Henrik Larsson is the legendary Swedish footballer, bronze medalist at the World Cup and winner of the UEFA Champions Cup. Known for his performances for many famous teams, including Barcelona and Celtic.
Childhood
Henrik Larsson was born in September 1971 in the Swedish city of Helsingborg. His father was a native of the African country of Cape Verde. This explained the unusual color of the skin of the boy for the Scandinavian state. When Henrik was not even two years old, his father gave him the first soccer ball. He became the first coach of the future striker.
At the age of six, Larsson got to the Hegaberg Football Academy. All coaches admired the very confident game of the boy, who alone could beat a whole team of peers. It so happened that at the age of twelve, Henrik stopped growing. It became difficult for him to win the competition for a place in the composition of the local tall guys. Therefore, Larsson trained almost around the clock to be better than them in everything except growth.
The beginning of a professional career
At the age of seventeen, Henrik began to enter the field as part of Hegaborg. Since the team was semi-professional, and the players were practically not paid salaries, Larsson had to combine the training process with work as a packer of goods in a store. After a successful 1991/92 season at Hegaberg, the young striker signed his first contract with Helsingborg, who then played in Sweden’s second league. In that championship, Henrik Larsson’s 31 goals in 34 matches helped his team return to the elite division.
The next season, the striker began brilliantly again - 16 accurate shots in 25 games. It is not surprising that a promising striker was noticed by breeders of different clubs. In late 1993, Larsson left Helsingborg, but promised that he would return to his hometown, and kept his word.
Performances in Europe
The first foreign club for the Swedish forward was the Dutch Feyenoord. Here he spent 4 seasons, won twice with the Rotterdam team in the country's cup and became the winner of the domestic championship. But the scorer statistics of Henrik Larsson was far from ideal - 26 goals in 101 matches. In 1997, the Swedish footballer moved to the Scottish Celtic. In the first season, he scored 16 goals, which helped the “Celts” for the first time in many years to get ahead of the “Glasgow Rangers” in the championship race. Since then, the effectiveness and importance of the Swede for “Celtic” has only grown. In the second season in Scotland, he scored 37 goals in 48 matches, becoming the team's top scorer.
In October 1999, during a game against Lyon, an attacker out of the blue got a terrible leg fracture. Photos of Henrik Larsson, skewed by terrible pain, circled all the world's sports newspapers. Some football players after such injuries end their playing career. But Henrik Larsson did not give up - he began to stubbornly restore his physical shape. And he succeeded in full.
In the 2000/01 season, Larsson set his own personal record - he scored 53 goals in 50 matches. For such performance, he, as the best scorer of the European championships, was awarded the Golden Boot prize. In “Celtic” Henrik Larsson spent three more great seasons, after which he moved to the Spanish “Barcelona”. In total, as part of the Scottish club, he played in 221 matches and scored 173 goals.
For two seasons spent in the Catalan club, the Swedish striker twice became the champion of Spain, and also won the Champions Cup. But the performance was no longer the same. In addition, he was again seriously injured, because of which he missed half of the championship. In 2006, Henrik Larsson fulfilled his long-standing promise - he returned to his hometown to play for Helsingborg. Here, the forward continued to please the fans with goals scored.
At the personal request of Alex Ferguson, in 2007 Larsson played for three months on loan for Manchester United. The legendary coach did not want to let him go, but the Swede rushed to his homeland. Henrik Larsson finished his playing career in 2009 at Helsingborg. The statistics of his performances are truly impressive - he played in 761 matches and scored 435 goals.
Team appearances
Henrik Larsson made his debut for the Swedish national team in 1993. A year later, the young striker was taken to the World Cup in the United States. At this tournament, the Scandinavians made a real sensation - they became the third. Larsson first scored the winning 11-meter in the penalty shoot-out in the quarterfinals with Romania, and in the “bronze” final hit the gates of the Bulgarian national team. After an unsuccessful performance at the 2002 World Cup, Henrik went to the European Championships in 2004 as a team leader. He also became the team's top scorer with three goals scored.
After the 2006 World Cup, Larsson wanted to end his career in the national team, but after the requests of thousands of fans, including UEFA President Lennart Johansson, he returned to Tre Krunur. In June 2009, the game against Denmark became a farewell for the legendary Swedish striker. In total, he spent 106 fights for the national team and scored 37 goals.
Coaching
From 2009 to 2012, Henrik Larsson worked as the head coach of the Swedish Landskrona team. However, he could not withdraw her to the elite division, so he left his post. At the end of 2012, he worked as an assistant coach at the club of the fourth Swedish division “Hegaborg”. At this time, Jordan Larsson, the son of Henrik, played there. For his sake, the legendary striker even returned to the field for 2 matches. In one of them there was a curious and unusual case for football - during the game, the son replaced his father.
The following season, Larsson headed the Swedish “Falkenberg” and managed to not fly out of the elite division with him. In 2014, Henrik was appointed head coach of his native Helsingborg. However, after his departure in 2016 to the second Swedish division, Larsson broke the contract, while refusing financial compensation.