Soccer Tournaments in Sweden

It’s difficult to talk about Soccer tournaments in Sweden without paying homage to the largest international youth soccer tournament in the world, the Gothia Cup.

The week-long soccer extravaganza dominates the soccer landscape during the summer and attracts over 33,000 players to Gothenburg on the southwest coast.

But there are plenty of other things to do in this beautiful and ultra modern Scandinavian country. You might expect a country that given the world such a wide range of cultural icons as the Nobel Peace Prize, Ingmar Bergman, Ikea and ABBA to have something for just about everybody, and you would not be disappointed on visiting Sweden.

From its vast coastline to its bustling cities, and with plenty of beautiful pristine countryside in between, Sweden has plenty to offer visiting soccer families.

On the soccer side, travel from other parts of Northern Europe, via Denmark, and over the spectacular Öresundsbron bridge, is relatively easy, so there is plenty of opportunity to play teams from Germany, Holland, Belgium and the UK.

Sweden is perhaps the leading soccer nation never to have won a major international tournament, though they’ve come close a few times. Defeated World Cup finalists in 1958, third-place finishers in 1994 and defeated finalists in the Women’s World Cup in 2003, the nation has given us some memorable teams and players.

My personal favorite is Henrik Larsson, who played for Celtic, Barcelona and Manchester United, among others. But there are many others, including Freddie Ljundberg, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and, on the women’s side Pia Sondhage and Hanna Ljundberg.

Women’s soccer is taken as seriously in this part of Europe as it is in the United States, so girls teams might want to consider a visit here over, say, Italy or Spain.

Here, then, is our list of soccer tournaments in Sweden.

Soccer Tournaments in Sweden

June

July