File photo of Graham Potter.© AFP
The Swedish Football Association said on Monday that ex-Chelsea manager Graham Potter had been appointed national team coach after Jon Dahl Tomasson was sacked last week following three straight losses in World Cup qualifying. Sweden terminated Tomasson’s contract on October 14 after his team only managed to win a single point in the first four games of the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup. The Swedish FA said Potter, who was sacked by Premier League club West Ham in September, would be tasked with turning around a team containing star strikers Alexander Isak and Viktor Gyokeres and attempt to qualify for the finals in the US, Canada and Mexico.
“The goal is to create the optimal conditions to reach the World Cup in the summer of 2026,” the Swedish FA said in statement.
The FA said the contract with Potter covered the ongoing qualifying period, with games against Switzerland and Slovenia in November, as well as a potential playoff in March.
The contract would automatically be extended to the World Cup finals themselves if Sweden qualify.
“I am very humble facing this assignment, but also incredibly inspired. Sweden has fantastic players who deliver week after week in the world’s best leagues,” 50-year-old Potter was quoted saying.
Despite having 125 million pound ($168 million) Liverpool striker Isak and Arsenal’s 73 million pound Gyokeres starting together up front, Sweden has failed to even score in their last three matches and sit bottom of Group B.
Potter managed Swedish team Ostersund FK between 2011 and 2018, bringing it up to Sweden’s top league.
He has since managed Swansea City, Brighton and Hove Albion, Chelsea and West Ham.
He was once regarded as one of English football’s brightest coaching talents but was sacked by Chelsea in April 2023 after the team’s form nosedived.
There then followed a difficult nine-month stay at West Ham.
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