Sven Goran Eriksson (74) is back in Swedish football. IF Karlstad Fotboll recently announced the appointment of “Svennis” as their new Director of Sports. He has worked for the club as a consultant as they try to find a path up to the top of Swedish football.
Karlstad is a sleeping city when it comes to football, been seen as a major “hockey” town with Farjestad as the top club for sports in that area of Sweden. For people following hockey, we all know how a great number of Swedish hockey talents have used Farjestad as a step towards becoming major NHL stars.
Karlstad is also a town close to were Sven Goran Eriksson grew up. Torsby, the home town of Svennis, is just an hour drive away and in his playing days he used to play for a team named Karlskoga, a neighbour city of Karlstad.
IF Karlstad Fotball is a merger between two local clubs, Karlstad BK and Carlstad United. This happened in 2019, but has not really been a “big lift” in the first three years. The trio of Sven Goran Eriksson, new head coach Albert Bunjaki and goalkeeper coach Stefan Remner will be interesting to follow as they hopefully will bring this merger to a better place.
Svennis knows the game in and out, but during the press conference yesterday he admitted he needed help in the start to get the track on everything regarding Swedish third tier league football. This was a real down to earth press conference, lovely atmosphere and big laughs as major men of this area makes their plans known.
Svennis could be back at Leicester to try to find talent for his project. 10 years ago, George Taft played on loan for one of the merger clubs, Karlstad BK. Taft has later played at a number of English League clubs and this season represents Scunthorpe United.
Despite being long into his retirement years, he is still eager to work and have hunger to start a new project and adventure that hopefully will lead to a positive lift for a region that has no real football tradtion at the highest level.
A merger of clubs can often be the solution for a city of this dimention as smaller groups of local rivalry at lower levels makes it difficult to unite to a sporting culture good enough to be able to bring a team on board to make that special lift.
We wish former Leicester manager Sven Goran Eriksson all the best as he again takes on a new challenge, hopefully able to give this porejct a major push and bring it forward, so for everyone who likes to be informed, follow IF Karlstad Fotboll next season in “Ettan”.
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