Freddie Ljungberg- Arsenals “Super Swede”
In 1998 Freddie Ljungberg was brought to Highbury by Arsene Wenger for a mere £3 million where he would remain for the next nine years of his playing career.
Ljungberg had had a fairly successful time in his homeland before joining the Gunners from Swedish side Halmstad where he’d victoriously lifted the 1997 Allsvenskan (the top division of Swedish football). A couple of years beforehand he’d tasted his first domestic pleasure in holding the national cup, the Svenska Cupen in 1995.
At Arsenal he would go onto clinch two league titles and three FA Cups under the highly successful early period of Wenger’s reign.
The Winger got off to a flying start finding the back of the net on his debut versus Manchester United as a super-sub during a 3-0 win. By the end of his first campaign at Highbury he’d made 21 matches and a further impressive 43 appearances a year later during the 1999/2000 season. As Wenger aimed to lift his second FA Cup against Liverpool in 2001 Ljungberg grabbed the opener before Arsenal were hung 2-1 by the Merseysider’s after 90 minutes.
After nearly four relentless years at The Gunners Ljungberg picked up his first Premier League trophy by the end of 2002 02 season, as well as FA Cup where he ended up on the winning side at last scoring the second in a 2-0 victory against Chelsea. After Arsenal won their last double, he was crowned Premier League player of the season thanks to his fine performances watching him rack up 17 strikes to his name.
Fast-forward a year and Arsenal were in a third consecutive FA Cup final after Ljungberg cracked in the winner versus Sheffield United in a tight 1-0 semi-final win. He would appear in the 2003 final claiming his second FA Cup Winners medal after Southampton were carefully dispatched 1-0.
The versatile winger who could play on either flank was a part of the 2003/04 Invincible squad which went a whole Premier League campaign undefeated. In 2005 Ljungberg stepped up from the spot and converted a crucial penalty in the FA Cup final winning shootout against Manchester United after Arsenal had drawn 0-0 with Manchester United following extra-time. Ljungberg had also struggled from blood poising that year after having mighty tattoos embedded on his skin as well as a constant hip injury but was still able to contribute to Arsenals FA Cup glory.
Things wouldn’t get much easier with his body in 2006 after being tormented by another niggling ankle injury, despite this he appeared for Arsenals late crippling Champions League Final defeat to Barcelona 2-1. Wenger publicly expressed his frustration over these non-stop injuries which had disrupted Ljunberg’s natural flare on the ball. However, the Frenchman declared “Ljungberg still has a lot to offer to Arsenal” in early 2007. Within months Ljungberg endured his final match for the Gunners versus Spurs which witnessed him come off due to being plagued with injury again. Ljungberg would end up leaving for West Ham United in the summer where he would remain till only 2008 after Wenger was certain the Swede would live out his contract till 2009. He had played 216 times for the North Londoners where he fired 46 times. Ljungberg later spent a handful of seasons abroad playing for Seattle Sounders, Chicago Fire, Celtic, Shimizu S-Pulse and Mumbai City before retiring in 2014 as a footballer.
Ljungberg also made nearly 80 games for his country Sweden netting on 14 occasions playing from 1998-2008. He was also made skipper at international level for eight of the nine Euro 2008 qualifying games seeing him score once.
In 2016 Ljungberg returned to Arsenal being in charge of the u-15s in the clubs academy set up. Although not long afterwards Freddie became assistant manager to Andries Jonker at Val Wolfsburg next to Uwe Speidel where he would hardly stay lasting only half a year before being let go come September 2017.
Ljungberg carried on his love affair with The Gunners in 2018 coming back to serve Arsenal u-23s before being pushed up the ladder to help the first team in early June 2019. By November the Swede was caretaker manager of the main side after Unai Emery was sacked. After being in charge of six games he claimed only one victory. Days later current head coach Mikel Arteta came through the doors as main man as Ljungberg was demoted to assistant manager.
In August 2020 after helping Arteta lift the FA Cup after Arsenal beat Chelsea 2-1 in the final Ljungberg stated that he was going to leave the Gunners, after playing second fiddle for too long where he was unable to fully exploit his position. He carried out that he wanted to “pursue new opportunities”. The Spanish man was confident afterwards that he would be rejoined by Ljungberg but since then he hasn’t been and nor has the Swede been involved with a team on the coaching side of things since.
Liam Harding
ADMIN COMMENT
So here are some simple rules which I must insist commenters follow….
You agree not to give any personal abuse to other Arsenal fans. Everyone is allowed to hold their own opinions even if you disagree with them. It COSTS NOTHING TO BE POLITE TO OTHER ARSENAL FANS.
