Freddie Ljungberg
Catching up with Freddie Ljungberg
Freddie Ljungberg had a remarkable nine-year career at Arsenal, picking up along the way two Premier League title, three FA Cups, and the 2002 BarclayCard Premier League Player of the Year. In 2008, Arsenal fans voted him as the 11th-best player in history in the club. After a stint at West Ham, Freddie surprised many football-watchers by signing a deal with Major League Soccer to play with the expansion team Seattle Sounders.
Earlier this summer, USA.Arsenal.com's Kevin Mooney caught up with Freddie in Portland, Oregon to talk about his time at Arsenal and how he is settling in America.
USA.Arsenal.com: Freddie, how do you look back on your time at Arsenal?
Freddie Ljungberg: We had a very, very successful team. And I had a great time with the club and the players and the fans. Of course it’s good memories.
USA.Arsenal.com: Your debut could not have gone much better I would think. A goal against Manchester United just a few minutes after coming off the bench for the first time?
Freddie Ljungberg: Normally I never get nervous, but that day, of course, it was my debut in England and fans were screaming my name, I think, from the whistle go, and I was like, I remember I was shaking on the sideline… it was an amazing feeling and I’ll always take that memory with me.
USA.Arsenal.com: Also you seemed to be ‘a fighter’ did that help you cope with English football?
Freddie Ljungberg: That’s probably something… I always wanted to win. I have a mentality of winning and I’m not scared. But before I came to England everybody said I was too small, and I was very famous for be very technical and fast. Everyone said that I should go to Spain or Italy. And maybe that’s a bit of my mentality. I felt ‘No, I’m going to prove to people that I can make it and play in England.’ So that’s probably something I adapted there, even if I was small, I didn’t care if they were bigger, I just tried to win the ball and do the best for the team.
USA.Arsenal.com: What effect did Arsène Wenger have on your career?
Freddie Ljungberg: I think he affected it a lot. He was a great manager, and before I signed for Arsenal I had other options. But I had a big meeting with him for like an hour, and we discussed how he saw football and how I saw it, and we agreed on how we saw the game. And from then on, he developed me and gave me advice, I trained with great players and we all challenged each other and he made us be better all the time.
USA.Arsenal.com: You also seemed to be a big-game player for Arsenal. Was that part of your make-up too?
Freddie Ljungberg: Yeah, I’ve been told my whole career, when I was younger I raised my game to a new level. I think that’s my mentality and how I am. I love to play against the best and that’s when I play my best. Maybe sometimes as well it’s a negative thing. I feel like, if you play against a team that’s not as good and you’re winning 3-0, it’s not to say I don’t see the point, but maybe you step off the gas pedal a little bit if you have a big game on the weekend. So that’s how I see it. You go a 110% when you play the big boys, and that’s when you are supposed to raise your game. For me, if you are a good player, that’s when you are supposed to play well. I don’t care if my teammates don’t. If we win and they are not amazing against, I would say some team in the bottom of the table, if they are there and showing up in the big game, that’s the important thing for us to win.
USA.Arsenal.com: Tell us about that run of FA Cup Finals at Cardiff. You scored in two and you won two?
Freddie Ljungberg: I think I won…three. Man United, Southampton, Chelsea I think. I mean FA cup – it’s a very special tournament in England. The fans are amazing, and of course to have been in four finals, won three and scored some goals… of course, amazing memories and special in such a massive cup. Everyone in the whole world watches that. It’s big memories of course.
USA.Arsenal.com: But was 2004 – the unbeaten season - the real highlight of your Arsenal career?
Freddie Ljungberg: In my eight first years at Arsenal, I think we didn’t finish more than once out of first or second, and for me those years are… there’s not a lot of teams that have been so consistent. But of course that year was a special year in that we went unbeaten for a whole season. It’s not happened before. I think there was a team in the 50s or something, there was a team that did it, but not in the Premiership. When you do it, you don’t really think about it that much. It was a special team and we just loved to play with each other.
USA.Arsenal.com: Was that the best Arsenal side you played in, or was there another team that stood out?
