Here are the backgrounds of the Swedish European Championship players
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Robin Olsen
Robin Olsen is the only member of the European Championship squad who has never played in a youth national team. He started playing in MFF as a seven-year-old, and then took a crooked path to elite football. After his youth in BK Olympic, he got an A-team contract with Bunkeflo.
Karl-Johan Johnsson
When Karl-Johan Johnsson was born, Ränneslöv in Laholm municipality had 443 inhabitants. Hallänningen played in the football club in his small birthplace until he was 15 years old, usually as a midfielder but sometimes as a goalkeeper. Bygden’s big club Halmstads BK saw a goalkeeper talent and recruited him. He made his debut in the Allsvenskan for HBK as an 18-year-old.
Mattias Svanberg
Is part of the 99 generation, with many talented Swedish players. In Malmö FF’s academy, for example, there was also Anel Ahmedhodzic of the same age, who later chose Bosnia’s national team. But already at an early age, Svanberg played with those who were a year older. He came to Malmö FF from Bunkeflo when he was 14 years old and made his A-team debut in the same club in the Swedish Cup when he was 16 years old.
Pontus Jansson
For Burlöv’s news Pontus Jansson has told about the “Arlövsandan” that prevailed in Arlövs BI outside Malmö where he started playing. It was about “fighting hard and showing that you were the best to be seen”.
– Many had tough environments at home in large families where they had to fight to be seen. That was not the case for me. I was an only child and my parents were always there. But this attitude of being the best was repeated in everything for me, he said.
And the same thing was when he came to Malmö FF 14 years old.
– Most of the other players had a foreign background and it was about showing that they were the best there as well. Always.
He played for a long time in offensive positions, and got a solid role as a midfielder only as a 19-year-old. Participated in and won Swedish Championship gold in 2013. Went as a Bosman to Torino in Serie A as a 23-year-old in 2014.
Filip Helander
For the first seven years of his football life, Filip Helander played on the gravel field in Kvarnby on the outskirts of Malmö. Twelve years old, he moved to the neighboring club Husie. In both places he played with those who were a year older. As a 14-year-old, he came to Malmö FF, where he made his A-team debut in the Allsvenskan four years later.
Andreas Granqvist
Started playing football at Medevi, the sports ground located in the middle of the village of Påarp among the fields east of Helsingborg. As a 14-year-old he started playing for Helsingborgs IF in the city, five years later he made his debut in the A-team. At the age of 21, he was recruited to Wigan in the Premier League.
Jordan Larsson
Started playing football in FC Barcelona when his father Henrik played there. But most of his upbringing he received in Högaborg in Helsingborg, just like his father. He made his debut in the A-team in division 4 when he was 14. Two years later he signed an A-team contract with Helsingborg.
Albin Ekdal
Is one of two European Championship players from the same boys team in BP. But while teammate Kristoffer Nordfeldt stayed in Bromma until he was 22, Albin Ekdal got an A-team contract with Juventus when he was 18. He trained with Chelsea when he was 16, but wanted to finish high school at home and said no. Instead, he played in BP’s A-team before moving to Serie A.
Albin Ekdal was so good as a child that the opponents kicked and even spat at him, coach Stefan Billborn has told DN. But he also had a dip.
– I was late into puberty, then I thought for a year or so that my career was over, but then I came back and became among the better again, Ekdal has said.
Kristoffer Nordfeldt
Started playing for BP at the age of five and left the club when he was 22 for Dutch side Heerenveen. From the time they were seven years old, he and Albin Ekdal played in the same team.
– Kristoffer was a small apple-cheeked center from the beginning, he was fast and had a good shot. We had no goalkeeper in the team at that time and every time it got tough and we were in the final it was Kristoffer who got to stand, all the guys thought he was the best and that was him, his youth coach Stefan Billborn has told for DN.
Ludwig Augustinsson
Be part of BP’s successful P94 team, from which a large part of the players reached the elite. There were players like Stefano Vecchia, Simon Tibbling, Jacob Une Larsson and Tim Söderström. Teammate Filip Sandberg quit football as a 13-year-old and chose ice hockey. He now plays in the NHL.
Robin Quaison
AIK-educated Robin Quaison was loaned out to the cooperation club Väsby United one season before he made his debut in the Allsvenskan as an 18-year-old. After two and a half seasons, he was recruited to Palermo in Serie A.
Alexander Isaac
It was the then coach Andreas Alm who let Alexander Isak make his debut in the Allsvenskan at the age of 16. But Alm himself has referred to the older player Martin Mutumba as the most important person who paved the way for Isak and Robin Quaison.
– Martin struggled in AIK for many years and then came back and won gold. Somehow it became so clear how much of the suburb (training facility) Skytteholm benefited from, Alm has says to the Football Channel.
Alexander Isak came to AIK when he was six years old and continued all the way to the A-team. He scored ten goals during his first Allsvenskan season and was then sold to Dortmund at the age of 17.
Dejan Kulusevski
Growing up in Vällingby in western Stockholm, he started playing in the talent factory Brommapojkarna already as a boy. He excelled early and won the 2010 Gothia cup together with boys born a year before him. In the same team was also Djurgården’s striker Joel Asoro. A few years later, Kulusevski was discovered by Atalanta during one of BP’s trips to Italy. He moved there when he was 15 years old.
Sebastian Larsson
At the elite camp in Halmstad, where Sweden’s best 15-year-olds gather, AIK’s leaders got stuck for two players: Pierre Bengtsson and Sebastian Larsson. Larsson was about to go to AIK even then, but then Arsenal came into the picture. Sebastian Larsson left Eskilstuna for London as a 16-year-old, and made his debut in the Premier League at the age of 20. He made three A-team matches for Arsenal before moving to Birmingham and played for twelve years in England before finally joining AIK.
