Graham Potter, English football manager who was recently fired for West Ham United, has found a new job in Sweden, as the new head coach for Swedish national team, replacing Jon Dahl Tomasson with the difficult task of securing qualification for World Cup 2026 after their disaster in qualifiers last week, with only one point overall in four matches.
The agreement for Potter extends over the ongoing qualifying period with matches against Switzerland and Slovenia in November and a potential playoff in March, and will be automatically extended over the World Cup 2026 if Sweden qualifies.
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"All the decisions we have made now have been made based on optimizing the conditions to be able to reach our goal", said a very clinical Kim Källström, Head of Football of the Swedish Football Federation. "With Graham Potter we get strong and experienced leadership that has been tested at the absolute highest level"
Potter may be better known for English fans by his recent stints at Swansea City, Brighton & Hove Albion, Chelsea and West Ham United, but he is a legend in Sweden, as he took a fourth division club, Östersunds FK, from fourth to first division between 2011 and 2018, as well as a first ever victory in Svenska Cupen, the Swedish Cup, in 2017, and even reaching Europa League round of 32, losing to Arsenal in 2018.
"I am very humbled by the assignment, but also incredibly inspired. Sweden has fantastic players who deliver in the world's best leagues during the weeks. My job will be to create the conditions so that we as a team deliver at the highest level to take Sweden to the World Cup next summer".