Arsenal legend Ljungberg retires from football

Former Arsenal midfielder Freddie Ljungberg has announced his retirement from football today. Ljungberg was signed by Arsene Wenger in 1998 from Swedish club Halmstads. Wenger had scouted Ljungberg for a year before an international between Sweden and England in which he had impressed. He had never seen Ljungberg play live though, but he decided to cough up £3m for him regardless of this. The Swede made an instant impact, scoring on his debut in a 3-0 win over Manchester United.

Ljungberg’s best year at the club undoubtedly came in 2001/02. Robert Pires picked up an injury in March and after that, Ljungberg’s goalscoring streak was like the one in his hair, red hot. He scored vital goals for the club towards the end of the season in particular, as well as throughout the whole campaign. He scored consecutive goals in FA Cup Finals, scoring Arsenal’s goal in the 2-1 loss to Liverpool in 2001 as well as Arsenal’s second in their 2-0 win against Chelsea the following season to clinch the first half of the Double. Having helped seal one half of the Double 4 days earlier in Cardiff, Ljungberg was through on goal against Manchester United in a game Arsenal needed a point from to secure the title and therefore the Double. Ljungberg’s shot was saved by Fabien Barthez, but the Frenchman pushed it out to the foot of Sylvain Wiltord, who clinched the title for Arsenal in the most glorious manner.

Ljungberg finished the season with 17 goals in all competitions and became a fan’s favourite. They sung a song for him to the tune of ‘Can’t take my eyes off of you’ that went: “We love you Freddie, because you’ve got red hair, we love you Freddie, because you’re everywhere, we love you Freddie, because you’re Arsenal through and through” because of the Swede’s famous red streak in his hair. When Freddie shaved his hair off and had a bald hairstyle, the lyrics changed to no hair instead of red hair. If you went to Highbury or followed Arsenal at all in 2002, you would know that the most popular hairstyle was the red streak. I can tell you, my brother dyed his hair red for the 2002 Cup Final, I used the hairspray that you could wash out instead. We weren’t the only ones, lots did. We all loved Freddie and the hairstyle was superb.

Freddie won a further two FA Cups at the club, scoring in Arsenal’s penalty shootout win over Man United in 2005. He was also a member of the ‘Invincibles’ of 2003/04 too. Ljungberg had an ankle injury that troubled him in 2005/06, but he still played in Arsenal’s 2006 Champions League Final defeat to Barcelona. He also suffered a lot of migraines and various other injury problems throughout his time at the club and in particular, his final season was one that saw injuries get the better of him. He came back from injury in February 2007 in an FA Cup replay at Bolton, scoring in extra-time to help seal Arsenal’s place in the next round. Despite Wenger saying Ljungberg would stay until at least 2009 (when his contract expired) in July 2007, Ljungberg moved to West Ham United on a 4 year deal.

Ljungberg scored twice for West Ham, his first goal coming in February 2008 against Birmingham and his second against Sunderland a month later. Freddie then broke his ribs after Steven Taylor landed on him after trying to jump over him. At the end of the season, the Swede left West Ham after they agreed to terminate his contract and pay it off.

He took some time away from football for a few months and was linked with teams in Europe such as Portsmouth, AC Milan, Lazio, Roma, Fiorentina and Monaco. Ljungberg trained with former club Halmstads to keep his fitness up but he wasn’t ready to commit to another club at that point and rejected a contract offer from Monaco. In October 2008, Ljungberg signed for the then new MLS franchise, Seattle Sounders FC. He signed as a designated player for that season. Again, persistent hip problems and migraines caused Ljungberg to miss games and training in Seattle.  He lost vision in an MLS All Star game against Everton, causing him to miss his penalty in a shootout loss.

In 2010, Ljungberg was traded to the Chicago Fire where he made 15 appearances and scored 2 goals. He also scored twice for Seattle during his time there, so overall the Swede scored 4 times in the MLS. He also added the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup to his honours after winning it in his first year with Seattle.

At the end of the 2010 MLS season, Ljungberg left Chicago. Just after Christmas, he joined Celtic on trial for a week. A few days later, Ljungberg signed a contract with the Scottish club. He made his debut in the Scottish Cup against Berwick Rangers, helping Celtic to a 2-0 win and playing just over an hour. Overall, Ljungberg played 8 times for Celtic before leaving in the summer of 2011.

In September 2011, he signed for Shimizu S-Pulse in Japan. He appeared 8 times for them before leaving in February 2012 by mutual consent. That was Freddie’s last club. I love Freddie and have followed his career after Arsenal and always wished him well. I was really happy to see him sign with the Fire a couple of years ago as I am a man with links to Chicago through my support for the Bears, so I also follow other teams in the city too and how they get on. Of course, I wish Freddie all the best with his retirement and I would love to see him back in coaching at Arsenal in future if possible.