Mattias Bjärsmyr Interview

Mattias Bjärsmyr Interview 

By Andreas Mitsis

In a little over a week, the league game will restart. After their fine autumn, Panathinaikos has a lead of a full eight points down on second place AEK and twelve down on both Olympiakos and PAOK.  

The Greens from the capital, under the leadership of coach Ivan Jovanovic, have smartly built on the fine spring the team had last year, which included a cup title. However, the league title is also now within reach and should it be salvaged, it would be the first in 13 years.  

The last league title for the club came in the 2009-10 season when they won the double. Swedish Mattias Bjärsmyr was one of the players in the fine edition of Panathinaikos.  

In addition to the recently mentioned season, Bjärsmyr was also at the club in 2011-12 after being loaned to Rosenborg in between. Bjärsmyr put his shoes on the shelf in November after he finished the season with his IFK Gothenburg.  

Read, among other things, what Bjärsmyr has to say about the current situation at the club, having Henk Ten Cate on the coaching bench and Djibril Cissé as a teammate, and how he experienced his stay overall with the trefoil on his chest. 

Panathinaikos has been running like a train during the autumn league games and, as previously mentioned, has had a solid run at its first league title since 2009-10.  

That very season, Bjärsmyr was found in the club and accounted for 15 appearances in the league. The lead down to runner-up AEK is eight points before the restart of the league after the World Cup.  

Do you follow Panathinaikos today and if so what do you think of their chances of winning their first league title in over 10 years?  -  I have seen that it went very well for them this autumn.  

However, I haven't seen any games with the team since Marcus Berg played there. 8 points is a good lead although it can go quickly if lost.  

But if they keep their best players over the winter, it looks undeniably good.  Bjärsmyr was captain of Sweden's U21 national team in 2009, where a successful tournament at home ended, however, with a painful exit on penalties against England in a highly dramatic semi-final.  

At the age of 23, with a couple of good years in IFK Gothenburg under his belt and an Allsvenskan gold, there was a lot of interest in his services.

Just a couple of weeks after a successful U21 European Championship in 2009 you signed for Panathinaikos, tell us a little about the transfer and how you reasoned about the move?  - I had a successful time in IFK and the icing on the cake was of course the U21 EC. After that, I remember that it was Panathinaikos and a top club from Belgium that showed concrete interest. Furthermore, it took a week or so before the clubs came to an agreement. I was quite clear with my agent where I wanted there, even he agreed that PAO was the best option.  

They had been in the Champions League finals the season before and it was hard to say no. I had never been to Athens before but it didn't take me many hours to fall in love with the city.  

Once there, it took a little over a day before everything was in place with negotiations and a medical examination.  

What I remember most from the transition is clearly when me and PAO's doctor were sitting at the airport and were about to take a flight at 10 o'clock to take us on to the camp where the team was staying.  

About 20 minutes before departure we received a call from the hospital where we found out that everything looked fine. It was a very easy flight after that!  

The 2009-10 season is one of Panathinaikos' most successful of all time and entered the history books with a salvage double and a snowy exit in the Europa League round of 16 after two victories against Roma in the round of 16 game. In December, the Dutchman Henk Ten Cate (best known for his role as assistant coach in Barcelona and Chelsea) was replaced after 1.5 years at the club by the former  the player of the club Nikos Nioplias.

What was it like having Henk Ten Cate and Nikos Nioplias respectively as coaches and what do you feel was the recipe for success for the team during the successful 2009-10 season?  - I joined during Ten Cate's time.  He was very direct and clear which I really like.  

Great coach who I had a lot of respect for.  I liked him and he seemed to like me but unfortunately for me he got fired.  

Then Nikos came in and there I felt quite quickly that I would have more difficulty with playing time.  If I remember correctly, it was me and one other player who ended up on the bench after the coaching change.  

However, I also want to say that this is how football works.  My impression of Nikos is that he was very good at getting the team/group on board.  He managed to win the league in port which was a strength.  

At the time, Panathinaikos managed to break arch-rival Olympiakos' streak of five straight league titles won between the 2004–05 and 2008–09 seasons.  

