It is with a proud look that Kaj Danielson looks over the fence at the national football team’s training at Örebäcksvallen in Båstad.
– To see him here now – it’s completely sick, he states at the same time as Marcus Danielson sharpens the details before the European Football Championship about fifty meters in front of him.
Together with his partner Ingrid Baeza, Kaj has driven down to the west coast of Skåne from Kinna, outside Borås, where they have lived for seven years. Otherwise, the father is also from Eskilstuna, just like the rest of the Danielson family.
He enjoys that see “Mackan” smile and feel good again. This after a stressful spring with many weeks of isolation in China – where he has another four weeks quarantine in front of him when he returns to the club team Dalian Pro after the European Championships.
– There is probably no one who has been quarantined as much as he has done. They said last year that it could not get worse. But it was. Now he is alone, there is no other foreign player in that team. Hamsik is in Gothenburg and Sam Larsson got the corona so he will not be admitted despite having antibodies. I think that is very strange.
– I do not think he will extend after next year.
What is it like to have your son over there on such terms?
– Yes, it feels good. I now notice that when he comes home it is a completely different tone. He is much happier. It goes without saying.
Kaj Danielson has a good feeling ahead of the upcoming European Championships. He thinks national team captain Janne Andersson will go on the same midfield set that Västerås SK patterned in the Superettan ten years ago.
– I think he has good chances to play. I think it will be him and Victor Lindelöf.
A reunion from the time in VSK then?
– Yes exactly. It will be. Then it’s funny that “Jocke” Nilsson is here too. They played together in Sundsvall.
– And Emil Forsberg, Ingrid Baeza adds.
– After the European Championships, another four weeks of quarantine awaits Marcus Danielson.
Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand / AFP / TT
Marcus Danielson was 30 year when he made his debut in the national team. It took dominance in the Allsvenskan and a golden season in Djurgården for him to get his great recognition.
Crazy too late, his dad thinks.
– It’s fun that he got the chance, he should have got it long before.
When do you think he would have had it?
– They should at least have looked at him when he was in Sundsvall (2012–2017). Because he was good then, it was just that he played in a worse team. It was only when he came to Djurgården that it became interesting.
– He has always had the ability to rise the higher he gets. Then he rises a notch and fits in. It can also be seen in the national team, he has done well there as well.
Kaj Danielson has always studied his son’s progress on the pitch carefully and was himself the coach for Marcus when he was 15 years old in the parent club Skogstorps GoIF.
– In the 89-team, there were incredibly good football players. The “sandwich” may not have been the best from the beginning – but he had his head. And that’s what brought him here. He has the skull and really wanted this.
– He has fought, really. I really treat him to this.
Is that your forehead bone he got?
– Haha, no I probably do not want to say that.
Here Ingrid again feels compelled to break in:
– Yes, I think so.
– Yes, but I’m a bit like that too maybe. If I want something, I run a hundred on it. But it’s probably from both mom and dad, I guess, says Kaj.
– “He has always had the ability to rise the higher he gets,” says Kaj about his son Marcus Danielson.
Photo: Ludvig Thunman / Bildbyrån
To follow the national team on site in Seville and St. Petersburg is not relevant. However, it is not entirely impossible with a car ride for the couple to Copenhagen where Sweden may play the round of 16 in the event of a second place in the group stage.
Regardless of whether it is through a TV screen or from a football fan, it will be a pleasure to follow “Mackan” in the European Championships.
– To be able to take part in a championship before his career is over is huge for him. The only thing he has thought about all spring has been to join the squad, do as well as possible in these training sessions and training matches to play. I hope and believe he gets it.
Read more:
Danielson’s unlikely journey: “Did not have a thought of the European Championships”
Ekdal about Funny: “An asshole”
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