Majstorovic, Daniel

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Personal

Fullname: Daniel Majstorovic
aka: Dan Majstorovic, Big Dan, Danny M, Danny Majstorovic
Born: 5 April 1977
Birthplace: Malmo, Sweden
Signed: 16 August 2010 (from AEK Athens)
Left: 15 May 2012 (free to AIK Stockholm)
Position: Defender, Central Defender
Debut: Celtic 2-0 FC Utrecht, UEFA Cup, 19 Aug 2010
Squad No.: 5
Internationals: Sweden
International Caps: 50
International Goals: 2

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Biog

An experienced centre half Dan Majstorovic signed for Celtic on a free transfer from AEK Athens in August 2010.

Dan Majstorovic’s arrival in Glasgow was the latest chapter in a career which started with IF Brommapojkarna in 1995. His early promise earned him a transfer to Germany with Fortuna Koln in 1997. However this move was not a success and Dan Majstorovic returned to Sweden with Vasteras SK. This was a much more successful transfer and his performances there attracted the attention of the Swedish and Serbian international teams and also the attention of Malmo who signed him in 2001.

Dan Majstorovic enjoyed three good seasons with Malmo, earning his first international cap for Sweden against Qatar in 2003 and winning the Allsvenskan in 2004. This prompted another attempt at playing abroad, this time with Dutch side FC Twente who paid €800,000 for him 2004. During his time with FC Twente he was initially banned for 7 matches for allegedly elbowing Martin Drent of FC Groningen but was eventually cleared of this. Despite this controversy his time with FC Twente was a success and in January 2006 FC Basel paid €1.3M to take him to Switzerland.

Again his time in Switzerland was a success, and on a personal level he scored against AS Monaco to take Basel through to the Quarter Final of the 2005/06 UEFA Cup, where they met eventual runners-up Middlesbrough. Dan Majstorovic was sent off in the match at the Riverside with Basel 3 – 0 up on aggregate, unfortunately for him Middlesbrough would go on to win that leg 4 – 1 and go through 4 – 3 on aggregate.

At FC Basel, Dan Majstorovic became first choice penalty taker, and this included scoring an injury time winner in the 2007 Swiss Cup Final and finishing as Basel 2nd top scorer in 2007-08 with 11 goals. In May 2008 he moved to Greece with AEK Athens before financial problems led them to cancel his contract in August 2010.

The 6’4” Dan Majstorovic was brought to Parkhead by boss Neil Lennon to bring much needed steel and composure to a Celtic backline which has been painfully and frequently exposed during the previous campaign. With Scott Brown and Shaun Maloney both long term injury problems “Big Dan” would take the skipper’s armband just months after landing in Glasgow. But despite some solid early displays Dan Majstorovic didn’t have the solidifying influence that had been hoped on his arrival and looks were deceiving.

A second-half collapse against Rangers in an abysmal defeat was followed by a series of nervy defensive Celtic displays which resulted in the Celtic team dropping some vital early season points. During these disappointing performances the Swedish international was not the dominant performer many had expected although he had generally settled in well enough into the club.

However, in the following months, his performances began to improve as he formed a solid partnership with young centre back Thomas Rogne and also with Charlie Mulgrew. By the beginning of March, Celtic had the best defensive record in the SPL and this partnership helped to contribute to a 17 game unbeaten run in all competitions. Disappointingly, we weren’t to win the league and a decisive loss v Inverness Caley saw the defence come under the spotlight for unwanted attention again which included Danny.

The start of the following season saw Danny’s worst period at the club. Didn’t help that the defence was in awry and a 4-1 defeat by Rangers didn’t help. Danny’s performances were many a time woeful and despite a multitude of centre-half partners to play with in the centre of defence, nothing seemed to click. The constant changing didn’t help but he was generally poor, and his lack of pace and inability to head a ball well were frustrating. An early sending off against Sion sealed our exit from the UEFA Cup only for a reprise when Sion were kicked out allowing us back in. The fans though didn’t forget this mishap.

Luck was never much on Danny’s side, and on 15th November 2011 he had the dishonour to be the unfortunate scorer of England’s goal (an own-goal) in their 1-0 win v Sweden (their first win over Sweden since 1968). A little bit of history he would have preferred to not have. In fairness it was a deflection off his head (and after the match the own-goal was officially later changed to England player Gareth Barry) however there have been a number of these mistakes from him (at club & international level) that it has been hard to put it all down as misfortune alone.

Things were to change with a turnaround in his game with some better performances but even then Dan was a man who just couldn’t win at Celtic. After becoming the most maligned player in the side (the new whipping boy) after some admittedly dicey performances, he came to the fore and put in some great understated shifts around Nov/Dec ’11. Maybe the lower expectations helped out his game and he just started from scratch doing the basics correctly, but good solid performances at home (aided by playing with Wanyama or Rogne) and then an away match v Udinese in the UEFA Cup saw him gain plaudits much to the surprise of the support. However, what seemed like a general defensive challenge for a header against St Johnstone ended up halting the run as Dan suffered a fractured cheekbone putting him out for six weeks. The support was to actually now miss him.

His return showed his poor luck again was not at an end, as a great defensive tackle saw Danny shockingly sent off v Inv Caley in Feb 2006. Thankfully he won his appeal but it didn’t help his case to end his string of misfortunes. The return and rising reputation of Rogne meant there was competition and Danny was not necessarily first choice. Celtic were also benefiting from a purple patch of defensive results aided by some stout performances by Forster in goals.

He had the Euros with Sweden to look forward to, but then sadly a serious injury in training in February 2012 whilst with the Swedish national team killed off his hopes (cruciate and inner ligament in knee). It was cruel and unfair. He deserved a chance and the opportunity to play in Poland/Ukraine with his national side.

