Tobias Hysen, son of former footballer Glenn Hysen, was born on this day in 1982. He joined SAFC back in July 2006 for a sum of £1.7 million.
As a child Hysen grew up in Sweden until his parents divorced. After this he spent his youth travelling abroad depending on which club his father was playing for at the time.
He started his career at Swedish club BK Hacken where he came from the academy up to the first team. He spent a few years there gaining valuable experience playing in the Swedish top tier.
He moved on from Hacken to fellow Swedish side Djurgarden on a free transfer. It was here where he first got a taste of silverware. In his first season he took home the Swedish Cup. Then a season later he managed to complete the double as he managed to capture the Allsvenskan title and retain the Swedish Cup. He also picked up the Swedish Newcomer Of The Year award.
After this we had seen enough and decided to sign him in our bid to regain promotion back to the premier league. He came in under Niall Quinn for a total of £1.7 million but of course ended the season under Keano.
The left winger made 26 appearances during our Championship campaign which saw us finish top. He scored four goals and made three assists during that time. One of his assists came in his debut in our first win of the season as we beat West Brom 2-0 at home. He followed that up with his first goal in his next game as we drew with Leicester 1-1. He must’ve liked playing Leicester as in the reverse fixture he scored in a 2-1 win away from home.
Hysen only stayed for one season as he told the club of his intentions to head back to Sweden. One of the main reasons for this was because he wanted to start a family back home. In 2007, we decided to honour his request and sold him to Swedish side IFK Goteborg. He continued what was by now a family tradition by becoming the fifth person in his family to have played for them.
With IFK Goteborg, he got reacquainted with the League title once and the League Cup twice. He managed to get quite a reputation in Sweden after picking up the top scorer award for bagging 18 goals over the course of the season.
2013 was a special year for Tobias. He picked up both the Forward of The Season and the player of the season awards. In a World Cup qualifier he faced European giants Germany alongside former Sunderland player Seb Larsson. Hysen opened the scoring after linking up with Larsson and putting one past Neuer. Then later in the game Sweden were down 4-2 until the duo paired up again. Seb floated a free kick over the back line and Hysen beautifully took it on the volley, leaving Neuer with no chance of saving it. The game ended 5-3 to Germany but people definitely went home savouring his volley, especially against such huge opposition.
Take a look at his volley here, you won't regret it....
Hysen then spent two seasons in China where he met up with Asamoah Gyan at Shanghai Port. He amassed 42 goal contributions in 55 games before going back to Goteborg on a free transfer, where he would see out his career and retire at the end of 2018.
