The Swedish NBA player is coming off a successful season with the Miami Heat. The national team will be joined by two more players who played in the United States during the winter, Bobi Klintman, who had an injury-plagued season with the Detroit Pistons, and Elliot Cadeau, who had college success at Michigan.
Every time Bobi and I meet, we talk about the national team, says Larsson, who is looking forward to the match against the Czech Republic.
Sweden has two matches left in the first round of qualifying for the 2027 World Cup in Qatar, against the Czech Republic at Hovet in Stockholm on Friday night and away against Slovenia next Monday. A Swedish victory in both is likely a must to advance in the qualifiers.
"I don't know how good a team we have because we haven't played any games. We haven't really had time to play together. The focus will be on playing as hard as possible and with as much energy as possible because we have a young, healthy team that can run away from the others," says Larsson.
Larsson believes that Sweden has enough talent to challenge any nation in Europe. Last year in the European Championship, they challenged eventual finalist Turkey in the round of 16.
It was as close as could be.
Today's national team is even stronger on paper.
"Right now the focus is on the match on Friday, but we want to build for the future as well. This is the start of playing together for several years to come," says Larsson.
Let's start negotiating.
Larsson is under contract in Miami for the upcoming season after the club picked up the final year of his current contract. Next week he has the opportunity to begin negotiations on a new contract.
He's not entirely sure how quickly he wants to move forward in new contract negotiations.
I'm a little divided on the issue, because I feel like I can show more and increase my value, but at the same time, there's always something that's guaranteed to be very nice and can take some pressure off sometimes, says Larsson about the upcoming talks.
Klintman debuts
Because he doesn't have to look far to see that everyday life can change quickly. Teammate Bobi Klintman had an injury-plagued season with the Detroit Pistons and was limited to just twelve games. After some speculation, it was announced on Thursday that 23-year-old Klintman is signing a contract with Italian club Virtus Bologna.
"It's quite a bit of chaos now, but in a positive way. I have a couple of offers on the table. I'm looking for a place where they trust me and I get to play a lot," Klintman has previously said about the future.
But right now all focus is on the national team debut on Friday against the Czech Republic.
"It's exciting. If we play as a team, I think it will be hard to stop us," says Klintman.
Facts:
The Men's Basketball World Cup will be held from August 27 to September 12, 2027 in Qatar.
For Sweden to reach there, the team must make it through two qualifying rounds.
In the ongoing first qualifying round, Sweden faces the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Estonia. Sweden has won one of four matches with two matches left to play. Sweden needs to finish third worst in the group to advance to the next qualifying round.
In the second qualifying round, the three best placed teams from Sweden's group will face the three best teams in a group consisting of Belgium, Finland, France and Hungary. The teams will carry over the results from the first group stage. The three best placed teams from the new six-team group will qualify for the World Cup.
