IFK Göteborg Academy

The IFK Göteborg Academy is a youth development program associated with the Swedish football club IFK Göteborg. This academy is often called The Football Academy (Swedish: Fotbollsakademin). Another informal name for the academy is Änglagården (English: The House of Angels), after the name of the primary training facility used by the academy.

History

In 1996 noted-sportsman Roger Gustafsson resigned as manager of the IFK Göteborg team. He had won an extraordinary five championships in his six-year tenure. Gustafsson received several employment offers from major European clubs. However, he indicated that he was not interested in leaving IFK, which he had worked for since 1983 (in a variety of positions). He encouraged IFK to change strategy after the Bosman rulingwhich allowed the players to leave their team for free at contract expirationby putting much more emphasis on producing talented players on their own rather than buying talent from other clubs.[1]

He constructed an educational programme called "Secrets to Soccer" (S2S, Swedish: "Fotbollens hemligheter") which was first used in 1998 by the youngest of the IFK Göteborg's youth teams (six- to eight-year-olds).[2] At present, all of the club's youth teams, from ages six to sixteen, use the program. The S2S programme is also available for other clubs both in Sweden and in other countries.

The oldest youth squad (the under-19s) are educated both at Änglagården and Kamratgården—the main training ground of IFK Göteborg—as well as at the football gymnasiums Katrinelundsgymnasiet and Aspero Idrottsgymnasium.[2][3] In 2015, the academy moved into the newly constructed multi-sports complex Prioritet Serneke Arena.

The main aim of the academy is to provide the first squad with 50 percent of its players. Other aims include that all players and leaders should develop both as individuals and as players/leaders, that all involved should remember their time at IFK Göteborg as one of their best times in life, and that the academy should contribute to the development of football.

Players

Under-19 squad

As of 7 June 2020[4]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
GK  ISL Adam Ingi Benediktsson
GK  SWE Elliot Källander
GK  SWE Joel Nöller
DF  SWE Melvin Bälter
DF  SWE Hannes Lennartsson
DF  SWE Robin Mikac
DF  SWE Hugo Moldin
DF  SWE Tim van Assema
MF  SWE Filip Ambroz
MF  SWE Hugo Engström
MF  SWE Erik Reis
No. Pos. Nation Player
MF  SWE William Sandford
MF  SWE Ishak Shamoun
MF  SWE Johannes Sigurdson
FW  SWE Anton Kurochkin
FW  SWE Lucas Kåhed
FW  SWE Alfons Nygaard
FW  SWE Pontus Steffensen
FW  SWE August Tellander
FW  SWE Marcus Törnqvist
FW  SWE Oscar Vilhelmsson
FW  SWE Jesper Zetterlund

Available first-team players

The following players are part of the first-team squad, but are born in 2001 or later, and are thus available to compete in the 2020 Swedish Under-19 Championships.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
2 DF  SWE Jesper Tolinsson
6 DF  SWE Rasmus Wikström
No. Pos. Nation Player
18 MF  SWE Isak Dahlqvist
21 MF  SWE Noah Alexandersson

References

  1. Orrenius, Johan (2009-10-29). "Folk kallade mig för dåre". Expressen. Retrieved 2009-10-30.
  2. "Gunnar Nordahl-stipendiet 2008 till IFK Göteborg". Swedish Football Association. 2008-11-10. Retrieved 2009-10-30.
  3. "IFK Göteborgs fotbollsakademi". IFK Göteborg. Retrieved 2015-09-05.
  4. "U-lagets spelare" (in Swedish). IFK Göteborg. Retrieved 11 July 2016.
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