Facts: Ludvig Håkanson
Born: 22 March 1996 in Stockholm.
Length: 189 centimeters.
Position: Guard.
Parent club: Alvik. Has basketball in his blood. Grandfather Egon, father Olle and mother Carolina have all been big profiles in basketball Sweden.
Current as: Successful professional in Surne Bilbao Basket.
“Ludde” Håkanson is currently experiencing his best season in his career and in recent weeks his form has been exceptional. First, the blue-and-yellow guard scored 29 points against Real Madrid itself in the intervening days – and was named player of the round in the entire league. And in the first home game of the year in Bilbao, Håkanson accounted for 25 points and 11 rebounds, the latter of which was a tangent to the club record.
“It’s great fun and I’m just trying to enjoy it,” says Håkanson.
Meditates every day
That the Stockholmer is sharp at basketball is not news. As a 15-year-old, Håkanson packed his bags and left Sweden to play for FC Barcelona, but it is only now that he is really starting to make a big name for himself in Spain. Mental training in the form of meditation and visualization has a large part in the fact that “Ludde” is now better than ever before.
— It has been extremely important. I started with a new guy (Gregor Schill in Gothenburg) three years ago, I meditate every day and talk to him two days a week, says Håkanson.
— When you visualize that everything is going really well, you enter the match in a completely different way, with the feeling that you have just had an incredible match in your head. It may sound vague, but it has helped me a lot.
TT: How close to the matches do you meditate?
— I meditate every morning, but also before the match and a short break just before we run out and start warming up. I even do it part time. It’s a big part of my daily routine. Just like I train shots, I train my head. It’s just as important to me.
“Is the Dream”
Bilbao is not a heavyweight in the Spanish league and the fact that after 16 rounds the team is in contention for eighth place, and thus a place in the Copa del Rey in February, is a positive surprise. The high-class efforts from Håkanson this year naturally arouse the interest of bigger clubs.
— My goal has always been to get to the Euroleague and if you score 29 points against Real, you feel that it is closer than it has ever been. That’s my goal and that’s the dream, then we’ll see if and when it happens, says “Ludde”, aware that in many ways he is already living his dream.
— I think I have trained and lived like a professional since I was 10-11 years old. I knew early on that I wanted to go abroad and then the chance to go to Barcelona came. Getting there was almost like a little fantasy world. I lived next door to Ansu Fati at (youth academy) La Masía and received treatment next to Messi. All of a sudden you were into it and thought it would be like that everywhere.
Professional life hasn’t been all that smooth all the time, but right now Håkanson is enjoying himself perfectly in the Basque city where he is starting to become an increasingly well-known face on the streets.
— Yes, it happens more and more that people come up and say hello and want to take selfies and stuff when you go out. But far from a hard way, it’s just fun.
This will be the twelfth season abroad and the third in Bilbao for Håkanson. In addition to short stays in Latvia and Poland, he has stayed in Spain.
“My biggest goal”
And when the Swedish national team calls, he has always stood up and put on the blue and yellow suit. Ludvig Håkanson is first in both the points and assists league in the ongoing WC qualifiers.
— For me, the national team is absolutely the finest and most powerful thing you can do. It has given me so much to be able to play with the national team and have the role of “the go-to guy” there. It has helped me a lot in order for things to go so well in the club team, he says.
There will be no World Cup for Sweden, who will finish the qualification with two matches in February. But Håkanson, who played at the European Championships in 2013 as a 17-year-old, would very much like to play more championships in the future.
— That is my biggest goal in my career. We’ve gotten so much better in recent years, I think the EC (2025) feels like a reasonable goal.
If that goal is to be reached, no player is as important as Ludvig Håkanson.