At halftime of the World Cup qualifying match between Sweden and Serbia – 274 days after his last match as national team coach (the European Championship quarter-final against England) – the fans had their first opportunity to thank Peter Gerhardsson.
The fact that he is a popular former national team coach was evident from the cheers from the blue and yellow team. To the tunes of his favorite artist Thåström, the 66-year-old walked half a lap of honor at the Strawberry Arena, with his son Casper and wife Linda by his side.
"It's an honor to have been here for these eight years. But I can continue to be a supporter for the rest of my life," said Gerhardsson when he was interviewed on the home pitch.
Coolest memory
He never got the gold he was after. But Olympic silver, double World Cup bronze and a European Championship semi-final were certainly strong points during Gerhardsson's time at the helm. Another exclamation point was that the national team reached first place in the world rankings for the first time in 2023.
His strongest memories from his time as national team coach, however, are rather all the friendships he has made – and when the national team was welcomed by tens of thousands of fans at Götaplatsen in Gothenburg after the 2019 World Cup bronze medal.
It's probably the absolute biggest and coolest moment.
After Saturday's match, the focus shifted to four defenders who have also retired from the national team. Linda Sembrant (160 caps), Magdalena Eriksson (123), Jonna Andersson (112) and Hanna Glas (56) were all active during Gerhardsson's time - and more.
“Magda's Wall”
When video clips from their national team careers were shown on the big screen, it was difficult to keep emotions under control, Eriksson admits.
"Both because you understand everything we've been through together, but also because you understand that it's over now. Those feelings are hard to put into words," the Bayern Munich defender says.
The Swedish fans displayed a tifo with a large drawing of Magdalena Eriksson and the other three players' national team shirts underneath, with the text "Magda's Wall".
Such a farewell was not in her mind when she started playing football.
That's what's so cool and sad at the same time. Back then, you didn't really dream, because what would you dream about? So I feel so lucky that my time in the national team was perhaps the time when women's football grew the most and fastest," Eriksson says.
