About his role in the team
Lasse Nilsson: The first half a year after my arrival at SC Heerenveen, in January 2005, I was almost immediately in the line up. By a couple of unlucky games and a few injuries I got rid of my place at the start of this season. I wasn’t doing too well. During Christmas I was having a hard time, but I also knew that a new chance would come. And that chance came rapidly. Since the departure of Georgios I have been the first choice on the left wing position. Although I consider myself more as a central player, I feel very comfortable on that place. I have a free role, I can freely roam. I have the support of the coach and players to do where I am good at. Trust is enormously important, each player who claims the opposite is a liar. In the field I am doing well thanks to Arnold Bruggink. He is very wise. And his passing is great, he knows exactly when to take over my position when I am going into the depth. Of course Klaas-Jan was a very good striker for SC Heerenveen, but for me the cooperation with Arnold works much better. He is more complete and has the gift to make other players play better. The last weeks I am doing well, but there is always place for improvement. I am still a bit naive in my way of playing. My aim is to entertain people, I like to do special things. I would love to make pannas for 90 minutes, but that’s impossible at this level.
About his predecessors
The last weeks people frequently compare me with Klaas Jan and Samaras, but I think that we are all three totally different players. Klaas Jan is a type like Ruud van Nistelrooy, a pure striker. I am more a player who has to do it with my speed. I am constantly on the look out for the right moment to go deep. Sam was also fast, but with his powerful body he was constantly searching for the opponent. I try to avoid that contact. After the departure of klaas and Sam someone else had to stand up. Fortunately I have taken that chance. Before my task was especially to provide the ball to Klaas, now it’s my responsibility to be at the end of an attack. It’s a task that puts a pressure on my shoulders, but I like that. People expect something from me and that is exactly what I want. Running around on the field without a task is just boring.
About his role model
Robbie Fowler has always been my hero. I don’t know exactly why, but in one or the other way he fascinates me. He is able to make football look simple and strongly at once, and there has never been a bigger goal machine in the Premiership. I found it really great that Fowler recently returned at Liverpool, the club where he became big. My fellow-member Paul Bosvelt has played with him at Manchester City. I once told Paul about my admiration for Fowler. He said nothing, but a couple of days later he suddenly came to me with a signed shirt. He had organised it by his contacts. Super!
About his ambitions
I have always had a high aim in my life. I rather fail with too high expectations than that I satisfy myself too easily. I want to play in the Swedish National team. So far I have only played for the National team once, but I want more. My chances on the coming World Championship are gone. Germany 2006 was my aim when I signed for SC Heerenveen, but injuries and being out of form have blown my situation. Now I play good, but it is too late. But If I continue to play like this my chance will hopefully come soon. Sweden has many good forwards, but Henrik Larsson stops after the World Championship and also Marcus Allbäck is getting older. That gives perspective. But I must play good weekly. I also have my ambitions at club level. I love to play in the Netherlands, but there is always a next step. Since my youth I have dreamed of Italy. The way they play football in Italy, which means technical football, appeals to me. In early days we always watched the series A on television at home. That’s where my love for the Italian football comes from. A lot of people don’t understand, but I enjoy Italian football for example much more than English football. I don’t care about the quality of the game, I enjoy beauty and details. The perception is also incomparable. Of course football in the United Kingdom means as lot for the people over there, but in Italy it is ordinary religion! Roma is my favourite club. They are not doing too well at the moment but a couple of years ago they had a splendid team with Totti, Cassano and Batistuta. And a beautiful shirt too. If I ever get the chance to play in Italy I will take it. But I am not about to leave Heerenveen yet.
About his Cult status
I am someone who enjoys the spotlights. Fowler also likes that, perhaps that’s why I admire him. I do not consider myself as a typical Swedish. In my homeland I have the reputation to be inmodest. In Sweden it is almost a sin to be different than the majority of the people, you have to be just like everyone else. But my parents taught me to give my own opinion. In Sweden I have had problems with that through the years. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut. If you call by a season that you will make twenty goals, and you make no more than five, then you are an arrogant young brat according to the people and the media. Whereas that kind of statements are only a way to pep up myself. They don’t understand that in Sweden. I have tattooed a Chinese symbol on my right upper arm. Big, strong and humble, is what it means. A lot of people have taken that as a proof that I raised myself above others. But for me it’s a joke, pure self irony. Everyone knows that I am everything but big, strong and humble. That incomprehension concerning my character was also a reason why I was looking around for a foreign country, but of course the football side of it was the main reason to leave for SC Heerenveen. I was very impressed by the club and I loved to play for SC Heerenveen. And I feel very comfortable in Heerenveen, I feel at home. I enjoy all the appreciation which I get and the hype which takes place around me at this moment. I will never forget the audience standing up for me and giving an ovation when I left the field against ADO Den Haag. And that Pippi Långstrump tune (the forward carries the nickname Mr Nilsson, after the little monkey in the Swedish child series Pippi Långstrump) that sounds through the stadium when I score a goal is maybe a bit goofy, but the fans love it and so do I. In former days I always watched Pippi Långstrump. I don’t want to lose ground when the hype around me has gone. I don’t want to get lost into the anonymity of the game. Brrr, I don’t want to imagine that people look at me and think “Who is that guy?”
His Father as his role model
Lasse Nilsson does not have this talent from a stranger. Father Thomas played 15 games for the Swedish national team as a professional. He also played as a forward, although he was more of a real striker. Tall, physical strong and accurate. “My father is very important to me. If I am down, he comes always with sensible comments. And he also ensures that I keep my feet on the ground. After my three goals against ADO Den Haag I sent him a text message. “Good enough?” on which he answered that it was no real hattrick. A joke, with a serious meaning. “Don’t go walking around with your head in the clouds”
Red playing cards dismissed:
In the match against Roda JC (2-1 defeat) Lasse Nilsson put himself in the spotlight again, this time in a negative way. To bewilderment of all people present in the stadium he and Modou Kah suddenly got a red card shown in the 75e minute. “Kicking and beating at both sides” was the message that arbiter Wiedemeijer received from his assistant. Nilsson is flabbergasted because of the first red card as a professional. “There was a bit of a disturbance between me and Kah, but that was it. The red cards had been given undeserved” said Nilsson. “The arbiter did not react to the continuing provocations during the match. But I shouldn’t have reacted to it, there is no excuse. ”Because the lack of proof both red cards were dismissed on Monday.
