Early career Born in
Copenhagen, son of Bjarne Tomasson and Leila Dahl Petersen, Tomasson first started playing football as a five-year-old in the youth team of Solrød. At nine years of age, he moved to the biggest club in the area,
Køge. In November 1992, at 16, he made his senior debut for the club. During the next two years he helped the club to get promoted twice in a row: at the end of the 1993 season, when the club was promoted from the
Denmark Series to the
second Division; and at the end of the 1994 season, when the club was promoted to the
first Division.
Heerenveen In December 1994, aged 18, he agreed on a transfer from
Køge to the Dutch club
Heerenveen, of the
Eredivisie. A first-team regular by the
1995–96 season, Tomasson was the club top scorer for the season as well, netting 14 goals in 30 league matches. He increased this tally in the
1996–97 season to 18, and was top-scorer for the club once again. On top of that, he also won the
Best Dutch Football Talent of 1996, beating the likes of
Boudewijn Zenden and
Patrick Kluivert to the prize.
Newcastle United His success attracted the interest of other clubs, and he completed a high-profile move to
FA Premier League club
Newcastle United in July 1997. Newcastle's manager at the time,
Kenny Dalglish, saw Tomasson as the perfect link-up player to
England national team striker
Alan Shearer. The partnership initially worked well, with Tomasson impressing during a pre-season friendly tournament in the Republic of Ireland. However, a career threatening injury to Shearer, combined with the transfer of striker
Les Ferdinand to
Tottenham Hotspur, meant that Tomasson was moved from his traditional
attacking midfield position to that of
striker. He struggled to adapt to his new position on the field, and to the English game, due to his lack of physical strength. He scored only four goals in 35 appearances in all competitions during the
1997–98 season.
Feyenoord Tomasson returned to the
Eredivisie in July 1998, where he joined
Feyenoord, once again as an
attacking midfielder.
Milan On 2 May 2002, as Tomasson's contract with Feyenoord was expiring before their UEFA Cup victory, he agreed a move to Italy on a four-year
free transfer, to play for
Serie A club
A.C. Milan. He joined compatriots
Martin Laursen and
Thomas Helveg at the
San Siro club. The
2002–03 season, Tomasson's first at Milan, saw them winning the
Italian Cup. Tomasson was most often used as a late substitute, but did manage to score three goals in the
UEFA Champions League; and thereby also held his share of the trophy, when Milan won the prestigious tournament in May 2003. Tomasson missed the
final because of an injury that he picked up in the first leg of the
2003 Coppa Italia Final. During the
2003–04 season, Tomasson was given more playing time and managed to score 12 Serie A goals in a title-winning campaign. In August 2004, he was also a part of the Milan team that won the
Italian Super Cup, with a 3–0 victory against the
Coppa Italia champions
Lazio. For the next
2004–05 season, he struggled to secure a regular starting place in the line-up of Milan. He was once again in the role of substitute, and therefore also scored fewer goals compared to the previous season. At the
2005 UEFA Champions League Final against
Liverpool, he was again used by Milan as a late substitute, and when the final had to be decided in
penalty shootout, he was selected to kick. Tomasson scored on his attempt, but Milan lost as
Serginho,
Andrea Pirlo and
Andriy Shevchenko missed their shots. When striker
Christian Vieri joined the club in July 2005, Tomasson was deemed as potential surplus, and he therefore agreed with Milan to be placed at their transfer list. Years later, prior to the
2010–11 UEFA Champions League round of 16 match between
Chelsea and
Copenhagen, former Milan manager
Carlo Ancelotti, now manager of Real Madrid, was asked about his view on Danish footballers: "Above all the Danish work ethic surprised me, their special ability to give everything in training. These were very professional and skilled players. The one who performed best and showed the most continuity, was Jon Dahl Tomasson, who always had to fight for playing time against world class
strikers. He never had an easy time, but he never gave up and tried to take every chance he got".
VfB Stuttgart In July 2005, the German
Bundesliga club
VfB Stuttgart paid a transfer fee to Milan of €7.5 million, in order to sign Tomasson to a four-year contract. He joined international teammate
Jesper Grønkjær at the club but the upcoming
2005–06 season was not successful for either of them. Even though Tomasson was the team's top scorer with eight Bundesliga goals, the team struggled throughout the season to create enough chances and goals, and as a consequence Stuttgart only finished in ninth position of the Bundesliga. After the season, Grønkjær left the club, while Tomasson stayed and in the
2006–07 season Stuttgart became the new champions of the Bundesliga.
Villarreal On 24 January 2007, Tomasson was loaned to
Villarreal in the Spanish
Primera División championship, to cover the place of the injured striker
Nihat Kahveci, for the remaining part of the
2006–07 season. When he made his Villarreal debut, in a game against
Real Madrid, Tomasson became only the fifth player to have played in the Premier League, Serie A, Bundesliga and Primera División. This rare achievement had previously only been made by the four players:
Florin Răducioiu,
Gheorghe Popescu,
Abel Xavier and
Pierre Womé. His loan contract expired on 1 July 2007, but also featured a buying option, for which Villarreal paid Stuttgart the second half of a total transfer fee at €1 million in order to sign Tomasson to a two-year contract . In the first match of the
2007–08 La Liga season, he scored in a 3–0 victory against Valencia, but he mostly played the club's UEFA Cup games that season, and scored five goals in eight games. The season ended as the best ever for Villarreal, who were runners-up in La Liga.
Return to Feyenoord Tomasson agreed with Villarreal in June 2008 to search the market for a possible transfer. The Spanish sportspaper Marca immediately linked him together with Dutch side
Feyenoord. This was at first described by Tomasson as pure speculation. The speculation, however, turned out to be true. In July 2008, he left Villarreal on a
free transfer, and returned to Feyenoord on a new three-year contract. He made a fine start with four goals in three games. But this was followed by an injury from the end of September until the end of January, which meant he could only play a total of 14 games for Feyenoord in
2008–09. In the next
2009–10 season, he again had to battle with a couple of injuries. But during the season he was still able to play another 28 games for Feyenoord, where he scored a club-best 12 goals. With his good performance on the field, he helped Feyenoord to achieve a fourth place in the Eredivisie, and help the club to reach the final of the Dutch Cup. The final was played over two legs, and Feyenoord lost 6–1 on aggregate to Ajax, with Tomasson scoring the only goal for Feyenoord. During the 2010 World Cup, he was hit by another serious injury, that spoiled his first half of the
2010–11 season for Feyenoord. According to the medical staff at Feyenoord, the injury was a lot worse than original thought. When they tried to get him ready for a game at 15 August, the injury had not entirely healed; and after a too hard training session, it therefore reappeared at its previous strength. Based upon further examination of the injury, the coach now feared that Tomasson only would be ready to play his first game of the season in January 2011. ==International career==