When Zlatan met Arsène – and how the former Liverpool defender Glenn Hysen got involved in a spat between his son and John Guidetti
This article is part of the Guardian's Euro 2012 Experts' Network, a co-operation between 16 of the best media organisations from the countries who have qualified for the finals in Poland and Ukraine. guardian.co.uk is running previews from two countries each day in the runup to the tournament kicking off on 8 June.
Tobias Hysen
No one in Sweden has missed the fact that teenager John Guidetti, who turned 20 in April, has scored a ton of goals for Feyenoord and has a large following who want to see him in the Swedish squad. But he lost some support after being quoted in a magazine questioning the credentials of his rival Tobias Hysen, who still plays in Sweden: "How can Hysen even compare himself to me? He plays in Allsvenskan, bro. Allsvenskan can never be as big as the Dutch league."
All hell broke loose after that, Guidetti apologised to everyone and said that he loved both Tobias Hysen and his father Glenn Hysen (ex-Liverpool and Fiorentina), and everyone agreed it was not a problem. It was a joke that did not work out.
The following weekend Guidetti played for Feyenoord and missed a header against Twente, but a defender put the ball into the net for an own goal anyway.
Glenn Hysen soon tweeted: "What the hell Guidetti, Tobbe had put that one away without the defender. Have it good. Glenn."
Anders Svensson
In the 2002 World Cup Anders Svensson was the new, young player everyone wanted to see in the team. He obliged and sent Argentina home from Japan with a nice free-kick. Four years later in Germany Svensson was just the opposite and Sweden's biggest paper, Aftonbladet, had a campaign for the new favourite Kim Kallstrom, who many fans now wanted to play instead of Svensson.
For Svensson it was tough as he was booed by fans when the team practised at their base in Bremen, and they even hoisted Sweden shirts where they had crossed out Svensson's name and added Kallstrom's.
For him the World Cup ended with a bore draw against Trinidad in the first group game, he was dropped and considered quitting the national team: "It's not worth it, playing for a team where your own fans boo you. Then you might as well just stop, after all it is the people's team."
In Ukraine, Anders Svensson can reach 130 caps for Sweden and it will be his fifth championship. He is once again appreciated by the fans. What a roller-coaster ride.
Olof Mellberg
When the defender decided to leave Aston Villa for Juventus in May 2008 he wanted to thank the fans. He bought 3,200 Villa shirts and had his No4 printed on them and also wrote: "Mellberg Thanks 4 Your Support" and then he gave them to the Villa fans who went to his final game at West Ham. It cost him over £50,000 and he spent many hours signing them all, but he thought it was worth it. "I wouldn't be here making the money I have from football if it was not for those supporters," he said.
Andreas Isaksson
Andreas Isaksson and Zlatan Ibrahimovic were born on the same day, just a couple of miles apart in Skane. But the difference between being a superstar and a regular in the national team was never more apparent than last autumn, when both turned 30 while the national team were gathered for a European Championship qualifier.
While Zlatan was lauded with extra coverage, extra broadcasts and extra everything in Italy and Sweden, no one hardly noticed the other birthday boy. "I got away easy," the goalkeeper said with a shy smile.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
There are so many it is almost impossible to choose. Last year he published his autobiography, parts of which go some way to explaining the enigma that is Zlatan. He talks about getting a slap in the face from his mother after falling off a roof rather than a cuddle, and of when he opens his father's fridge to find only beer, no food. "I looked everywhere for one macaroni or a meatball but there was nothing," he wrote.
The year before he joined Ajax, Arsène Wenger had invited him to London in an attempt to persuade him to choose Arsenal when he left Malmo. It was amicable enough. Wenger gave him an Arsenal shirt with Ibrahimovic and No9 on the back, but the Frenchman knew that the player was not for sale at the time and did not ask too many questions.
He did, however, ask if Ibrahimovic was afraid of anything. "No," replied the 18-year-old. "I am not afraid of anything. Only God." Wenger did not know what to make of the answer but Ibrahimovic, who is not religious, recalled later: "Ha, ha. He [Wenger] just looked at me. He had such an awesome stare. He didn't look at you, he looked straight through you. It was just someone you respected straight away."
And the coaches …
Erik Hamren
Sweden are going to Ukraine after failing to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and with a new coach in Erik Hamren, who has never been to a big championship before. The last two times that happened it did not end well.
Olle Nordin led Sweden to Italy in 1990, their first World Cup since 1978, and after beating Wales 4-2 and Finland 6-0 in the warm-ups many thought the team would challenge. Instead, they lost 2–1, 2–1 and 2–1 to Brazil, Scotland and Costa Rica respectively, amid a highly publicised visit by the wags mid-tournament, when the then Liverpool defender Glenn Hysen promised that "the beds would be smoking".
Nordin, who did not sign a new contract before the World Cup because he dreamt of better offers, subsequently lost his job.
In 2000 Tommy Soderberg and Lars Lagerback took Sweden to the Netherlands and Belgium after two missed European Championships. They set up camp in Oijsterwijk, a small village, and the players were made to train like maniacs, but it did not work because they were bored and trained too much. Sweden lost to Belgium and Italy and only managed a 0-0 draw against Turkey in a game that was classified as the worst of the tournament.
Marcus Allback
The former Aston Villa striker Marcus Allback has had a long career with Sweden, with whom he took part in five championships, and this time he will be on the bench as a coach.
As a player he started at the World Cup in Japan 2002 but did not do very well. He had become a father for the first time just before that tournament and now he was far away from his family and it affected him, he admitted afterwards.
What he did not know was that the coaches Lars Lagerback and Tommy Soderberg had microphones on them during that World Cup. After it a Swedish broadcaster got a hold of the recordings and it turned out that Lagerback wanted to substitute Allback at half-time in the round of 16 game against Senegal but Soderberg did not. "We will break a player," he said, "sometimes I'm so sad that he is having such a hard time." Extraordinary.
Olof Lundh, is the editor in chief at fotbollskanalen.se
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