“What the hell have I done?

The 2020 season is the great success of Victor Edvardsen Degerfors.

Along with Villiam Dahlström and Johan Bertilsson, the 24-year-old Gothenburg is on track to bring the classic club to the Allsvenskan after being picked up from Karlstad BK in the second division and snatched in front of the nose of great rival Örebro SK.

However, it could have been handball for young Victor when he left: passion and commitment to indoor sports was in the genes from the beginning.

– Dad was a coach at IFK Gothenburg Academy and was responsible for my brother Robin’s team, P89. Both he and his mother are former elite handball players, so sports and IFK Gothenburg have always been a natural part of our lives. When I started at Blåvitt when I was four years old, I got an exemption, you really had to be five years old to participate. I jumped with 95 and that’s it. Considering family history, it’s quite interesting that my first sport was soccer, haha, says Edvardsen and continues:

– I played in parallel at IFK and Redbergslid until I was 15 years old, then I decided to invest fully in football. He kept rolling and I made it to the U19 team where I spent three years. In the meantime, I was training continuously with the A team and before last year I decided to be loaned to Utsikten because I felt that it might not be the same as getting an A contract. So you have to start thinking about yourself a bit too; you still have to get into senior football in one form or another if you want to play.

“They seem to have their own theories about what works best …”

There was no continuation of Edvardsen at Blåvitt after the time at Utsikten. The forward moved to Norwegian Elverum and has since played for Stenungsund, Oddevold and Karlstad; in the latter club he was a great success with 39 goals in 53 games. Now Edvardsen is five games away from playing Allsvenskan football after taking a long and winding road to the beautiful hall – the forward takes the opportunity to look back and at the same time wonder why not more of his teammates at IFK Gothenburg they had the opportunity.

– Why can many other Allsvenskan teams do it but not the IFK? There are several teams each year that produce and sell talent abroad; Now the IFK has only done it in the last few years, but when I played in the U19 category we won two gold medals at the Swedish Championship in three years. We swept the field with AIK in the final and beat Malmö on the road, but it is our opponents who had the opportunity and broke through as players. I don’t know, they seem to have their own theories about what works best, says Victor Edvardsen.

“Supported Blue and White from the stands”

There is no doubt that Victor Edvardsen still has strong feelings for IFK Gothenburg. Last year, he went to Norrköping and Stockholm, among other places, to follow Blåvitt from the away sections, while being clear in pointing out the difference between playing soccer as a profession and as a hobby in private.

– I think that many players are careful to say which is “their” team because you think about your career as a player. But there you have to distinguish between work and private life; We are professional footballers and we will always do our best to perform well in the team you play for. So it doesn’t matter if I meet IFK with any other team.

Edvardsen takes an example from the IFK period.

– When I was training with (Mikael) Stahre in team A, they met Helsingborg outside. So both (Tobias) Hysén and (Gustav) Engvall were hesitant to play. In the last training before the game, I became part of the “starting team”, then I thought there was a possibility of being on the bench in any case. It was all over when Engvall was able to play, they brought another player in my place and I went to Helsingborg with my teammates to watch the match from the stands!

Lost 17,000 crowns

You’ve been to lower-level clubs since you left IFK and up until now. How have you been mentally?

– So… If you’ve been in a big club all your life and suddenly you end up in a smaller one, you must realize that you are not someone or something. The faster you do it, the better, then it will also be easier to be able to start over mentally in order to recover. Then maybe, like in my case, you have to start over in the second division. For me, the “mental” has never really been a problem in that way, but rather other things.

Fall 2018 was especially tough. In an interview with Karlskoga Tidning, Edvardsen spoke about his addiction to gambling.

– During my first year in Karlstad I played a lot. My salary could increase in a day or two. I played sports, casino, poker, and blackjack. It was difficult. I came to a whole new place and I was really cool, but the addiction got the better of me.

At most Edvardsen lost SEK 17,000 in one day.

– It was in two hours … Then I felt angry. I had to ask my friends if they could lend me money and that’s the last thing you want.

“If I hadn’t wasted so much money, I could have bought my own apartment.”

The attacker received a lot of help and support from his family.

– They knew he was playing, but maybe not to that point. I’ve been lying a lot. It was almost like living a constant lie. If I hadn’t wasted so much money, I could have bought my own apartment. I have served very well in the clubs I play for. Now you have to save a few years. Then you think “What the hell have I done? How stupid can you be?” At the same time, I don’t regret anything. It has made me the person I am now and I constantly work on myself, Edvardsen told Karlskoga Tidning this summer.

Now Edvardsen is in a much better place in life.

– You learn from your mistakes. This period is behind us in life and I am grateful for it. During this time I had good help from Daniel Pettersson and others. They took me in the right direction and I took advantage of it later. I ignore what is not important and take action all the time, Edvardsen tells NWT and continues:

– I met my girl Frida at the beginning of the year and after that she has improved even more. It is very important to have a life with football, it also helps me to perform on the field.

Edvardsen also thanks a person who is important to him.

– My agent Michael Kallbäck has helped me a lot as a player and as a person.

“A very familiar atmosphere”

The fact that Degerfors was successful in 2020 has not gone unnoticed by many. The team leads Superettan with five games to play, while Edvardsen has added 14 goals and seven assists during the season. His own and team’s success explanation explains Edvardsen’s background in lack of prestige and high ceilings.

– It is a very familiar environment where the group is in the center and no one should stand out more than anyone. This is exactly how it should be, we are a team and we do a team sport. Otherwise you could easily have played tennis or something. Then there are “stars” on all teams, but it’s about keeping your feet on the ground and not doing a lot of other shit or talking in the media about things that aren’t true. These last five games shouldn’t really differ from the other 25 we’ve played so far, but it’s a little more “final feeling.” We’ve only won one of the last four, it’s really not like us. It is only realizing the seriousness.

You are a very temperamental player. How do you keep it under control?

– At IFK, probably a lot of people got upset about it, but I don’t know … I hate losing. If my team does it in training, the whole team will hear it too. You must be able to demand a lot from your environment, but at the same time you must realize that sometimes it can be wrong; then you must apologize and explain that it is not something personal against someone or something. I want people to get angry and yell at me even if I do something wrong. It is for the good of the team that we push each other, says Victor Edvardsen.

Degerfors meets Gais at home on Saturday.

READ MORE: Ralf Edström on the success of Degerfors: “Fantastic”

READ MORE: Degerfors lost points: “We can blame ourselves”