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The Sweden national football team (Swedish: Sveriges herrlandslag i fotboll) represents the nation of Sweden in international association football. It is fielded by the Swedish Football Association (SvFF) (Swedish: Svenska Fotbollförbundet) and competes as a member of the UEFA. The team played its first official international match on 12 July 1908 against Norway, winning 11–3.[1] Since the match against Norway, 1,104 players have made at least one international appearance for the team.[2] Of them, 131 have served as captain of the national team.[3] This list contains footballers who have served as captain of the Sweden national team and is listed according to their number of matches captained.
The Sweden national team's record appearance-maker as captain is Björn Nordqvist, who led the team out 92 times during his 115-cap tenure. He is the only player to have captained Sweden at the three different major tournaments; 1970 FIFA World Cup, 1974 FIFA World Cup and 1978 FIFA World Cup. During the tournament in 1974, Bo Larsson was the first-choice captain, but Nordqvist wore the armband in the last match against Yugoslavia. Zlatan Ibrahimović is the player with second most captaincies. Original a vice captain behind Henrik Larsson, he took over the armband in the summer of 2010 and wore it until his international retirement in 2016.[4] Midfielder Jonas Thern and defender Erik Nilsson are the most successful captains regarding medals. Thern led Sweden to a semi-final in UEFA Euro 1992 and a third place in 1994 FIFA World Cup. Nilsson led Sweden to third places in both 1950 FIFA World Cup and 1952 Summer Olympics. Birger Rosengren became the first and so far only Swedish captain to win a major international competition after leading the team in the 1948 Summer Olympics. Nils Rosén captained Sweden in their first World Cup in 1934 and Nils Liedholm led the team to their best performance in the World Cup, runners-up in 1958.
- ^ "90 år sedan första landskampen" (PDF) (in Swedish). Bolletinen. April 1998. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
- ^ "Sveriges landslagsmän" (in Swedish). SvFF. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
- ^ Alsiö, Martin; Frantz, Alf; Lindahl, Jimmy; Persson, Gunnar, eds. (2004). 100 år: Svenska fotbollförbundets jubileumsbok 1904–2004, del 2: statistiken (in Swedish). Vällingby: Stroemberg Media Group. ISBN 91-86184-59-8.
- ^ "Zlatan blir lagkapten" (in Swedish). Aftonbladet. 16 July 2010. Retrieved 8 July 2016.