transfer window in August 2006, he however decided to stay at Stuttgart, as he believed in a better 2006–07 season for the club. Indeed, the upcoming year would reveal Stuttgart as new champions of the Bundesliga. But unfortunately for Tomasson, an injuries kept him out for several games in the first half of the season.

Villarreal

On 24 January 2007, Tomasson was loaned to Villarreal in the Spanish Primera División championship, to cover the place of the injured striker Nihat Kahveci, for the remaining part of the 2006–07 season. When he made his Villarreal debut, in a game against Real Madrid, Tomasson became only the fifth player to have played in the Premier League, Serie A, Bundesliga and Primera División. This rare achievement had previously only been made by the four players: Florin Răducioiu, Gheorghe Popescu, Abel Xavier and Pierre Womé.

His loan contract expired on 1 July 2007, but also featured a buy option for Villarreal. The club had been satisfied with the performance of Tomasson in the past six months, so they decided within just a few days to pay Stuttgart the second half of a total transfer fee at 1.0 million euro in order to sign a new two-year contract with Tomasson. In the first match of the 2007–08 La Liga season, Tomasson scored in Villareal's 3–0 victory against Valencia. However Tomasson mostly played the club's UEFA cup games in 2007–08, where he managed to prove his value as an efficient striker, by scoring a total of five goals in eight games. The season ended as the best ever for Villarreal, as the club managed to achieve a runner up position in La Liga. But on a personal level, Tomasson of course had a disappointing season, due to the lack of playing time and few goals scored.

Return to Feyenoord

As a result of his disappointing season at Villarreal, he agreed with the club in June 2008, to search the market for a possible transfer. The Spanish sportspaper Marca immediately linked him together with Dutch side Feyenoord. This was at first denied by Tomasson as pure speculation. The speculations, however soon turned out to be true. In July 2008, he left Villarreal on a free transfer, and returned to Feyenoord on a new three-year contract. Here he got off to a great start with four goals in three games. But unfortunately this was followed by a long time injury from the end of September until the end of January. And because of that, he could only play a total of 14 games for Feyenoord in 2008–09.

In the next 2009–10 season, he again had to battle with a couple of injuries. But during the season he was still able to play another 28 games for Feyenoord, where he scored a total of 12 goals, and thereby qualified to become the top scorer of Feyenoord. With his good performance on the field, he helped Feyenoord to achieve a fourth place in the Eredivisie, and qualify the club to play the final in the Dutch cup. The final was played as a double match, and clearly lost with a total score of 6–1 to Ajax, but Tomasson left a mark of his name in the history books, by scoring the one and only goal for Feyenoord. During the World Championships 2010, he was unfortunately hit by another serious injury, that spoiled his first half of the 2010–11 season for Feyenoord. According to the medical staff at Feyenoord, the injury was a lot worse than original thought. When they tried to get him ready for a game at 15 August, the injury had not entirely healed; and after a too hard training session, it therefore reappeared at its previous strength. Based upon further examination of the injury, the coach now feared that Tomasson only would be ready to play his first game of the season in January 2011.

International career

Tomasson was considered a great talent in Danish football, as he played for various Danish youth national teams. He scored 10 goals in 16 games for the national under-19 team, and was awarded 1994 Danish U-19 Player of the Year. In all, he scored 27 goals in 37 matches for various national youth selections.

After two good seasons with Heerenveen, Tomasson got a call-up to the Denmark national team, and he made his debut on 29 March 1997, against Croatia. During his time at Newcastle, reduced playing time saw Tomasson dropped by the Danish national team, and he was not selected to play at the 1998 FIFA World Cup. When he moved to Feyenoord, Tomasson was once more called up for the Danish national team in August 1998, and with six goals in seven matches of the Euro 2000 qualification, he quickly became an important part of the Danish team, playing as an attacking midfielder behind striker Ebbe Sand. He played in all Denmark's three matches at the main Euro 2000 tournament, but did not score as Denmark were eliminated in the group stage. Before moving to Milan, he played for Denmark in the 2002 FIFA World Cup, where he scored four goals in as many games. Tomasson played for Denmark in the Euro 2004, where he scored three goals in four games and was selected for the Euro 2004 Team of the Tournament. On 28 May 2010, Denmark coach Morten Olsen announced that the player would be part of the final squad of 23 participating in the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. On 24 June, he scored against Japan in a 3–1 defeat as Denmark went out of the competition. He was rated by FIFA as the best Danish player of the tournament. The fans and the media did not agree with world football's governing body, however.

Tomasson scored a total of 52 goals in 112 games for Denmark throughout his career, which spanned from March 1997 to June 2010, making him Denmark's joint all-time top scorer. He played at Euro 2000, the 2002 World Cup, Euro 2004 and the 2010 World Cup. On 9 August 2010, having scored his 52nd international goal in Denmark's final match at the 2010 World Cup, Tomasson decided to retire from the national team. "We say farewell to a terrific player and a fantastic person," national coach Olsen said, adding that Tomasson was "the ultimate team player".

International goals

With 52 goals scored during his 112 A-level games for the Denmark national team, Tomasson now shares the all-time scoring record with Poul Nielsen.

Club

Complete statistic of all games played in the senior career.

Other important games (not included in the box above):
1999 – Dutch Super Cup (with Feyenoord): 1 game, 1 goal
2003 – Intercontinental Cup (with AC Milan): 1 game, 1 goal.
2004 – Italian Super Cup (with AC Milan): 1 game, 0 goal.
2009 – Playoffs in Eredivisie for Europa League (with Feyenoord): 2 games, 1 goal.

International

Complete statistic of all games played for the Denmark National Football Team. From the first game at 29 March 1997 until the last game at 24 June 2010.

International appearances and goals

National team appearances and goals by year

Early coaching career

Tomasson retired on 6 June 2011, and announced that he would be assistant coach at the Dutch club Excelsior. Tomasson became the club's head coach at the beginning of the 2013–14 season, where he signed a contract for two seasons. Roda fired their head coach Ruud Brood on 15 December, and announced on 26 December 2013 that Tomasson had been signed as the new head coach. He signed for three and a half years, starting on 3 January 2014. In half of the season, which resulted in relegation for Roda JC Kerkrade, was sacked on 26 May 2014, being employed with the club only five months.

On 19 June 2015, Tomasson was appointed as the new assistant manager of Vitesse Arnhem.

On 7 March 2016, Tomasson was appointed as an assistant coach of Denmark.

Coaching record

Club

Individual

Personal life

Tomasson lives in the Netherlands. He has two sons, Luca (born in 2008) and Liam (born in 2012), with his Danish girlfriend Line Kongeskov.