Facts: Janne Andersson
Born: 29 September 1962 in Halmstad.
Family: Wife Ulrika. Daughters Louise and Julia.
Occupation: Soccer coach.
Clubs as player: Alets IK, IS Halmia.
Clubs as coach: Alets IK (played coach), Halmstad (assistant), Laholms FK, Halmstad, Örgryte, IFK Norrköping. Has been the national team captain for the men’s national team since 2016.
With three matches left in the qualifying game, it is more or less written in stone that Sweden will miss the football European Championships next summer. But stepping aside already now does not seem to be Janne Andersson’s tune.
“It’s clear that it’s a very tough situation, but as long as the chance is there I’m not going to back down,” said Sweden’s national team captain in Viaplay’s studio after Tuesday’s 1-3 loss against Austria at Friends Arena.
A stance he repeated at the press conference when he was asked direct questions about his future.
— Today is a match that is actually quite good. In June in Austria (0–2) they were clearly better. But we have to play the matches that are left, so you have to add it up after that. I don’t give up from that perspective. I have witnessed greater miracles.
“Terrible location”
Andersson’s contract formally extends over the EC playoffs, but that is a technicality. If the association does not want to renew, he can go after the last qualifying match against Estonia in November.
It is not in the federation’s tradition to get rid of a federation captain in any other way than not extending the contract.
At the press conference after the Austria match, Andersson says that he currently has no plans to resign.
— We have a very difficult situation. But I have no thoughts today. I don’t get down because we lose football games. I have done that all my life.
Reasonably, the search for his successor will begin immediately – if it has not already been cautiously underway for a while.
Andersson has repeatedly pointed out that he “has the best job in the world” but everything has its time. Over seven years have passed since he and the union’s (retiring) general secretary Håkan Sjöstrand agreed on a parking lot in Katrineholm.
Supported by Lindelöf
Seven years of initial great success followed by some significantly more difficult moments.
The magical playoff in Milan 2017 led to the WC and a quarter-final place in Russia. He also reached the EC, which due to the pandemic was only decided in 2021.
Somewhere, the darker clouds drifted in over the “football worker from Halmstad”. He received criticism after the loss against Ukraine in the EC Round of 16. The job didn’t get any easier when many of the generation of players he leaned on retired.
Despite a brilliant start in the World Cup qualifiers – 2–1 against Spain at home – the national team fell short in Greece and Georgia and missed the next playoff for the World Cup.
Add in the breakdown in the Nations League last year and the failed ongoing European Championship qualification and the Andersson era may soon be over.
— The consequence is that the result means that the road to the EC is long. It’s going to be tough going all the way, but I’m not giving up. There are a number of more matches to be played and bigger wonders have happened, says the national team captain.
Sweden still has to face Belgium in Brussels in October and finish the qualifiers a month later against Azerbaijan in Baku and against Estonia at home at the Friends arena.
After the 1–3 loss against Austria, Sweden’s team captain Victor Nilsson Lindelöf is asked if he thinks Andersson should remain in the EC qualifiers.
“I really think so,” he says.