Alexander Gerndt


Alexander Gerndt is a Swedish footballer who plays as a striker for Lugano in the Swiss Super League.

Career

AIK

Born and raised in Visby, on the island of Gotland, Gerndt started to play for the island's top club Visby IF Gute during his youth system. As Gute's second best goal-scorer, he drew attention from Swedish top league clubs such as Örebro SK and AIK. On 3 November 2006, he signed a three-year contract with AIK.
In 2007, he only made five appearances in the league, all without scoring. Struggling to make it into the starting 11, he was loaned out to the second tier club Sirius prior to the 2008 season. In Sirius, he made 14 appearances, scoring six goals.

Gefle

Although it was thought that he would stay the entire season on loan at Sirius, he signed for Gefle in the top flight division during the summer transfer window of 2008.
His start in Gefle was not a success at all; he did not score any goals for the club during 2008.
In the season of 2009, Gerndt played 26 out of 30 league games, scoring 3 goals.
In 2010, he made a major breakthrough in his career. Showing much improvement, he scored 8 goals in the first 14 games for Gefle. As a fact of that, it was rumored that he would make a transfer to the Dutch team Heerenveen in the summer transfer windows of 2010, but also that Helsingborg wanted his signature.

Helsingborg

On 18 July 2010, it was confirmed that he would move to Helsingborg, signing a 3.5 year contract. Helsingborg were during that time a club fighting to be the Swedish champions of 2010.
Gerndt continued to score goals and was a major reason that Helsingborg could battle against their biggest rivals Malmö for the title into the last round of the league. In 15 games, he scored 12 goals and was the top-scorer of Allsvenskan in 2010 with a total of 20 goals. Alexander Gerndt was also named the Player of the Year in the 2010 Allsvenskan. He received the price at a gala in Malmö, the city of Helsingborg's rivals, and was greeted by whistles from the crowd. Alexander Gerndt, however, took his time and waited them out to have utter silence when holding his winning speech.

Utrecht

Helsingborgs IF, aware there was a big risk that Alexander Gerndt would leave the club, started to look for replacements already in March 2011. Alexander Gerndt was for a while rumored to sign with the Danish club Copenhagen, and on 30 June he confirmed his interest in accepting a 20-million SEK deal with the club. However, on 12 July it was announced that no deal with F.C. Copenhagen would be made.
The same day as that announcement, the Dutch club Utrecht offered Alexander Gerndt a 35-million SEK deal. On 18 July 2011, exactly a year after signing with Helsingborgs IF, Alexander Gerndt signed a four-year contract worth roughly 27 million SEK and joined the club playing in the Eredivisie, the top football league in the Netherlands, on 1 August. The affair was the biggest in Helsingborgs IF's club history.
Alexander Gerndt's first game with FC Utrecht did not come in the team's premiere game of the season on 6 August 2011; the Swedish Discipline Committee suspended Alexander Gerndt between 5–7 August as a result of an incident on 23 July when he punched Malmö player Miljan Mutavdžić in the head, and the suspension was carried over to FC Utrecht as the Dutch Football Association was notified by the Swedish Football Association of the suspension. Instead, his debut game with FC Utrecht came on 14 August 2011, at home against De Graafschap. The game ended in a 2–2 tie. Alexander Gerndt had a great chance to score the game-winning goal in the second half, but the shot hit the inside post. Gerndt's first goal with Utrecht came instead on 19 September 2011, in a match against Heracles Almelo that finished in another 2–2 tie.

Young Boys

On Transfer Deadline Day 31 January 2013, it was confirmed that Gerndt has joined Young Boys in Switzerland.

Lugano

Since August, 2nd, Alexander Gerndt is a player of the Swiss Super League Team FC Lugano, he has been put under contract until 2019. He played his first game just three days after being transferred to Lugano.

International goals

Alexander Gerndt scored his first goal for the national team against Botswana, scoring the 1–0 goal in a game that ended with a 2–1 win for the Swedish team.
#DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1.19 January 2011Cape Town Stadium, Cape Town, South Africa1–02–1Friendly
2.3 June 2011Zimbru Stadium, Chişinău, Moldova4–14–1UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying

Personal life

Gerndt has gone through a divorce with his wife My, and they have two children together. Gerndt is very popular among fans of his former teams in Helsingborg as well as Gävle. He has talked about his big interest of tattoos and he has said it's like an obsession. "Once you’ve started, you can’t stop; you are always looking for what the next tattoo project can be." Gerndt was also a survivor of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.

Sentence

In December 2011, Gerndt was handed a suspended jail sentence and fined 80,000 SEK for assaulting his ex-wife My. This handed him an indefinite ban from the Swedish national team, as decided by the Swedish Football Association. However, the suspension from the national team was lifted on 27 April 2012. Both Gerndt and the prosecutor of the case decided to appeal the sentence on 3 January 2012. Gerndt considered himself not guilty while the prosecutor originally was appealing for a three-month jail sentence.

Honours