Victor Nilsson Lindelöf
IK Franke, an association active in the million program areas Råby and Bäckby in Västerås, has trained three national team players: Pontus Kåmark, Gary Sundgren and Victor Nilsson Lindelöf. When he was 14 years old, Lindelöf had advanced to Västerås SK and the junior Allsvenskan, where he played with those who were a year older. As a 15-year-old he got an A-team contract with Västerås SK, as a 16-year-old he was with and took the team up in the Superettan. As a 17-year-old, he moved to the Portuguese big club Benfica, where he played most in the junior and B teams before making his debut in the Champions League at the age of 21, in a round of 16 against Zenit Saint Petersburg.
Ken Sema
Started playing in the Norrköping club Sylvia when he was five, and moved to IFK Norrköping when he was twelve years old. Instead of making his debut in the Allsvenskan with IFK, he was loaned to the mother club as a 19-year-old to get playing time in division 1. The current national team captain Janne Andersson was coach of IFK then, and did not want to extend his contract. Ken Sema has told in Olof Lundhs podd that he went to the Swedish Public Employment Service and signed up, but then Ljungskile heard from him, and he got his breakthrough with the team in the Superettan. Three years later, Janne Andersson took him out of the national team.
Pierre Bengtsson
Raised in IFK Kumla, Pierre Bengtsson as a teenager showed his front feet in both youth national teams and district teams. Bengtsson was small in stature, but that there was a football talent beyond the ordinary a “foam-eyed could clearly see”, it was possible to read in Nerikes Allehanda in May 2004. Pierre Bengtsson was chased by a number of Swedish elite clubs and went to AIK the same summer youth team. Debuted in the Allsvenskan season 2006 as an 18-year-old.
Kristoffer Olsson
As a ten-year-old, Kristoffer Olsson came to IFK Norrköping’s academy from IK Sleipner. In retrospect, he has been described by the club’s then academy manager, Ulf Rann, as “Shy off the field, but definitely not on it”. The 25-year-old aroused the interest of major clubs early on and left Sweden for English Arsenal in 2011. But there he never really got the chance – the breakthrough came instead in AIK where he was recruited in 2017 from Danish Midtjylland.
Marcus Danielson
Did not make his national team debut until he was 30 years old. He played in the small neighborhood club Skogstorp in the Eskilstuna area until he was 17 years old, and then came to IFK Eskilstuna. After many years in various Allsvenskan teams, it was only after a successful season in Djurgården that he was selected in Blågult.
Jens Cajuste
Started playing football when the family lived in China for four years, but was raised in Örgryte’s academy. He made his debut in the A-team in the Superettan when he was 17 years old, but in two years he only played six matches in the second division. Still, he was discovered by Danish Midtjylland. There he has both played in the Champions League and become Danish champion.
Gustav Svensson
First focused on tennis in high school, and began to invest wholeheartedly in football only the second year, when he switched to the football line. After high school, he started studying for a master’s degree in economics in Borås, and combined it for a while with games in IFK Gothenburg’s A-team. He started playing football in the youth association Azalea BK in Gothenburg, and came to Blåvitt as a 14-year-old. As a 20-year-old, he was a key player in the team that won the Swedish Championship gold in 2007.
Victor Claesson
IFK Värnamo’s team in division 1 in 2010 was something special. A group of players around the age of 17 who had been raised in the club with the player legend and the town’s big son Jonas Thern as coach were involved and took Värnamo up in the Superettan. There were future foreign professionals and all-Swedish profiles such as Simon Thern, Joseph Baffo and Loret Sadiku, and Viktor Claesson. Claesson then played with Elfsborg in the Allsvenskan for several years, and moved abroad, to Russian Krasnodar, first as a 25-year-old.
Emil Krafth
Started playing in Lagans AIK when he was five years old. He was promoted to the A-team in both football and floorball as a 13-14-year-old, but after the elite boys’ camp in Halmstad for 15-year-olds, several clubs were interested in recruiting him. He chose to move to Växjö and Öster and their elite team, as the elite preparatory activity was then called. He played his debut season in the Superettan for Öster’s A-team as a 17-year-old.
Mikael Lustig
When Mikael Lustig made his debut in Blågult, he became the 16th Västerbotten ever to play in the men’s national team. He was raised in Sandåkerns SK, where he made his debut in division 4 as a 15-year-old. He had then had a tough transition from seven-man to eleven-man football, and was not selected for the elite boys’ camp in Halmstad. A year later, physics had caught up. Steve Galloway, attacking star in Djurgården in the 80s, was his coach in Sandåkern and then in Umeå FC where Lustig was recruited to the A-team after a year in division 4.
Emil Forsberg
The Bundesliga star made his debut for Gif Sundsvall already as a 17-year-old – and it is an achievement he is not alone in the Forsberg family. Grandfather Lennart, who passed away last year, and father Leif were also 17 years old when they made their debut for the club. In 2012, Emil Forsberg was recruited to Malmö. There were two seasons and as many Allsvenskan golds before the move went to Leipzig.
Marcus Berg
As a child in IFK Velen, Marcus Berg used to be replaced when he scored too many goals, the old coach Per-Anders Persson has told for SVT Värmland. Via Torsby IF, Marcus Berg came to IFK Gothenburg as a 17-year-old, where he played with his older brother Jonatan. He made his debut in the A-team two years later. After another two years and a Swedish Championship gold with Blåvitt, he was sold to Groningen in the Netherlands for 38 million Swedish kronor, the most expensive player sale ever for IFK Gothenburg.
Read more:
Academy new way to the Swedish national football team
The veteran notices a change in the national team: “When I was younger, they were last in the queue”
“I remember him as a little puppy with two big front teeth”
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