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Sweden’s national coach Hamrén to step down

UPDATED: Sweden national coach Erik Hamrén announced on Monday that he will quit when his contract runs out after the Euro 2016 finals in France this summer.

Published: 1 February 2016 08:46 CET
Updated: 1 February 2016 14:06 CET

Sweden's national coach Hamrén to step down

Sweden football coach Erik Hamrén at Monday's press conference. Photo: Janerik Henriksson/TT

Hamrén made the formal announcement at a press conference on Monday afternoon, after sports website Fotbollskanalen broke the story earlier in the morning.

“I have decided to quit as coach when my contract runs out after the Euro 2016 in France this summer,” he told reporters.

Hamrén took the reins of the national team from Lars Lagerbäck in autumn 2009, who stepped down after Sweden failed to qualify for the World Championships in South Africa.

But he too faced criticism after Sweden performed worse than expected in the Euro qualifiers last year, only ending up third in its group behind Austria and Russia. However his contract was automatically extended for the summer after the team eventually managed to clinch a place in the finals.

His legacy will likely be measured in terms of how well Sweden perform in France. But they are expected to face a tough challenge, after being drawn in a group comprising of Italy, Belgium and the Republic of Ireland.

Their first game will be against Ireland on June 13th in Saint-Denis, then Italy in Toulouse on June 17th and finally Belgium in Nice on June 22nd. The top two teams from each group qualify for the knock-out stages of the competition.

The Swedish Football Association did not want to comment on who could take over after Hamrén. However, names that have previously been linked to the position are Helsingborg FF's manager, and former national footballer and Celtic legend, Henrik Larsson; Håkan Ericson, who is currently in charge of the U21 national team; new Denmark coach Åge Hareide and IFK Gothenburg coach Jörgen Lennartsson.

FC Barcelona's Spanish midfielder Alexia Putellas poses after being awarded thewomen's Ballon d'Or award.

FC Barcelona's Spanish midfielder Alexia Putellas poses after being awarded thewomen's Ballon d'Or award. Photo: FRANCK FIFE / AFP

Putellas is the third winner of the prize, following in the footsteps of Ada Hegerberg, who won the inaugural women’s Ballon d’Or in 2018, and United States World Cup star Megan Rapinoe, winner in 2019.

Putellas captained Barcelona to victory in this year’s Champions League, scoring a penalty in the final as her side hammered Chelsea 4-0 in Gothenburg.

She also won a Spanish league and cup double with Barca, the club she joined as a teenager in 2012, and helped her country qualify for the upcoming Women’s Euro in England.

Her Barcelona and Spain teammate Jennifer Hermoso finished second in the voting, with Sam Kerr of Chelsea and Australia coming in third.

It completes an awards double for Putellas, who in August was named player of the year by European football’s governing body UEFA.

But it’s also a huge win for Spain as it’s the first time in 61 years that a Spanish footballer – male or female – is crowned the world’s best footballer of the year, and only the second time in history a Spaniard wins the Ballon d’Or.

Former Spanish midfielder Luis Suárez (not the ex Liverpool and Barça player now at Atlético) was the only Spanish-born footballer to win the award in 1960 while at Inter Milan. Argentinian-born Alfredo Di Stefano, the Real Madrid star who took up Spanish citizenship, also won it in 1959.

Who is Alexia Putellas?

Alexia Putellas grew up dreaming of playing for Barcelona and after clinching the treble of league, cup and Champions League last season, her status as a women’s footballing icon was underlined as she claimed the Ballon d’Or on Monday.

Unlike the men’s side, Barca’s women swept the board last term with the 27-year-old, who wears “Alexia” on the back of her shirt, at the forefront, months before Lionel Messi’s emotional departure.

Attacker Putellas, who turns 28 in February, spent her childhood less than an hour’s car journey from the Camp Nou and she made her first trip to the ground from her hometown of Mollet del Valles, for the Barcelona derby on January 6, 2000.

Barcelona's Spanish midfielder Alexia Putellas (R) vies with VfL Wolfsburg's German defender Kathrin Hendrich — Putellas plays as a striker for Barça and Spain. GABRIEL BOUYS / POOL / AFP

Exactly 21 years later she became the first woman in the modern era to score in the stadium, against Espanyol. Her name was engraved in the club’s history from that day forward, but her story started much earlier.

She started playing the sport in school, against boys.

“My mum had enough of me coming home with bruises on my legs, so she signed me up at a club so that I stopped playing during break-time,” Putellas said last year.

So, with her parent’s insistence, she joined Sabadell before being signed by Barca’s academy.

“That’s where things got serious… But you couldn’t envisage, with all one’s power, to make a living from football,” she said.

After less than a year with “her” outfit, she moved across town to Espanyol and made her first-team debut in 2010 before losing to Barca in the final of the Copa de la Reina.

She then headed south for a season at Valencia-based club Levante before returning “home” in July 2012, signing for Barcelona just two months after her father’s death.

In her first term there she helped Barca win the league and cup double, winning the award for player of the match in the final of the latter competition.

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