Henrik Larsson - the legendary Swedish football player,bronze medalist of the World Cup and the winner of the UEFA Champions Cup. Known for his performances for many famous teams, including Barcelona and Celtic.
Henrik Larsson was born in September 1971year in the Swedish city of Helsingborg. His father was from the African country of Cape Verde. This explained the boy's skin color unusual for the Scandinavian state. When Henrik was not even two years old, his father presented him with the first soccer ball. He also became the first coach of the future striker.
At the age of six Larsson got into footballAcademy Hegberg. All the coaches admired the very confident game of the boy, who alone could beat the whole team of peers. It turned out 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 height.
At the age of seventeen, Henrik began to leave.on the field as part of Hegaborg. Since the team was semi-professional, and the players were practically not paid any wages, Larsson had to combine the training process with the work of a packer in the store. After the 1991/92 season, which he successfully conducted at Heggberg, the young striker signed his first contract with Helsingborg, which then performed in the second league of Sweden. In that championship, Henrik Larsson's 31 goals in 34 matches helped his team return to the elite division.
Следующий сезон форвард снова начал блестяще - 16 accurate shots in 25 games. Not surprisingly, the breeders of different clubs noticed the promising striker. In late 1993, Larsson left Helsingborg, but promised that he would return to his hometown, and kept his word.
The first foreign club for the Swedish forwardbecame the Dutch "Feyenoord". Here he spent 4 seasons, twice won with the Rotterdam team in the national cup and became the winner of the domestic championship. But Henrik Larsson's scoring statistics were far from perfect - 26 goals in 101 matches. In 1997, the Swedish football player moved to the Celtic Scottish. In the first season, he scored 16 goals, which helped the Celts beat Glasgow Rangers for the first time in many years in the title race. Since then, the performance and importance of the Swede for “Celtic” only grew. In the second season in Scotland, he scored 37 goals in 48 games, while becoming the team's top scorer.
In October 1999, during the game against the “Lion”striker on level ground got the most terrible leg fracture. Photos of Henrik Larsson, distorted by terrible pain, spread around the world's sports newspapers. Some football players after similar injuries finish playing career. But Henrik Larsson did not give up - he began to persistently restore his physical form. And he succeeded to the full.
In the 2000/01 season, Larsson established his personalrecord - scored 53 goals in 50 matches. For such performance, he, as the best scorer of the European championships, was awarded the prize “Golden Boot”. In “Celtic” Henrik Larsson spent three more great season, after which he moved to the Spanish “Barcelona”. In total, he played in 221 matches in the Scottish club 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 what he missed half of the championship. In 2006, Henrik Larsson fulfilled his long-held promise - he returned to his hometown to play for Helsingborg. Here the striker continued to delight the fans with scored goals.
At the personal request of Alex Ferguson in 2007Larsson 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 ended his playing career in 2009 at Helsingborg. The statistics of his performances is truly impressive - he played in 761 fights and scored 435 goals.
For the national team of Sweden Henrik Larssondebuted in 1993. A year later, a young forward was taken to the World Championships in the United States. At this tournament, the Scandinavians made a real sensation - they were the third. Larsson first scored the winning 11-meter in the penalty shootout in the quarterfinals with Romania, and in the bronze final hit the gate of the Bulgarian national team. After an unsuccessful performance at the 2002 World Cup, Henrik went to the European Championships in 2004 as the team leader. He also became the top scorer of the team with three goals scored.
After the 2006 World Cup, Larsson wanted to end his career innational team, but after the requests of thousands of fans, among whom was UEFA President Lennart Johansson, he returned to Tre Corn. In June 2009, the game against Denmark became a farewell for the legendary Swedish striker. In total for the national team he spent 106 fights and scored 37 goals.
From 2009 to 2012, Henrik Larsson worked mainlycoach of the Swedish team "Landskruna". However, he could not bring it 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 that time Jordan Larsson was playing there - the son of Henrik. For his sake, the legendary forward even returned to the field for 2 matches. In one of them, a curious and unusual case of football occurred - during the game, the son replaced his father.
The following season, Larsson led the Swedish“Falkenberg” and managed with him not to fly out of the elite division. In 2014, Henrik was appointed head coach of his native Helsingborg. However, after his departure in 2016 in the second Swedish division, Larsson broke the contract, while refusing financial compensation.
