“VIGGE”: The Eye of the Storm
The first time many saw Victor Nilsson Lindelöf, he was surrounded by unforeseen chaos.
Eden Aréna, Prague. 30th of June 2015. Penalty number five for Sweden in the U21 European championship final against Portugal. Score is 3–3. Win or go home. The suspense inside the stadium grows; the noise from the Swedish supporter’s comes to a halt; the hoarse Portuguese booing is ramped up. Forward steps a 20-year-old; puts the ball on the spot and takes a run-up.
Before the tournament began, Lindelöf could be characterized as an unknown quantity. But after both injuries and suspensions had decimated the Swedish backline, he had earned a place in head coach Håkan Ericsson’s XI at right-back. And now, in the tournament’s most important and unsure moment, “Vigge” had been given the duty to step into the middle and take his chance.
As the camera now zooms in on the scrawny teenager with a buzzcut, however, it’s hard to detect even a little bit of nervosity. Instead, the only discernible thing from his eyes is a feeling of focus and will. He is an object of stillness, surrounded by a tempestuous-like hell.
The referee blows his whistle. A deep breath later and a few small steps forward. Then, the strike. Bang! Comfortably converted, right down the middle of the goal. He jogs back with a tightened facial expression, raises his fist and shakes it aggressively in the now less-pressurized air. That’s how to do it.
But no time to let go of the nerves — now it’s William Carvalho’s turn. The ball has already been put into place; goalkeeper Patrik Carlgren stands with his hands raised on the goal-line. He dances and dances — tries to find the smallest hint from the under-pressure figure dressed in the glamorous Portuguese uniform. The referee blows again.
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And well, the rest is history.
Carlgren saves! Yes! Sweden win the Euros, against all odds! No one would have believed in this aside from themselves. I don’t believe it!
Jesper Hussfelt, commentator for TV4 Sport, after Patrik Carlgrens save
Sure, it was only a penalty kick, but the fact that he was chosen to shoot the pen said a lot about the faith Ericsson had built up for “Vigge” in a short amount of time. And the manner in which he converted it — with such an unmistakable clarity — came to be the foreword of the story he would write within elite football with help from his attributes and characteristics.
A technically sound, observant defender, with a unique calmness and poise both on and off the pitch. And, what it seems: a player who often finds a way to be at the centre of the chaos.
For there have been many times where Lindelöf’s supposed calmness has been tested. Case in points: the manager carousel and the steadily returning disasterclasses at Manchester United, Janne Andersson’s Nations League division C-era, and whatever Jon Dahl Tomasson was up to with the Swedish national team. All three, examples in a long list of undesirable situations “Vigge” has been part of.
But in the middle of everything which has been frustrating or tense, it has rarely felt as though “Vigge’s” emotional barriers have been in flux. He’s maybe never been the most talented player, or the player who’s thrown himself around the most, but he’s always been there, like an easily forgotten, but still functional and polished tool.
It took a long time before the move from United happened — maybe too long in hindsight — but as time has shown, there is more quality to be found in Lindelöf than his circa 180 games for United presented. Even if he’s been partly befriended again afterwards by United supporters for his performances, it has taken new surroundings for Lindelöf to once again get back to his mojo.
Under the guidance of the detail-fixated Basque Unai Emery, new sides of Lindelöf have emerged. A player once exclusively deployed at centre-back has with time varied his game and become key in a new, before-unthinkable role on the pitch: defensive midfield. A real exclamation point, which has shown that even “Vigge” can go through a change — so long as the environment around him allows it.
Now, however, he’s going through it with an Aston Villa side in rebuild mode— a difficult process to navigate, where the squad’s erosion has made it to where everything around him is once again in motion. Some way, he must not only cling on, but keep calm. And, whether he realizes it or not, the wild Swedish optimism for the future is also focused on him, as the leader of a continuously criticized defensive line.
But, at the same as the temporarily stable walls around him once again splinter, there is an over-hanging feeling of security. For if there’s anything the U21 championship as well as the time in the Premier League and national team has taught us, it’s that “Vigge” is always there. He is a player who, despite constant external problems, finds a way to remain in place. Almost as if the wild pressure is what makes “Vigge” calm. As if the storm itself is what makes him its eye.
