Last Thursday, Sweden’s men’s national team played its first international match with Jon Dahl Tomasson as national team captain. Then Emil Forsberg, who was a key player under Janne Andersson’s management, was poked. He had to settle for a second-half substitution in the 5-2 loss.
But against Albania on Monday, the 32-year-old got his first starting chance under the new national team captain, which Dahl Tomasson revealed on Sunday that he would get.
Before the match, however, Forsberg had to deal with a private turmoil. Just hours before kick-off, his wife Shanga announced the couple’s divorce, via a post on social media. Expressen has also seen documents that show that Shanga has filed for divorce.
Emil Forsberg played 63 minutes against Albania. After the match, SvFF sent out a comment to the media about the situation.
– I have no comments about my private life, Forsberg said in it.
In the mixed zone, the newly minted New York Red Bulls star stopped.
Everything that was before the game, did it affect you sportingly?
– No.
The soccer channel sought the Swedish Football Association’s press manager Petra Thorén earlier on Monday for a comment about whether Forsberg would start the match, after his wife’s post. Then it was the lid on that mattered. Thorén announced that they had no comments on the matter.
When Jon Dahl Tomasson is asked how he thought about starting Forsberg because of the private situation and if he thinks the star was affected by it during the match, he answers:
– As I said at the press conference before the match, he had traveled a long way and dealt with a time difference. So I didn’t want to risk anything with him in the first game. But he was very good in this match. Look at his work effort and attitude. He hit the post and could have scored. I am satisfied with his performance.