# List of Sweden national football team captains

The Sweden men's national football team (Swedish:Sveriges herrlandslag i fotboll) represents the nation of Sweden in international association football. The team is controlled by the Swedish Football Association (SvFF) (Swedish:Svenska Fotbollförbundet) and competes as a member of the UEFA and the FIFA. The team played its first official international match on 12 July 1908 against Norway, winning 11–3. Since the match against Norway, 1,211 players have made at least one international appearance for the team. Of them, 150 have served as captain of the national team. 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. 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.

## Captains

Players are initially listed by number of matches captained, followed by the chronological order of the first captaincy. Only players who started the match as captain are included here, not players that might have been given the armband due to the starting captain being injured, sent off or substituted off.
Statistics correct as of 19 November 2024.
Key :
* Still active for the national team
* Captained the team at a major international tournament

## Chronology

This is a chronology list of the first-choice captains in Sweden's tournament games. Matches in FIFA World Cup, UEFA European Championship and Olympic Games are included here.
Key :
* Champions
* Runners-up
* Third place
* Fourth place

### FIFA World Cup

| Year | Incumbent |
| 1934 | Nils Rosén |
| 1938 | Tore Keller |
| 1950 | Erik Nilsson |
| 1958 | Nils Liedholm |
| 1970 | Björn Nordqvist |
| 1974 | Bo Larsson |
| 1978 | Björn Nordqvist |
| 1990 | Glenn Hysén |
| 1994 | Jonas Thern |
| 2002 | Patrik Andersson |
| 2006 | Olof Mellberg |
| 2018 | Andreas Granqvist |

### UEFA European Championship

| Year | Incumbent |
| 1992 | Jonas Thern |
| 2000 | Patrik Andersson |
| 2004 | Johan Mjällby |
| 2008 | Freddie Ljungberg |
| 2012 | Zlatan Ibrahimović |
| 2016 | Zlatan Ibrahimović |
| 2020 | Andreas Granqvist |

### Olympic Games

| Year | Incumbent |
| 1908 | Hans Lindman |
| 1912 | Herman Myhrberg |
| 1920 | Bertil Nordenskjöld |
| 1924 | Sven Friberg |
| 1936 | Victor Carlund |
| 1948 | Birger Rosengren |
| 1952 | Erik Nilsson |

## Footnotes

* ↑ Players who have not declared their retirement from international football and have been called up to the national team within the last two years.
* ↑ Includes matches in FIFA World Cup, UEFA European Championship and Olympic football tournament (1908–1952).
* ↑ Includes the abandoned match against Denmark on 2 June 2007, for which caps and goals were awarded.