Sweden men's national football team

• 1. Introduction

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  Sweden played its first international football match on the 12th of July 1908, winning 11-3 against Norway at Idrottsplatsen in Gothenburg. That same year, the team suffered the largest defeat in its history, losing 1-12 to Great Britain at the Olympic Games. From that brutal beginning, Sweden would go on to become one of the most decorated national teams in European football. How does a country that lost five of its six matches in 1908 end up in the World Cup final fifty years later? How does a team that failed to qualify for three consecutive major tournaments in the 1980s come back to finish third in the world six years later? And what does it take to field a player who remains active for the national team across 22 years? The answers run through Gothenburg and São Paulo, through Wembley and Dallas, through amateur bans and professional rebellions, and through one of the longest individual careers international football has ever seen.

• 2. The Olympic Years

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  At the 1924 Olympics, Sweden claimed their first international medal, a bronze, in a tournament that would mark the start of a long Olympic tradition. By 1948, the team had sharpened into something remarkable. At White Hart Lane in London, Sweden opened the tournament by beating Austria 3-0, then hammered South Korea 12-0, one of the two largest margin victories Sweden has ever recorded. In the semi-final, Sweden defeated their main rivals Denmark 4-2. The final was played at Wembley Stadium before an attendance of around 40,000 people. Sweden took on Yugoslavia and won 3-1. Gunnar Gren scored twice, in the 24th and 67th minutes, while Gunnar Nordahl added a third in the 48th minute. Yugoslavia's only reply came from Stjepan Bobek in the 42nd minute. It was Sweden's first championship win in any international football competition. Four years later at Helsinki, Sweden won an Olympic bronze. The success carried a hidden cost, though. The Swedish Football Association had a long-standing policy of excluding professional players from the national squad, a rule that would define and damage the team's fortunes for years to come.

• 3. 1950 and the Amateur Rule

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  At the 1950 World Cup in Brazil, the Swedish Football Association again refused to allow professional players to take part. The team arrived fielding only amateurs and still managed to beat Italy 3-2 in São Paulo and draw 2-2 with Paraguay. Sweden's first game in the second stage was against hosts Brazil at the Maracanã Stadium, where more than 138,000 people attended. That crowd remains the record attendance for any Sweden national team match to this day. Brazil won 7-1. Sweden recovered to beat Spain 3-1, with goals by Stig Sundqvist in the 15th minute, Bror Mellberg in the 34th, and Karl-Erik Palmér in the 79th, and finished third in the group, good enough for third place in the entire tournament. As the highest-placed European team in the competition, Sweden was regarded at the time as the unofficial European champions. The Football Association then doubled down on its exclusion policy. In 1953, it extended the ban on foreign professionals to the national team, and Sweden subsequently failed to qualify for the 1954 World Cup, finishing second in their qualifying group behind Belgium. The contradiction was clear: a squad stripped of its best players could not consistently compete at the highest level. By 1956, the federation finally reversed course.

• 4. 1958: The Host's Silver

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  When the federation allowed professionals to return in 1956, Sweden entered the 1958 World Cup as host nation with renewed ambition. The first group game, Sweden versus Mexico at Råsunda Stadium in Solna, drew around 32,000 supporters. Sweden won 3-0 and led Group 3. Against Hungary, who had finished second in the 1954 World Cup and were the 1952 Olympic champions, both Swedish goals came from Kurt Hamrin as Sweden won 2-1. Sweden played four of their five tournament matches at Råsunda. In the semi-final at Ullevi in Gothenburg, the only exception, Sweden faced West Germany, the reigning world champions. The crowd numbered around 50,000. West Germany led 1-0 when Erich Juskowiak was sent off in the 59th minute. Sweden won 3-1. The final returned to Råsunda, with around 52,000 in attendance. Brazil, the 1950 runners-up, faced Sweden. Brazil won 5-2 and claimed their first ever World Cup title. Sweden became runners-up, the best finish any Nordic country has achieved in a World Cup, before or since. After the final, the Brazilian players honoured the host nation by running a lap of the pitch while carrying a Swedish flag. Sweden remains the only Nordic country to have reached a World Cup final.