Freddie Ljungberg: I think that one and in the beginning, like 97-98. I think from 2000 and onward we were about the same group of players who played, and to me that was an amazing team. We played well in the Champions League and we played well in the cups and the League. We were a bit unlucky in the beginning of the Champions League. We had some good games and we always got knocked out in the last minute with the advantage of an away goal. It was a great team and we played some good football. I think that’s what I try to remember and what I’m proud of and what everybody remembers – the kind of football we played.
USA.Arsenal.com: How much did it mean to you to be ranked #11 on the list of all-time top 50 Arsenal players as voted by the fans?
Freddie Ljungberg: Of course I’m proud that the fans liked the way we played and how I played. So of course that’s a massive thing. The club has so much history; it’s such a massive club, so being number 11 of all time is an amazing thing.
USA.Arsenal.com: What is the biggest memory in your Arsenal career?
Freddie Ljungberg: Biggest memories… it’s hard. There are a lot of nice memories. I think especially, the Doubles are amazing, because we did that whole bus thing to Highbury. So that’s just an amazing thing, the Doubles. And on a personal level is probably when I got the Barclay Player of the Year in 2002. Of course, personally, that’s a very nice award to have. I just think of… I’m just mostly proud of the way we played. Even away fans… sometimes they even clapped for us when we went off the pitch, and that doesn’t happen that often.
USA.Arsenal.com: We talked about you being a fan favorite at Arsenal. Are you the same Freddie Ljungberg in Seattle?
Freddie Ljungberg: It depends... like at Arsenal I played out wide and then sometimes I played off the striker, it suited me as well. We had quite a lot of players up front, and I liked to play on the side as well. Here (in Seattle), maybe they want me to play more, at the start of the season, maybe not as a defensive central midfielder, but a central midfielder, and try to distribute the ball so we will play and have a game plan like Arsenal. And we’ve got that going. Maybe then (at Arsenal), I would start to get a little further up ahead on the pitch. Which suits me – I like playing in the more dangerous positions. But here it’s more I feed my teammates, as much as I can. That’s a little more how I played before I got Arsenal. I kind of drift from out on the wide into the middle. They just want me to try to create chances for my teammates. But I still have the passion, and love to win.
USA.Arsenal.com: Has your playing-style changed or evolved since your time with Arsenal?
Freddie Ljungberg: No… not really. I know Arsène always said I would play centrally one day. And now I play, maybe, almost centrally. I play wide and central kind of thing. So it’s probably a little bit like he said. In all my days as a youngster, I always played in that kind of role. It just depends what the team needs.
Arsenal.com: What kind of impact did you think you would make on a first-year club as a player?
Freddie Ljungberg: That’s where we try to make sure people knew how I play. My impact is that, we’re a new franchise, and you look at most new franchises and they don’t do very well, and that I want is for us to be a good team and we will play some good football that people will enjoy watching. And I wanted to bring that to the team. They ask a lot of questions and they want to learn, and I bring to this how we want to play and make the tempo in the game, and I try to create chances for my teammates and it’s working out better than I ever would have imagined. I feel in great shape, and I thank a lot the surgery on my hip for that. It’s the first time in two years I feel like I can move properly. It just feels like I’m newly born again. It feels really nice
USA.Arsenal.com: What about your impact as team captain?
Freddie Ljungberg: (Sounders coach) Sigi (Schmid) wants me to be a captain on the pitch and I try to do that. I try to train and help my teammates as much as I can. That’s what I do.
USA.Arsenal.com: Do you feel like you have played up to the fans’ expectations so far?
Freddie Ljungberg: Yeah I think so. The fans are very… it’s hard, I don’t speak to EVERY fan, but the fans that I meet and I speak to seem very pleased, and the reception I get at some of the games, like the last game, they sang my name very loud and I got standing ovations and stuff. So in that way, it sounds like they are very pleased and I’m happy as well. I’m happy to be in Seattle, I really feel at home, so it feels good.
USA.Arsenal.com: David Beckham came to America with great fanfare a few years ago and joined the L.A. Galaxy. Clearly, it did not turn out as well as both parties would have hoped. Did this give you any cause for concern before you signed with Seattle?
