By Mark Heys
July 26 2007

 

Christian Wilhelmsson

Born: 8th December 1979, Malmo, Sweden

International Honours: Full level

Position: Winger

Squad Number: 10

Former Clubs: Mjallby (Sweden), Stabaek (Norway), Anderlecht (Belgium), FC Nantes (France), AS Roma (Italy) (loan), Bolton Wanderers (loan)

Bolton beat off competition from a number of British clubs to make Swedish international midfielder Christian Wilhelmsson their ninth signing of the 2007 close season.

Wilhelmsson moves to the Reebok Stadium initially on a year long loan agreement from FC Nantes but this could be made permanent if the winger impresses whilst in the North West.

In 1997 he began his career with Mjallby in his homeland and in three seasons there he managed to clock up just over 60 appearances before moving across the Scandanavian border to join Norwegian team Stabaek.

Spending three years at the Naddereud Stadion he quickly became a fans favourite scoring 24 goals in just 80 games as the side looked to break the dominence of Rosenberg, Brann Bergen and Viking Stavanger.

Belgian club Anderlecht was his next port of call in the 2003 off season and in his first year with the club he gained honours at domestic level when winning the Belgian top division ahead of Club Brugge by seven clear points.

The team also made the final of the Belgian Cup but lost out 2-0 to their title rivals Brugge who had won the previous two finals against La Louviere and Racing Club Genk.

He won a number of his national 40 plus caps for Sweden at the Euro 2004 and World Cup 2006 tournaments playing alongside Premiership stars from past and present such as Freddie Ljungberg, Olaf Mellberg, Henrik Larsson, Anders Svensson, Niclas Alexandersson amongst others.

Last summer he moved to FC Nantes but he was quickly shipped out on loan to Champions League hopefuls AS Roma after failing to settle with the French outfit.

He made 19 appearances whilst in the Italian capital but the club wavered the right to sign him up on a permanent basis earlier in the  summer, instead hoping to lure the likes of Barcelona star Ludovic Giuly.

Wilhelmsson has a large degree of pace and can often lay on good goalscoring opportunities for the forwards due to his clever mix of passing and trickery when taking on an opponent.

BOLTON RECORD: