Alexander Östlund

Jan Alexander Östlund (born 2 November 1978), known as Alexander Mezan after his career, is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a right-back. He began his professional career with AIK in 1995, and went on to play professionally in Portugal, the Netherlands, England, and Denmark before retiring in 2010. He won 22 caps for the Sweden national team between 2003 and 2006 and represented his country at UEFA Euro 2004.

Club career

Early career

Alexander Östlund started his career in the club IFK Österåker in his hometown Åkersberga. At the age of 16 he was drafted for AIK Fotboll, where he played as a striker. He scored the club's last goal of the 1998 season, which meant AIK won Allsvenskan, the Swedish championship. He had a loan period at Birmingham City but was not offered a contract, and in January 1999 had a trial at English club Sheffield Wednesday who were then in the Premier League, however this did not lead to a transfer. He briefly represented Vitória de Guimarães in Portugal but did not receive any playing time. He was subsequently transferred to IFK Norrköping and converted into a defender.

Hammarby IF

Östlund is one of the most beloved players in Hammarby IF in modern time, despite the fact that he made his break-through as an attacker in local rivals AIK. Östlund immediately won the hearts of the Hammarby fans when he, in the very first minute of his very first appearance for Hammarby, dealt a hard tackle to his former teammate AIK player and legend Krister Nordin, in the indoors tournament "Nackas minne" ("Lennart "Nacka" Skoglund Memorial) 2003.

Mezan returned to Hammarby after his career as a member of the board for Hammarby Football.