Facts: Henriksson predicts this year’s season
The Premier League’s best player?
— Kevin de Bruyne.
Who will take home the gold?
— Manchester City.
Who are leaving?
— Fulham, Bournemouth and Leeds.
Exclamation mark of the year?
— Newcomer Nottingham Forest finishes top ten.
Disappointment of the year?
— I say Chelsea, so people wonder why I said that.
Who will win the shooting league?
— I think that (Mohamed) Salah does.
The esteemed radio announcer made his last broadcast when Sweden beat Switzerland in this summer’s soccer European Championship. Since then, he has had a holiday – and enjoyed a lot before his new role.
On Sunday, he settles down for the first time in the presenter’s chair to, together with his expert colleagues, guide the television viewers through the final matches in the season’s first Premier League round.
Richard Henriksson is looking forward to a season where many question marks are waiting to be resolved.
— What kind of Manchester United show up on Sunday? Where is Chelsea somewhere with all that has been and players on the way out? What will we see for Newcastle? Liverpool and Manchester City have almost set the bar for how good football teams can be – can they get even better?
“There’s Something Everywhere”
A talking point ahead of this year’s season is the Qatar World Cup, which kicks off at the end of November and further compresses the big leagues’ already hard-pressed game schedules. Another is the new signing of new signings – Manchester City’s Norwegian attacking star Erling Braut Haaland.
“The cool thing about the Premier League is that there is something everywhere, and you know that new big things are constantly appearing,” says Richard Henriksson.
TT: What will you miss from radio?
— Being at a World Cup final in football is hard to beat, but covering the Premier League is one of the few things that can compare with World Cup football.
Double experience
The presenter’s role in the Premier League studio is one of the heavier ones in Swedish sports journalism, but it is with great experience behind him – both as a footballer and a journalist – that Henriksson takes on his new role.
He ended his football career, with double SC gold for Djurgården as highlights, in 2009 and then moved on to become a football expert at Radiosporten.
Over the years, he has been part of Sweden’s largest radio program Sportextra, with 1.8 million listeners, reporting from World Cup finals and leading the program when Dane Christian Eriksen’s heart stopped live.
“The tension is there, but here I feel that I am contributing something directly,” he says.
The program management team at Viaplay already includes Jennifer Kücükaslan and Niklas Jihde.