On April 7, 2016, Andersson was presented as national team head coach. On that date ten years later, anyone who wants to can take a look at what he thought and felt along the way. 329 pages cover seven and a half years as head coach of the national team.
The diary entries oscillate between the everyday and the big questions. They discuss concerns about the future of Swedish football, loss of trust, the genuine joy at the successes, the sadness over suggestions that he does not treat everyone equally. And more.
A common thread running through the book, "Then and Now - Janne Andersson's Diary as National Team Head Coach", is the relationship with Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
It traces the story, which begins at the end of 2023 and works its way back to the meeting with the Swedish Football Association's general secretary Håkan Sjöstrand at Biltema's parking lot in Katrineholm in the spring of 2016.
“Cat and mouse game”
Ibrahimovic was involved early on. Before Sweden's final match of the European Championship against Belgium in 2016, he announced that his international career was over - a decision he stood by when Andersson called him later that summer.
Ibrahimovic's interest in the national team never let up. It grew when Sweden qualified for the World Cup in the fall of 2017. He posted on social media in ways that could be interpreted as wanting to return.
"'We are Zweden' is a funny provocation, but it sticks to the business I am tasked with leading. It irritates me, and it irritates me that I irritate myself," Andersson writes.
"I'm sticking to what's been decided. If he gets in touch, I'll go over and go through our guiding principles with him, but I'm not going to fall back and give in because of this cat and mouse game."
That would continue for a couple more years. Andersson is occasionally irritated in public. The anger comes out in his diary. The media gets a kick out of it.
The meeting in Milan
"Zlatan has apparently implied that I am racist, called me incompetent and called my team selection a joke. This is said by a player who did not want to be involved. He left a national team in ruins and talks about what he has built. No one examines what he means, checks the numbers or asks him to elaborate; everyone runs his errands and focuses on what sells - the conflict."
So it happens: they met in a hotel in Milan at the end of 2020. They talked it out, directly and honestly, and found each other.
Andersson notes: "I can't stop thinking about what he once said: If I had only met you a minute earlier, everything would have been different."
Facts: The quote
"Against the backdrop of Zlatan's onslaught and the circus that followed, something dark and energy-consuming has taken over the good of devoting oneself to people and football."
(About the racist label)
"He has an overview. His loyalty is enormous. Professional in everything. He knows that without structure we won't win games, and all he wants is to win football matches."
(About Zlatan, when they got to know each other)
"I don't believe in leadership where you have to scold people. If I find myself in a situation where I have to scold someone, it's a failure for me, because then I haven't been clear enough."
(About his leadership style)
"Cancer overshadows everything and puts a completely different perspective on life. It's a fucking mess. I'm more pissed off than sad."
(Shortly before the 2018 World Cup, it was announced that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer)
"Early that morning, long before we were supposed to get up, the fire alarm went off in the hotel. We had to evacuate and lost some sleep. I don't believe in coincidence. Maybe an Englishman on the staff? What do I know?"
(The national team was woken up early for the World Cup quarter-final against England in 2018)
"If you don't want to sit here all night, you have to move now. I'll lock the gate."
(The security guard at Biltema's parking lot in 2016)
"We let a hotel director influence the decision. Unbelievable. When we then beat them 1–0 at home, we couldn't highlight CM in the media. If we had revealed our tactical source, he would have been in hell."
(About the secret Italian informant CM ahead of the playoff meetings with Italy in 2017)
