Together with Henrik Johnsson, who co-authored Ludmila Engquist's 2024 autobiography, Andersson is publishing the book "Then was then - Janne Andersson's diary as national team coach".
Henrik and I met in connection with my summer talk ten years ago, and we kept in touch. Then we met after every national team meeting.
"It's a solid piece of material we've put together. We hope someone wants to read it," says Andersson, laughing.
Much of the content is known, but other parts have not yet reached the public. The diary is published backwards, with the most recent entries from his more than seven years as national team coach first.
“More or less dramatic”
Anything special you want to tell us?
There is, of course, some stuff from "behind the scenes", more or less dramatic, but for me it is really a description of what I thought, felt, and how I pondered and reflected there and then in a job that is very unusual.
"It's not a book where I'm going to make up for anything or speak out."
Janne Andersson's last days were marked by sporting setbacks, the clash with pundit Bojan Djordjic on live television and the terrorist attack in Brussels.
It started better. In a parking lot in Katrineholm, he signed the contract as national team coach in the spring of 2016. It was the best job he had known.
Janne Andersson became popular while successes and setbacks intertwined during an eventful time with successful qualifiers, a quarter-final in the 2018 World Cup and group victory in the 2021 European Championship. Sweden defeated giants like Italy, France and Spain along the way.
“A fantastic time”
"My seven and a half years as national team coach will always be a big part of who I am and became. It was a fantastic time. I stepped in with thoughts and ideas and stepped out many experiences richer, but I was the same then as now, at least I had the same ideals and philosophy," says Janne Andersson.
How is your relationship with the national team today?
When you step aside, I think you should do it seriously. I've been asked a lot of questions about what I think and feel, but I don't want to talk about that. Now it's up to others to decide.
"That was then, but I hope with all my heart that things will go well, that they make the playoffs and qualify for the World Cup," says Janne Andersson.
+ With 94 international matches in charge, Janne Andersson is Sweden's most capped national team coach of all time. In 2018, the national team reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup and in 2021 the round of 16 of the European Championship.
+ When he took office in the summer of 2016, he began writing a diary about his job as national team coach, together with author, producer and presenter Henrik Johnsson.
+ The book will be released by Vibery Press on April 7. That day marks ten years since Andersson was introduced as national team coach.