Incidentally, the rivals, like Panathinaikos, had brought in a Swedish centre-back the same summer in the form of Olof Mellberg from Juventus but were undergoing reconstruction with several coaching changes after Ernesto Valverde left after the previous season.  

Panathinaikos in turn capitalized on this and at the same time had a really good team.  

What is your strongest memory from the 2009-10 season?  - Absolutely the match when it was decided that we won the league.  Against Iraklis at home at OAKA.  Incredible experience that is still with me today!

Mattias Bjärsmyr, Sebastian Leto, Kostas Katsouranis but perhaps above all the striker Djibril Cissé joined in the summer of 2009 under Panathinaikos' multiple ownership.  A charismatic player who came to leave a huge impression not only on the Greens but in Greek football in general.  The Frenchman's result was 55 goals in a total of 89 games for Panathianikos.

Djibril Cissé was the player who stood out in the season you took the double and came to perfectly score goals in the two seasons he spent with the greens from the capital and is now a club legend.  

What was it like to have this superstar and character as a teammate both on and off the field?  - We came to Panathinaikos in the same year and I remember that it took quite a few games before scoring his first goal.  

There was a bit of a ketchup effect here because then he scored on most of it. Incredibly good, fast and physical player with a hard shot.  

He also worked hard for the team, which not all stars always do.  

As a person, he was very forward and happy.  

He liked to joke but when it came to training and matches, he changed and became serious and serious.  Very professional. The list can be made long of Scandinavian players and especially Swedes who have successfully represented Panathinaikos.  

There is an overall positive image of the general Swedish player in Greek football.  Historically, they have a respected and high reputation where character traits such as professionalism and discipline are often combined with steady delivery of performances on the pitch.

 

Panathinaikos has a long tradition of Scandinavian players, including Swedes.  Before you there were e.g.  Mikael Nilsson and after you especially your good friend Marcus Berg.  

How did you enjoy yourself in the club and on the sidelines in Athens as a city?  - As I mentioned before, I loved the city after just a few hours!  It was relatively close to everything and most of the foreign players lived in the same area, which meant that we could come up with fun things even off the pitch.  

At that time the club felt very prosperous and they took care of us players in a very good way.  

The Peania training facility had everything we needed.  

The team was also a mix of experienced players (Karagounis, Katsouranis, Vyntra, Gilberto Silva and Cissé) and younger players.  The arena issue is always and forever on the table for Panathinaikos.  

Olympiakos has Karaiskakis and AEK recently inaugurated their new Agia Sophia Stadium.  

Remaining of the big three in the capital is Panathianikos who commuted between the state-owned Olympiastadion (OAKA) and their original home arena Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadion at Leoforos Alexandras.  A small arena that only holds 16,000 spectators but a great old-fashioned "pot" where a huge audience pressure can be created.  A new arena at Votanikos is highly topical and small but clear steps in the right direction have been taken in the past year.  

The hope is that in the reasonably near future the construction will receive the green light from all authorities and begin.  

When you found yourself in Panathinaikos, the team played at the large Olympiastadion in Maroussi, while now for a couple of years now the team is at home at Leoforos Alexandras again.  

What was it like playing in front of a packed OAKA and what impression did you get of the supporters and Gate 13?  - Of course wonderful and also a little crazy.  Things happened that I had not experienced before, even though I had played in the biggest club in the Allsvenskan.  What I remember/understood from Gate 13 was that they always supported the team back then.  They were many and incredibly loud!  

Finally, what are you most satisfied about your stay in Panathinaikos and is there anything you regret or would have liked to change?  - I am most satisfied with my first year where we won both the league and the cup.  I felt that I developed and gained a lot of confidence in the first six months until Ten Cate had to leave.  I don't like to regret anything, but if I have to choose, it's how I took the "pinch" when Nikos came.  Instead of clenching my fists, I became more like a question mark, wondering why I didn't get to play as much.  It's something I learned afterwards.

Hellas Football 

Follow @mitsaras86a