During the years as national team captain, Janne Andersson wrote a diary.
This spring, a selection of the content will be released in book form.
There will be some fun and interesting stuff, like me and Zlatan, he says.
Together with Henrik Johnsson, among other things co-author of Ludmila Engquist’s autobiography 2024, Andersson publishes the book “Då var då – Janne Andersson’s diary as the union captain”.
Henrik and I met in connection with my summer talk ten years ago and we kept in touch. Then we met after every national team meeting.
It’s solid material we’ve put together. We have to hope that someone wants to read, Andersson says and laughs.
Much of the content is known, others have so far not reached the public. The diary is published backwards, with the most recent of the seven-plus years as the men’s national football team captain first.
“More or less dramatic”
Something special you want to tell?
There is of course some stuff from “behind the scenes”, more or less dramatic, but for me it is really a description of what I thought, thought, felt, how I thought and reflected then and there in a job that is very unusual.
It’s not a book where I have to settle something or speak out.
Janne Andersson’s last time was marked by sporting setbacks, the fight with the expert Bojan Djordjic on live broadcast and the terrorist attack in Brussels.
It started better. In spring 2016, he signed the contract as national team captain in a parking lot in Katrineholm. The finest job he knew.
“The best job you can have” Janne Andersson had for over seven years. Archive image.
Photo: Henrik Montgomery/TT
Janne Andersson became popular while the successes and setbacks intertwined during an eventful time with successful qualifiers, quarter-finals in the World Cup 2018 and group victory in the European Championship 2021. Along the way, Sweden felled giants such as Italy, France and Spain.
“A wonderful time”
My seven and a half years as national team captain will always be a big part of who I am and became. It was an amazing time. I stepped in with thoughts and ideas and stepped out with many experiences richer, but I was the same then as now, at least had the same ideals and philosophy, says Janne Andersson.
How is your relationship with the national team today?
By stepping aside, I think you should do it seriously. I have received many questions about what I think and think, but I don’t want to talk about that. Now it is others who decide.
That was then, but I hope with all my heart that it will go well, that they will make the playoffs and go to the WC, says Janne Andersson.
Facts: Janne Andersson’s diary
+ With 94 caps, Janne Andersson is Sweden’s most national team captain of all time. In 2018, the national team reached the quarter-finals in the WC and in 2021 the round of 16 in the EC.
+ When he took office in the summer of 2016, together with the writer, producer and presenter Henrik Johnsson, he started writing a diary about the job as the national team captain.
+ The book will be released by the publisher Vibery Press on April 7. Then it is ten years to the day since Andersson was presented as the national team captain.
