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Elmander Profile

Johan Elmander

Born: 27th May 1981, Alingsas, Sweden

International Honours: Sweden Full

Position: Striker

Squad Number: 9

Former Clubs: Holmalunds IF (Sweden), Ogryte (Sweden), Feyenoord (Holland), Djurgaardens (Sweden), NAC Breda (Holland), Brondby (Denmark), Toulouse (France), Bolton Wanderers

Johan Elmander became Bolton Wanderers record purchase when moving from French club Toulouse in July 2008 for a fee of £11 million to put an end to a six month search for a top front man.

Bolton had tried to bring Elmander to England shortly after losing top scorer Nicolas Anelka to Chelsea, but they had been quoted a massive fee of £21 million for the Swedish international.

Not willing to break Bolton's budget, manager Gary Megson bided his time and finally brought Elmander to the club shortly after the player had appeared for his country at Euro 2008.

Norwegian striker Daniel Braaten, who had a difficult season at Bolton in 2007-08, was wanted by Toulouse, so Megson included the Norwegian as part of the Elmander deal.

Elmander began his career in his native Sweden with Holmalunds in 1997 and his promise as a teenager with them earned him a move to Orgryte two years later.

He spent just one season at the Valhall IP Stadium before trying his luck with Dutch giants Feyenoord in 2000. Again he didn't quite hit the goalscoring trail in the way that he would have liked but loan moves back to Sweden with Djurgaardens in 2002, where he hit 12 goals in 19 games, and Dutch side NAC Breda in 2003, helped to get his career back on track.

It was after a move to Danish side Brondby in 2004 when his career really took off. He won the Danish league title and Player of the Year during his time at the club and in 2005 the French club Toulouse snapped him up.

He lead Toulouse to the qualifying rounds of the Champions League and has been their top goalscorer over the last two seasons, not only scoring goals but creating opportunities for others as well.

BOLTON RECORD:

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