Wilhelmsson praises Sweden’s ighting spirit
Former Sweden international Christian Wilhelmsson expressed his joy over the qualiication of his country for the 2018 FIFA World Cup on Wednesday.
Sweden defeated Italy 1-0 on aggregate to book berth in the prestigious event for their 11th appearance.
Owing to the defeat, Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in 60 years that prompted their star goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon calling it quits from the international football.
“I am extremely happy and they have done a wonderful job. A lot of congratulations to all of them,” said Wilhelmsson.
Commenting on the possibility of Zlatan Ibrahimovic coming back from international retirement to boost the Sweden World Cup bid, he said: “Zlatan is such a big star, he has quality. If he feels he is fit and can contribute to the team’s cause, definitely he should be there. It all depends on him.
“But, for now, we should respect the squad and pay gratitude to them, who have done it by sheer hard work without any stars.
“They have shown a lot of character and spirit by defeating teams like Poland, France and Italy, so all the credit goes to the players,” he added.
The rumours are ripe in the football fraternity that Ibra might take a u-turn on his retirement for the Russian extravaganza despite national team coach Janne Andersson playing down the reports.
The moment Sweden booked their berth, Ibra wrote “We are Zweden,” posting a celebration picture of team with the quote on his Instagram account and deliberately adding the ‘Z’ of his name to his country’s, which fanned the rumours.
Ibra quit international football in 2016. He is also known as goal machine, having netted 62 times in his 116 appearances for the national side.
Wilhelmsson also said he is confident of Sweden making it through to the group stages.
“Though they are in a very tough group but if they keep the same team, which defeated Italy anything can happen. I am sure they will make the group stages but anything is possible in the knockouts on a given day.
“They have been playing beautifully. They are so fit, so unified without any star. They actually don’t need any star. So the way they have been playing anything is possible,” he stressed.
The closest Sweden have come to winning a World Cup was in 1958, when they ended runners up, losing to mighty Brazil in the final. Apart from that, they have also been four-time semi-finalist in the showpiece event.
He was speaking on the sidelines of Dubai Sports Council Championship for Football Academies Season2 press conference, held to announce the details of the tournament.
A total of 66 teams will vie for the top honours over a period of 12 weeks. The tournament will see 1300 players from 100 different taking to the pitch. There will be 32 matches every weekend at the Dubai Sports City involving teams in six different age categories of U-8, U-10, U-12, U-14, U-16 and U-18.
Wilhelmsson, who has played for Saudi Arab’s Al Hilal and represented Bani Yas in Arabian Gulf League (AGL), also predicted an African winner in the World Cup sooner or later.
“This region has a lot of talent. There have been many African teams, who have been semi-finalist. So it is just the matter of time when we will see an African winner,” he concluded.