Do You Remember Him #5- Jon Dahl Tomasson

Biodata

Full Name: Jon Dahl Tomasson

Nationality: Danish

Date of Birth: 29 August 1976

Position: Striker

Former Clubs:

1992- 1994 Koge

1994- 1997 Heerenveen

1997- 1998 Newcastle United

1998- 2002 Feyenoord

2002- 2005 AC Milan

2005- 2007 VfB Stuttgart

2007- 2008 Villarreal

2008- 2011 Feyenoord

International Career:

1997- 2010 Denmark

Achievement:

Feyenoord

1998- 1999 Eredivisie

1999 Johan Cruijff Shield

2000- 2001 UEFA Cup

AC Milan

2002- 2003 Coppa Italia

2002- 2003 UEFA Champions League

2003- 2004 Serie A

2004 Supercoppa Italiana

Career

A cult hero in Rotterdam, top goalscorer in Denmark national team, Danish footballing icon. These are the tags from football fans to a certain Danish goalscoring machine that blossoms almost everywhere he went. Even though Denmark is not a traditionally strong nation in the football world, he had set a high benchmark and standard for his upcoming generations in his region and currently served as one of the assistant managers in his national team. So, who is the goalscoring machine that we are looking at in this article?

Jon Dahl Tomasson started playing football as one of the youth team members of Solrod BK around Koge area. He was then moved to Koge BK when he was nine and made his senior debut in 1992 at the age of 16. Tomasson’s two years stint at the club was proved to be a success as Koge BK achieved two straight promotion from Denmark Series League to the 1st Division. He was then transferred to the Dutch club, Heerenveen in December 1994. He swiftly became a first-team regular and enjoy a breakthrough season in the 1995- 1996 season. Tomasson was the club top scorer and by scoring 14 goals in 30 league games. He surpassed his record in the next season by registering 18 goals in 32 league games which are once again the top scorer of the club. In the same time, he made his international debut against Croatia in March 1997. Tomasson also won the Best Dutch Football Talent of 1996 at that season too, beating the likes of Boudewijn Zenden and Patrick Kluivert.

His achievements in the Netherlands does not go under the radar. Tomasson was subsequently signed by Kenny Dalglish to his Newcastle United side to pair up with a Geordie’s legend, Alan Shearer in 1997-1998 season. However, he struggled to make an impact in the Tyneside based club. He only scored 4 goals in all competition and Newcastle United slumped into 13th place in that season. The disappointing season also cost Tomasson a place in the national team as he was not selected to play at the 1998 World Cup due to the reduced playing time in Newcastle United. In order to redeem his place in the national team, Tomasson has moved on again. This time he returned to the Netherlands to join Feyenoord. It is at Rotterdam that Tomasson enjoyed his cult hero status until now. He helped Feyenoord to win the Eredivisie title at the first season in Rotterdam and win the UEFA Cup in 2001- 2002 season as his last contribution to his first spell in Rotterdam. Tomasson was also the top scorer of the club in two of the three seasons in Feyenoord. His strike partnership with Pierre van Hooijdonk also always be remembered in Feyenoord fans’ heart.

In summer 2002, Tomasson’s contract with Feyenoord was expiring and moved to Italy to join AC Milan in the 2002-2003 season. The expectation on him is higher than ever as he scored four goals in the 2002 World Cup and helped Denmark to progress to the Round of 16. However, he was just a bit-part player in AC Milan as they had the like of Andriy Shevchenko, Filippo Inzaghi and Rivaldo in the pecking order. Tomasson struggled to get a regular gaming time and subsequently been transfer-listed by the club. In July 2005, Stuttgart signed Tomasson to link up with his fellow national team member, Jesper Gronkjaer. Even though he was the top scorer of his team at that season, Stuttgart only finished ninth in the Bundesliga. It was worse in the second year of his spell in Stuttgart. He was injured in the first half of the season and loaned out to Villareal to cover the injured Nihat in Villareal, Tomasson’s loan spell was not a success and his parent club had won the Bundesliga in that season without him.

Tomasson returned to Feyenoord after six years absence. This homecoming was very sweet in the beginning as he scored four goals in three games at the start of the season. However, injury strikes again and he could only play a total of 14 games for Feyenoord in the entire season. Even though his goalscoring instinct is still not gone, injuries have hampered his career badly. He only managed to play 44 goals in his three seasons stay in Rotterdam and scored 22 goals. After he struggled to come back to the pitch after several injuries. Tomasson announced his retirement in the year 2011 at the age of 35.

Post Retirement

Tomasson announced that he would be the assistant coach at the Dutch club Excelsior. He soon became the club’s head coach at the beginning of the 2013- 2014 season. Half of the season later, another Dutch club, Roda announced the appointment of Tomasson as their new head coach. However, he was sacked after Roda was relegated from Eredivisie. Since then, he worked as the assistant manager in Vitesse and Denmark national team. We hope that we can see him managing a top European side or Denmark national team to replicate his glory as a player.