Estepona. Anton Tennerholm has three SM Gold Medals and an MLS Title.
Now he’s home to help get MFF out in Europe again – and make De Himmelsblå a gold team.
– It’s everyone’s responsibility to step up and win the gold medal, he says.
Anton Tennerholm knows what it takes to win. With five titles in his career, he never hesitated to move home when the club closest to his heart wanted the 31-year-old back after five seasons in MLS and New York City.
– I developed special relationships with Malmö FF during my time at the club and really enjoyed my years here. I felt that if I went back to Sweden, Malmö was the only place I could play for, he says.
How do you feel back then?
– It feels nice to be back. It was still five years in New York and I had thoughts of going back a while.
– But in this business you never know. Then an opportunity arose this summer, and yeah, once you contacted MFF, negotiations went pretty quickly and I actually made up my mind last summer, he says.
“I became more professional”
Do you have an idea of which Malmö FF you will return to?
– Indeed, many people around us are the same. Then I noticed he became more professional in every way. Above all, food is about the team and a lot of other things are around it. The staff is much bigger and we have started to build it up more professionally over the last years at the club.
– Then it is important to have good continuity around the team, even if there have been a lot of changes to the coach lately.
– The main thing that differs from 2017 is that the other Allsvenskan team is in a different place now. Back then we were financially superior, and we are now, but Djurgården did well in Europe and sold players for a lot of money. Many other teams have sold big as well. The last time I was in Allsvenskan we were completely superior in many respects.
What do you feel you developed most while in MLS and New York?
– I gained more experience, played under many different coaches and also got a more attacking role. Now I can play wing-back and put in a little more central if that’s appropriate, like a ‘false six’ in some matches.
– Football in Sweden is very monotonous and the teams defend in almost the same way as if we met at the MFF, for example. It’s completely different there in MLS. If you take on a bottom team at home, they can take part in man-and-attack tactics. It wasn’t something I got used to in Sweden right away. I think this experience is good.
Positive for Rydstrom
I hope we come out in Europe and then there will be a different kind of opposition. Then I developed tactically under coaches like Patrick Veria and Ronnie Della to take some examples.
What did you manage to get an idea of Henrik Rydström as a coach?
– very positive. It is very particular about the way we have to work and watch videos after each practice to go over the details. You may not have been used to it before, but I think it’s important that if you’re a new coach and you have a new group of players, you get into it right away.
– We played a lot in training where it was eleven against eleven, and then it becomes easy to put the clips together. He is very careful and clear about how we should play. We weren’t very happy after the last game, but in this way it’s nice that you can look at the parts we need to improve in the pressure and tactics game.
– For me it’s a little bit more new and above all how we build the game as we have to come central sometimes. The plays can build on the three-defender line where I become one of the three defenders or build on the four where the defenders have to be more central to find angles and where I can be a false six.
Malmö may have needed other players with leadership qualities in the team lately. How can you become a leader on and off the field?
– I try to bear as much as possible and help others. In Malmö, you don’t have to do just the thing you want to do. We should not feel complacent with our performance if the team loses. We all have to take responsibility, above all on the field. It’s easy to overthink and overthink things when we have a theory, but it’s about taking a lot of responsibility on the pitch and not just going all over yourself.
– I try to help as much as I can. It is only others who can say what I contribute. I try to talk and chew as much as possible. Everyone has to take responsibility because it is everyone’s responsibility to advance and win the gold medal.
– The important thing is that we are eleven leaders on the field. We can’t just sit back and let AC sort things out.
“These are the requirements I want.”
What do you say about the demands that you have on SM gold and that you are going to the European Games?
– Yes, but these are the requirements that I want. This is where we come to Malmö FF. This is what I aim for, this team aims and what the club strives for. And then, like I said, there’s tougher competition now than it was a few years ago.
– But it will also be fun to go home and play in front of all the fans we have in the stands. It didn’t spoil me in MLS, the atmosphere our supporters create. The demands we place on ourselves are normal for a club like MFF.
You had a high profile in New York, after you won the MLS title, how do you look back on that time?
– such great fun that I was greatly appreciated there and made an impression. I always gave my all for the team. You can achieve a lot. I’ve had many great seasons there and the icing on the cake was when we won the MLS title. It sounds crazy, but it’s probably the hardest league in the world to win.
– There are more than 30 teams, there is a play-off and then everything is decided in one match. So it’s not something I just redoed. It’s fun to have it on your resume. It will be remembered forever.
Did you get to meet the president? It is a tradition for the team to win the MLS.
– No, it didn’t work out that way. After all, we tried on suits and we’re going to the White House to meet Joe Biden. But as far as that goes, the Supreme Court decided to overturn Roe v. Wade and there were protests outside the White House, so they had to overturn it.
– We were able to meet some senators instead, which didn’t amount to meeting the president.
How do you see the chances of winning the gold medal this year?
– There are many good teams. Djurgården, Hammarby, AIK and Häcken. It’s easy to forget Häcken even though they won last year. But we’re favorites and we’ll take it.
– But it takes a lot of hard work. So we have to get it up to 100 percent and get the team together.