Behrang Safari

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Behrang Safari
Personal information

Full name	Behrang Safari
Date of birth	(1985-02-09) 9 February 1985
Place of birth	Tehran, Iran
Height	1.84 m (6 ft ¹⁄₂ in)
Playing position	Left back Left winger
Club information
Current club	FC Basel
Number	19
Youth career
1992–2001	Lunds SK
2001–2004	Malmö FF
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps^†	(Gls)^†
2004–2008	Malmö FF	59	(2)
2008–2011	Basel	94	(1)
2011–2013	Anderlecht	69	(0)
2013–	Basel	11	(0)
National team^‡
2008–	Sweden	31	(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 24:00, 2 February 2014 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 24:00, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

Behrang Safari (Persian: بهرنگ صفری‎ [behræŋɡ sæfæriː]; born 9 February 1985) is a Swedish-Iranian footballer who plays as a defender for FC Basel in the Raiffeisen Super League and the Swedish national team.

Career

Early life

He came to Sweden as a two-year-old from Tehran, Iran with his family. They settled in the small town Höganäs, and later moved to Lund when he was five.

Club

Safari came through the ranks at Malmö FF and played his first game in Allsvenskan in July 2004 when he came on as a substitute. He won the Allsvenskan in his first season and the following season he became a first-team regular.

On 15 June 2008, Malmö announced that Safari has been sold to FC Basel in Switzerland.^[1] This was confirmed one day later by FCB Online.^[2] He made his Basel debut on 23 July 2008 in a 1–0 win over Grasshopper-Club Zürich at St. Jakob-Park. He played his first European game in a Basel shirt on 30 July 2008 in a 1–1 Champions League Qualifying match draw against IFK Göteborg at Ullevi. He scored his first goal for Basel in the 4–0 home win against BSC Young Boys on 7 February 2010. This was to remain his sole league goal for the club. Safari won the Double with Basel in 2010 and the Swiss national championship again in 2011. He played 94 league games for Basel during his three-year contract.

On 30 May 2011 he signed a contract for the Belgian club Anderlecht. He played team debut for Anderlecht on 29 July 2011 in the 2–1 away defeat against Oud-Heverlee Leuven. He played his first European game for the team in the Europa League qualifying away win against Bursaspor in the Bursa Atatürk Stadium on 18 August 2011.^[3] He helped his team win the league in his first season with Anderlecht.

International

Safari was called up to the Swedish national team for their friendly match tour in January 2008.^[4] He played in all of the matches, which were a 1–0 win over Costa Rica, a 2–0 defeat to the United States, and a 0–0 draw with Turkey. During his debut game against Costa Rica, Safari set up the only goal of the game with a cross to Samuel Holmén, who volleyed the ball into the back of the net.

Sweden played the Netherlands away in Amsterdam on 12 October 2010 in a Euro 2012 qualifying match at the Amsterdam Arena. With Sweden trailing 1–0, Safari made a horrible mistake with a failed throw-in; he threw the ball backwards into the middle of the field, where it was picked up by Dutch player Wesley Sneijder, who advanced towards the Swedish goal and put Ibrahim Afellay free with the goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson. Afellay scored easily, making the score 2–0 in favour of the Dutch. Sweden didn't recover from this and the final score was a 4–1 defeat. Safari was substituted for Oscar Wendt during half-time due to his mistake.

Honours

Basel

Swiss Super League: 2010, 2011
Swiss Cup: 2010

R.S.C. Anderlecht

Belgian First Division : 2011–12, 2012–13

References

↑ "Behrang Safari lämnar Malmö FF". Retrieved 15 June 2008.
↑ "FCB verpflichtet mit Gelabert und Safari zwei neue Spieler". FC Basel 1893. 2008. Retrieved 16 November 2010. (German)
↑ "Bursaspor Anderlecht lineups". uefa.com. 2011. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
↑ "Behrang Safari om landslagsplatsen och ryktena". svenskafans.com. Archived from the original on 30 December 2007. Retrieved 28 December 2007.

External links

Profile at FC Basel (German)
Profile at Swiss Football League Website (German)

v t e Sweden squad – UEFA Euro 2012

1 Isaksson 2 Lustig 3 Mellberg 4 Granqvist 5 M. Olsson 6 Elm 7 Larsson 8 Svensson 9 Källström 10 Ibrahimović (c) 11 Elmander 12 Wiland 13 J. Olsson 14 Hysén 15 Antonsson 16 Wernbloom 17 Safari 18 Holmén 19 Bajrami 20 Toivonen 21 Wilhelmsson 22 Rosenberg 23 Hansson Coach: Hamrén

v t e FC Basel – current squad

1 Sommer 4 P. Degen 5 Ajeti 7 D. Degen 8 Serey Die 9 Streller 10 Delgado 13 Ivanov 14 Stocker 15 Voser 16 Schär 17 Adili 18 Vailati 19 Safari 20 Frei 21 Díaz 23 Salvi 25 Suchý 26 Sauro 27 Aliji 28 Andrist 29 Simić 30 Sio 32 Seferagić 33 Elneny 34 Xhaka 35 Ritter Coach: Yakin

Persondata
Name	Safari, Behrang
Alternative names	بهرنگ صفری (Persian)
Short description	Swedish footballers
Date of birth	9 February 1985
Place of birth	Tehran, Iran
Date of death
Place of death

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