• 5. The 1994 Renaissance

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  Sweden arrived at the 1994 World Cup in the United States having qualified top of their group ahead of Bulgaria and France. In the first group game against Cameroon in Los Angeles, Sweden appeared set for another 1-2 defeat in the mould of their disastrous 1990 campaign, where they lost all three group matches by that scoreline. Then, in the 75th minute, Martin Dahlin scored from a rebound off Henrik Larsson's shot and the match finished 2-2. Sweden beat Russia 3-1 in Detroit and drew 1-1 with Brazil. In the round of 16, played against Saudi Arabia in Dallas in temperatures that passed 40 degrees Celsius, Sweden won 3-1. The quarter-final against Romania in San Francisco went to extra time, then to penalties. Goalkeeper Thomas Ravelli saved two Romanian penalties from Daniel Prodan and Miodrag Belodedici. Sweden advanced to the semi-finals, where they met Brazil in Los Angeles. After Jonas Thern was sent off with a red card, Romário scored the only goal in the 80th minute. In the third-place match, Sweden scored four goals in the first half against Bulgaria and won the bronze medal. Sweden finished as the tournament's top scorers with 15 goals in total. That third-place finish lifted Sweden to second in the FIFA World Rankings for one month, in November 1994.

• 6. Ibrahimovic and the Modern Era

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  On the 31st of January 2001, Zlatan Ibrahimović made his debut for the national team, beginning what became the longest individual career in Sweden's football history: 22 years, one month, and 24 days. At the 2002 World Cup, a teenage Ibrahimović came on as a substitute in the round of 16 against Senegal and nearly won the match with a solo run before choosing to shoot rather than pass to Henrik Larsson or Anders Svensson, both in excellent positions. Senegal scored the golden goal and Sweden were eliminated. It became one of the most discussed moments in Sweden's recent tournament history. In November 2012, Sweden opened the Friends Arena in Solna with a friendly against England. Ibrahimović scored all four Swedish goals in a 4-2 win. His fourth was an overhead bicycle kick from 35 yards that won the FIFA Puskás Award for goal of the year. On the 25th of March 2021, at the age of 39 years, five months, and 22 days, Ibrahimović became Sweden's oldest outfield player during the 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign, providing the assist for Viktor Claesson's goal against Georgia. He had taken over that record from Thomas Ravelli. On the 24th of March 2023, Ibrahimović played his final match for Sweden, a 0-3 loss to Belgium, at 41 years, five months, and 21 days, the oldest player ever to represent the country.

• 7. Rivalry, Stadiums, Support

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  Sweden's longest and most intense rivalry is with Denmark. The two countries have met 107 times, with Sweden winning 47, drawing 20, and losing 40. The fixture began with an 8-0 Denmark win in May 1913. Sweden's first victory came in October 1916 by a score of 4-0. The rivalry has repeatedly intersected with major tournament drama. At UEFA Euro 2004, Sweden and Denmark drew 2-2 in their final group match in an arrangement that eliminated Italy and sent both Scandinavian teams through. At the 1992 European Championship qualifying, Sweden were awarded a 3-0 win after a Danish fan invaded the pitch and attacked the referee. The home ground for Sweden's history stretches across two stadiums. Råsunda Stadium, opened on the 18th of September 1910 with an initial capacity of only 2,000 people, was expanded to 40,000 by 1937 and hosted eight matches at the 1958 World Cup. FIFA recognised it as one of only two stadiums in the world to host both the men's and women's World Cup final, sharing that distinction with the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The stadium was demolished after 2012, when the Nationalarenan in Solna took over as the national ground. In the stands, Sweden's traveling supporter culture dates from the 1974 World Cup in West Germany. At the 2006 World Cup, around 50,000 Swedish supporters attended the group stage match against Paraguay, with a further 50,000 reportedly watching outside the stadium. Sweden's fans were voted the best of that entire tournament.