Lennart Ekdal criticizes ex-Baggen coach in new book
Hjalmar Ekdal moved from Hammarby to Djurgården.
Now ex-Bagen coach Stefan Belborn is under fire from Lennart Ekdal.
“It is hard to think of a better example of unfortunate leadership.”Ekdal writes in the book “Footballsfamiljen”.
Hjalmar Ekdal, 24, impressed in Djurgården. The central defender played a key role in the Allsvenskan top team, while at the same time making his debut in the Swedish national team A.
But the road there is bumpy. In 2019, Ekdal was recruited from IK Frej to partner club Hammarby. Once there, the center back was not allowed to make the Allsvenskan green and white jersey, and was instead loaned to Sirius the following year.
Lennart Ekdal criticizes: “It has become a circus”
Prior to last year’s season, Ekdal signed with rival Pagen-Djurgården. Now, the father of the 24-year-old Lennart Ekdal has spoken about the situation that has arisen for the centre-back.
– Become a circus with Hamrabi. What happened was that Jesper Jansson (Hammarby’s sports director) was fond of Hjalmar. Frej was a farming club, so it came very naturally. And I had the pleasure of Hughalmar having a big club, so of course he signed up, says Lennart Ekdal on Fotbollsmorgon’s web TV show.
– It was just that Bilburn (Stefan, then coach) was not at all fond of Hjalmar. He didn’t talk to him at all. He continued to play with Frigg, but trained at Hammarby. And it wasn’t fun.
A biblical example of how not to do this
Hi son too “Football Family” Lennart Ekdal develops his thoughts on Bajen’s dealings with Hjalmar.
“During the months that Hjalmar trained with Hammarby, coach Bilburn did not have a single conversation with him. It is hard to think of a better example of unfortunate leadership. Belborn was also later sacked despite decent results on the pitch,” Lennart Ekdal writes in the book and continues:
Hjalmar didn’t really get a chance at Hammarby. Buying it is a textbook example of how not to. In hindsight, one could probably conclude that Belburn was out of cycling. Hjalmar was formally owned by Hammarby for a shorter period. But: it didn’t. Hammarby was never interested in Hjalmar. Hammarby never cared about him.”
Sportbladet . applied Stephen Belborn to comment.