The Swedish Football Association has met with Ole Gunnar Solskjær

The deal with Olof Mellberg crashed. Australia announced that Tony Gustavsson will be difficult to get off for the March collection. As a result, those in charge at the Swedish Football Association had to re-evaluate the process that will lead to the recruitment of a new national team captain.

The plan since before Christmas has been that Mellberg and Gustavsson would take over Blågult together, but it was scrapped this weekend when the discussions with the former collapsed. After that, the officials at the association who lead the recruitment work have had meetings to stake out the way forward, according to information to the Football Channel.

Tony Gustavsson not ruled out

SvFF already has a long list of candidates to start from plus a shorter list with more current names and sources that Fotbollskanalen spoke to do not rule out that new names can be added to the short list when the situation becomes as it is. It is also expected that the association’s head of football, Kim Källström, will be even more active going forward as he entered in the middle of the process when he got the job on December 6.

The trail around Tony Gustavsson is not completely closed, the Football Channel learns. But he does not look like he will be able to leave Australia’s women’s national team in time for Sweden’s gathering in March, and that is one thing that speaks against him. SvFF thought that he and Mellberg would complement each other well in a duo, and when the BP coach has now completely disappeared, Gustavsson’s hope of getting the job lies in the association finding another candidate who is judged to work with him.

Former great player Ole Gunnar Solskjær current

Tony Gustavsson is on a contract with Australia that extends over the Olympics this summer and it is therefore only after that tournament that he looks like he could be available for Sweden. Australia qualifies against Uzbekistan in a dual meet in February and possibly that could change in the event of a missed Olympics.

Since it became clear that Janne Andersson would leave his post, the question of whether a foreign coach can become national team captain has been debated. So far, only Swedish names or coaches who have experience of having worked in Sweden have been singled out as current in the media. But the fact is that SvFF is not locked in that it must be a Swede or a person with all-Swedish experience who takes over, even if a coach from the Nordic market is the main track.

The football channel can reveal that former great player and Manchester United coach Ole Gunnar Solskjær is a name that the association considered. Several sources state that SvFF met Solskjær in December and that the Norwegian was interested in meeting.

Never played in Sweden

However, that was before the football association decided to go for Mellberg/Gustavsson, and therefore it is unclear whether the Norwegian is still current or interested in the job of the association captain.

The 50-year-old Solskjær has never played or worked in Sweden but has a good knowledge of Nordic football from his years as a player and coach in Molde. Solskjær has been without a club since being sacked by Manchester United in November 2021 and has moved back to his homeland.

Among other things, he has worked for Uefa analyzing matches in the Champions League and taking care of youth teams in Norway, and was open in one of the few interviews that he rejected a number of offers, but that he wanted to work again.

– Yes, and I have had offers. Most recently two from Saudi Arabia. My best friend, who is also my agent, goes through the bids. If you were manager of Manchester United, you can have your own requirements about what you want to work on, Solskjaer said in The Athletic in September.

Have had contact with Jon Dahl Tomasson

SvFF can in no way measure up financially to the salary the Norwegian had at United, or the one he can be offered by clubs for which he may be relevant, and is therefore a long shot for the association. Recently, for example, he was linked with the Turkish big club Besiktas.

According to information to the Football Channel, SvFF has also had contact with Blackburn’s current coach and former Malmö FF coach Jon Dahl Tomasson. The Dane has previously been the assistant captain of the Danish men’s national team and has received very good words for his work in the MFF, but the Dane was cooler than Solskjaer when the SvFF decided on Mellberg/Gustavsson.

On Monday, SvFF’s new football manager Kim Källström said the following about the search for Janne Andersson’s replacement:

– The recruitment process is ongoing and we have a solid platform to start from and a lot of work that has been done around requirements profiling and mapping. The most important thing is that it gets right and the issue is of course a high priority for us.

The soccer channel has applied for SvFF’s general secretary Andrea Möllerberg.