Five modern Swedish greats after record Ibrahimovic award
Published:
Matt Haynes | November 10, 2015
After Zlatan Ibrahimovic won the Swedish player of the year award for a record 10th time, Coral compile five other Swedish greats who have lit up the sport.
The forward first won it in 2005 and while he missed out a year later to the second name on this list, he has won it every year since, racking up total transfer fees of £150m playing for Juventus, Inter Milan, Barcelona, AC Milan and PSG who are 12/1 with Coral to win the Champions League this season. To date, he has scored a total of 332 domestic goals and 59 for his country.
Henrik Larsson
Having scored 434 goals domestically throughout his career, the centre forward also hit the back of the net on 37 occasions for Sweden in 104 appearances. During his career, he played for Feyenoord, Helsingborg, Celtic, Barcelona and Manchester United and is considered one of Sweden’s best-ever strikers.
Fredrik Ljungberg
Starting at Halmstad, the winger spent most of his time at Arsenal, where he established himself as one of the members of ‘the Invincibles’ side which went unbeaten. At the Gunners, he scored the majority of his goals, finding the net on 72 occasions in 216 outings, while he finished his career on a tally of 88.
Olof Mellberg
A true defensive leader, arguably the best Sweden have had, he spent most of his career at Aston Villa where he made 232 appearances proving to be a threat from set-pieces scoring eight goals. He also dispatched the same amount for his country earning 117 caps. In total, Mellberg played for a total of eight clubs during his career making 543 outings, netting 22 times.
Anders Svensson
Sweden’s most capped player with 148 international appearances, Svensson showed incredible loyalty to Elfsborg, spending 18 years as a professional there across two spells. Sandwiched in between was a four-year stint at Southampton, where he was part of the side that reached the 2003 FA Cup final.
Niclas Alexandersson
Renowned for his versatility, being able to play right back or on the wing, he was also known for his dribbling ability and stamina. Starting at Halmstads, he went onto play for Sheffield Wednesday and Everton in England, while featuring briefly at West Ham for a loan spell.
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