Freddie Ljungberg: A little bit. I was always compared to Beckham a bit my whole career, but we’re two totally different people. Of course, I get the question all the time, ‘are you just going to do like Beckham and take the money’. I don’t mean that in a bad way to Beckham, but that’s what fans say, ‘take the money and go back to Europe’ kind of thing. And that’s why the league, and Seattle, wanted me to sign a much longer contract. I signed for two years, because I felt that’s something… I know I want to play here for two years and I’ll keep my word to that. But his decisions are his decisions, and my decisions are my decision and we’re two different people.
USA.Arsenal.com: How did the move to Seattle come about?
Freddie Ljungberg: That’s quite a long story. I was a free transfer for the first time in my life last summer, which is amazing, you can choose where you want to play! That hadn’t happened before. Because I’m free, there were options everywhere to go and play, but I said to my agent, I wanted just to take it easy and sit down and take a break and see what I want to do, where I want to play, and stuff. You know agents… they’re always on you, they always call you at home ‘this club, this club, this club’… whatever, but I was like, I didn’t want to know. I just wanted to take it easy. In the end my decision was, I wanted to do something totally different. A bit of a… an adventure. Something of a challenge, and help the sport here in America. That’s how it really came about, which might surprise a lot of people that I came here this early. Everybody said ‘you should wait another two years and play a bit more in Europe and then go.’ But that’s how it came about.
USA.Arsenal.com: You scored your first MLS goal in your first start for Seattle. How important was it to get that first goal out of the way early and to do it with such flair?
Freddie Ljungberg: It’s always nice to get the first goal out of the way because of the attention of when the first goal is going to be there and to do it straightaway, that’s a nice feeling. The reception I got and the comments after the game from the people were amazing. Of course that’s nice, but it’s all, how do you say, just rolling on from there and I’m very happy.
USA.Arsenal.com: Each league in Europe tends to be associated with a certain style, England is known as fast and physical whereas Spain and Italy are usually described as more technical and tactical. So far, how would you compare the style of play in the MLS to Europe?
Freddie Ljungberg: I think it’s quite high-tempo in the games. The players I think, in training, they really want to get better and they work very,very hard. SO there’s a lot of running and tempo, and it’s quite a physical league. I think maybe some teams play the ball a bit longer than, like at Arsenal for example. They play a bit more long balls than Arsenal. So when we try to keep the ball with one-two touches on the floor, the other teams seem a bit surprised and can’t they really defend against it. So I think if we can get that kind of game plan, with one-two touches on the floor, we can do a lot of damage in the league. That’s how I see it. It feels like they are not really used to seeing a quick passing game on the floor.
USA.Arsenal.com: What league in Europe would you say the MLS most compares to?
Freddie Ljungberg: There’s no league I can say that it compares to it in that way. The only thing I’ve said, is that level-wise, I think they would play evenly against teams in the Dutch league. Even if they are different kinds of football, but I think that would be about right in even games. But American league is one league and England, Spain, Italy are different leagues.
USA.Arsenal.com: You mentioned that you signed a two-year deal with Seattle. Do plan on continuing to play when your contract is up?
Freddie Ljungberg: That was why I did it. I wanted to make a decision if I want to play, if I want to stay in America, or I want to go back to Europe to play, or what I want to do. But the way it feels now, especially like I said with my hip, and I’ve got all the injuries behind me, it feels great. I can run again, so probably I’ll play more, but I don’t know yet. The way it feels now, I feel young again, so it’s nice.
USA.Arsenal.com: And what does the future hold for you after football?
Freddie Ljungberg: If I knew! I don’t know. There’s different things I want to do in life, and I always said it depends if you have a family and kids and stuff, I think you have to take that into consideration for future plans and stuff. But I always loved fashion and architecture and that’s something that interests me. I’ve been asked quite a lot lately, or ‘when you get older’, about the managing aspect of things because I like the tactical, and I have some experience in the game… that’s something as well that I’m thinking about. But I think it will all be decided if I have a family and kids.
