Andreas Alm is back in Swedish football.
At Monday’s introductory meeting, he was asked what he is bringing with him from Denmark.
– Not so much, I think we stand strong in Sweden, says IFK Norrköping’s coach.
Ahead of European Championship 2021, in the middle of the Allsvenskan season, Andreas Alm left his BK Häcken for a coaching assignment in Odense, Denmark.
Since then, Alm has been away from Swedish football – until now.
Because ahead of this year’s Allsvenskan, it is the former AIK and Häcken coach who is in charge of IFK Norrköping.
The Danish league is clearly higher ranked than the Swedish one, and the question asked at Monday’s kick-off meeting was what Alm is now bringing home from Danish football to Sweden after two years in the neighboring country. The answer?
– Not so much for the personal part. I think we stand strong in Sweden. There is a lot of fan mail down to Denmark and there are of course advantages that they have, but I see no reason why we can’t already be better than them, says Alm and continues:
– Of course there is an advantage with more money there, but it is also easier to launder the money. What I learned is to steal as much as possible there and make sure that those on the other side of the bridge are not the best… That was the goal when I went home.
However, something that stands out about the Danish league versus the Allsvenskan is the opportunities for international jobs.
– There is a lot of knowledge and it is also closer to the continent. A coach can go straight from Denmark to the Bundesliga or the Premier League, so there are obviously things to learn from there. But again, we already have the conditions in Sweden and if we maximize that, we are better than our neighboring countries.
IFK Norrköping went out of the quarter-finals of the Swedish Cup against Malmö FF and will play the Allsvenskan premiere against MFF on Easter Eve, March 30.