Cultural journey awaits as Dane Tomasson takes Sweden reins
Sports
The choice of Tomasson has caused murmurs of discontent among Swedish fans
(Reuters) - Sweden are set for a cultural shake-up after their new Danish manager Jon Dahl Tomasson took the reins on Friday promising modern attacking football that he hopes will quell the discontent at his appointment expressed by some fans.
The choice of Tomasson - joint top scorer for bitter Scandinavian rivals Denmark - has caused murmurs of discontent among Swedish fans but he was all smiles when he was presented to the media after a dramatic video as his contract commenced.
Flanked by Swedish Football Association (SvFF) general secretary Andrea Mollerberg and head of football Kim Kallstrom, Tomasson made light of those gripes.
"My task is to create an international identity of football, an attacking mindset, a challenge I really love," Tomasson told reporters, before addressing one of their main concerns.
"Then there is the next challenge - I will not be talking Swedish, because I want to be understood. I also want to understand everybody, understand the questions," he told reporters, much to their relief.
Swedish and Danish are part of the same family of Scandinavian languages but speakers often struggle to understand each other when talking and there are differences when it comes to their football philosophies too.
Tomasson was schooled in Denmark's Dutch-inspired style of fluid, passing football, while Sweden traditionally adopted a more direct approach that had its roots in the teaching of British coaches such as Roy Hodgson and Bob Houghton.
The 47-year-old is well aware of these issues. Having grown up across the Oresund bridge in Copenhagen, he faced Sweden on a number of occasions as a player and went on to manage Malmo FF to the Swedish title in 2020 and 2021.
"I'm looking forward to this journey, this great journey with this great country with our fans, to create an attacking football mind. A mindset where we want to enjoy the game, the fans should join us on this great journey," he said.
Tomasson takes over a side that performed well under Janne Andersson but then suffered an alarming slide, missing the COVID-delayed Euro 2020 and Qatar World Cup and will not be in Germany at this year's European Championship either.
"(It's) a journey where there probably will be ups and downs but a journey we need to do together - a new era," he said.
That journey will begin in Stockholm on March 25 when the Swedes take on Albania in a friendly at the Friends Arena.
