At halftime of the World Cup qualifying match between Sweden and Serbia - 274 days after his last match as national team head coach (the European Championship quarter-final against England) - the fans were given the opportunity to thank Peter Gerhardsson.
The fact that he is a popular former national team head coach was evident from the cheers from the blue and yellow team. To the tunes of favorite artist Thåström and the chants of the Swedish fans, the 66-year-old walked half a lap of honor at Strawberry Arena. He had 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.
He never got the gold he was after. But Olympic silver, two World Cup bronze medals and a European Championship semi-final were strong assets for the Swedish women's national football team during Gerhardsson's time at the helm. Another exclamation point was that in 2023 the national team reached first place in the world rankings for the first time.
His strongest memories from his time as national team head coach, however, are neither medals nor specific achievements on the pitch. What weighs most heavily are instead 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.
That time at Götaplatsen when we got there, that's probably the absolute biggest and coolest moment.
