BIOGRAPHY
As part of Sweden’s legendary ‘Bengan Boys’ generation, Mats Olsson won all of handball’s major titles during his playing career — and continues to give back to the sport as a goalkeeper coach.
Olsson was born in Malmö, Sweden, and he started playing handball at local club Dalhems. At the age of 20 he moved to Lugi HF to begin his senior career, and he spent eight years there. His first experience abroad was in Spain, where he was part of a successful Teka Santander squad. Santander and Olsson won the EHF Champions League in 1994, after reaching the final of the predecessor competition, the Champions Cup, in 1992, and picking up the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1990.
At the end of the 1993/94 season Olsson was tempted home to Sweden and spent two years playing for Ystads IF; he ended his playing career with another year in Spain, for Caja Cantabria.
But it was with Sweden, under the coaching of Bengt Johansson, that Olsson had the most success. He and the rest of Sweden’s golden generation won a succession of major titles and other medals in the early 1990s, beginning with world championship gold in 1990 and including the EHF EURO title in 1994.
Sweden also picked up successive silver medals at the Olympic Games in 1992 and 1996, as well as two bronze medals and a silver at the world championships between 1993 and 1997. Olsson was named best goalkeeper at the 1997 World Championship.
In total, Olsson earned 294 caps for Sweden and scored two goals during his appearances for the national team.
After retiring from his playing career, Olsson became a successful coach. He started out coaching Cantabria and went on to lead the Portuguese men’s national team for seven years, until 2012. He is currently goalkeeper coach for the Norwegian women’s national team and was part of their success at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and Women’s EHF EURO 2024.
