These are the Swedish teams participating in Gothia Puma Trophy B17

Twelve foreign teams will be invited to this year’s edition of Gothia Puma Trophy. They will compete against the same number of Swedish teams. “It is very inspiring for us to participate”, says Robert Nordström, Academy Manager at Halmstads BK.

Gothia Puma Trophy is Gothia Cup’s invitation class for 17-year-olds, where Swedish Elite Football (SEF) selects the Swedish academies participating and Gothia Cup invites the foreign teams.
The Swedish teams are selected on the basis of a number of criteria, including last year’s Swedish Elite Football’s certification, and how the club’s men’s team placed in Allsvenskan or Superettan (the two top flight leagues in Sweden) in 2019.
In the case of Halmstads BK, the club will participate for the fifth time in Gothia Puma Trophy.
“The first year was probably our boys born in 1993, which then had Jens Gustafsson as coach, and in that squad six or seven players have played in Allsvenskan by now. And Jens is doing all right as manager in IFK Norrköping (who now are one of the best teams in Sweden).., says Robert Nordström and laughs.
He believes that the tournament is a great opportunity for players as well as leaders to develop.
“It is very inspiring for us to meet the best teams in the B17 class. Halmstads BK very rarely participate in Gothia Cup with our younger teams, so for many of the players this is the first time they participate.
Svante Samuelsson, Sports Director at Swedish Elite Football (SEF), comments:
“The most important thing about this tournament is to offer our academies good opponents and great matches during the week. The foreign teams play at a very high level, which means that our academies will gain necessary international experience. They learn how to face teams with different ways of playing football and what it takes to win difficult playoff matches. It is also good that Gothia Cup is played during a period of the year where there is otherwise a summer break.”

The twelve Swedish teams participating in Gothia Puma Trophy B17 class are: AIK FF, BK Häcken, Helsingborgs IF, IF Elfsborg, IFK Gothenburg, IFK Norrköping, IK Sirius FK, GIF Sundsvall, Halmstads BK, Hammarby IF FF, Örebro SK and Östersunds FK.

The foreign teams in Gothia Puma Trophy will be presented later this spring.