The Celtic support had actually grown to like him (if still never fully convinced) and we wished him the best. Danny in particular seemed to love his time with Celtic with never a poor word even when things were going badly for him on the field. He was the type to just get stuck in and keep going, something to admire.

As the season ended, a clear-out was needed. Taking in the mixed opinion on Danny’s time at Celtic, the number of players ahead of him in the queue, his age and recent injuries, then there was little doubt that he was in the long-list for the clear-out.

On 15 May 2012, it was announced that he had signed for AIK Stockholm. Sadly, it was believed that due to negotiations for the new club contracts at AIK, he ended up missing out on the trophy presentation for the SPL title (our first for 4 years). He deserved to be there and we’re sad he wasn’t able to be present. We are sure he would have wanted to be there too.

Without meaning to be unkind, we were a bit surprised by a comment by Jens Anderson (AIK Stockholm sports director): “Daniel’s personality and football qualities will add dynamism and competence to AIK“. For his own sake, we hoped he wasn’t in for a rude awakening. Danny M had good points but dynamism was definitely not one of them especially at this stage & age in his career. Some critics would also query the competence point but as said before, he was a mixed bag overall but still likeable and always gave his best.

Post-Celtic
Appears that things didn’t work out at AIK for Dan, as most Celtic fans expected, and he didn’t end up playing in a great number of games. He retired from playing in Feb 2014.

We wish him the best

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Anecdote

One curious oddity on Danny Majstorovic’s time is that his actions almost led to a major crisis at UEFA! His red card at Swiss club FC Sion ended up being the catalyst for Celtic’s exit from the UEFA Cup in 2011/12.

However Sion’s expulsion over player issues meant Celtic were reinstated into the tournament. This led to countless court action and Swiss media threats from FC Sion amongst much else. A headache for all and so on, but it did create serious issues for UEFA as FC Sion wouldn’t let go of the issue. In the end, FC Sion were losing badly, much to the relief of all.

If FC Sion had won there would have been some serious ramifications. If Danny had not got that red card in that first minute of the away leg then maybe we’d have got through without all the rigmoral.

It was a case of flapping butterfly wings, hurricanes and all that.

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Playing Career

CLUB	FROM	TO	FEE	LEAGUE		Scottish/FA Cup		LGE CUP		OTHER
				APPS	GLS	APPS	GLS	APPS	GLS	APPS	GLS
AIK Stockholm	15-May-12	–	Free
Celtic	16-Aug-10	15-May-12	Free	47 (2)	1	4 (1)	1	4 (0)	0	6 (0)	0
AEK Athens	01-Jul-09	16-Aug-10	Signed	1 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	1 (0)	0
Basle	01-Jul-05	31-May-09		0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	3 (0)	0

2011/12 Statistics
TEAM	Competition	GS	SB	G	A	SH	SG	FC	FS	YC	RC
Sweden	Int	2	0	0	0	1	0	3	2	0	0
Celtic	SPL	15	2	0	2	3	0	27	5	2	1
Celtic	SFAC	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Celtic	Europa	6	0	0	0	1	0	6	0	1	1
Sweden	ECQ	6	0	0	0	1	0	4	7	1	0
Celtic	LC	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Season Totals		31	2	0	2	6	0	40	14	5	2
2010/11 Statistics
TEAM	Competition	GS	SB	G	A	SH	SG	FC	FS	YC	RC
Celtic	LC	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Sweden	ECQ	3	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0
Celtic	SFAC	4	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
Celtic	SPL	32	0	1	1	35	10	44	27	8	0
Sweden	Int	3	0	0	0	1	0	4	1	0	0
Season Totals		44	1	2	1	36	10	50	28	11	0

GS: Games Started, SB: Used as Substitute, G: Goals, A: Assists, SH: Shots, SG: Shots on goal,
YC: Yellow Cards, RC: Red Cards,
FC: Fouls Committed, FS: Fouls Suffered, SV: Saves, OF: Offsides, W: Wins, D: Draws, L: Losses

Honours with Celtic

Scottish Premier League

• 2011-12

Scottish Cup

• 2011

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Pictures

• Player Pics

KDS

• Daniel Majstorovic signs (2010)

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Articles

Celtic defender Daniel Majstorovic to join AIK

BBC 15 May 2012

Swedish club AIK have announced that they have secured Daniel Majstorovic on a two-and-a-half-year contract as the defender ends his spell with Celtic.

The 35-year-old has spent two seasons in Glasgow but missed the conclusion to Celtic’s championship-winning season with an injury picked up in February.

Sweden international Majstorovic is delighted to join his hometown club.

“It is with great pleasure and pride that I wear my AIK shirt,” he told the Stockholm outfit’s website.

“It feels incredibly inspiring to be a part of an exciting future facing AIK.
Continue reading the main story

“Daniel will help develop both the team and the club in the short and long term”

Jens Andersson AIK sports director

“I have great hopes for the future with the club and look forward to the next two and a half years.”

Majstorovic, capped 34 times for Sweden, started his career with Brommapojkarna before moving to Fortuna Kiln, Vasteras, Malmo, Twente, Basel then AEK Athens.

Following his arrival from Greek football, he established himself at the heart of Celtic’s defence, making 64 appearances.

However, he had become a less regular starter this season and, with his contract expiring this summer, his future was in doubt after picking up a cruciate ligament injury training with his national squad.

His new employers say he will officially join the Stockholm club when the Swedish transfer window re-opens in August.

AIK Solna sports director Jens Andersson said: “Daniel’s personality and football qualities will add dynamism and competence to AIK.

“That, combined with his unique experience at both international and club level, will help develop both the team and the club in the short and long term.”

AIK lie in seventh place in the 16-strong Swedish Allsvenskan after nine games of the present season.

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