Freddie Ljungberg Bio Send To Friend  

In late 2008 it was announced that Ljungberg would be joining the new MLS expansion franchise the Seattle Sounders from the 2009 season.

In his prime Ljungberg was a fast, tricky wide-man boasting industry and impressive goalscoring ability, but a spate of injuries saw a dramatic deterioration in the Swede's form and fitness.

In moving to the US he hoped to prove himself to be a committed performer in latter days of his career.

A good provider of chances for others with his direct runs from midfield, the player was once best known for his varying hair styles and few will forget the shocking pink streak which went through the middle of his hair. But that was before he shaved most of it off as a receding hairline restricted his follicle foibles.

The midfielder made 139 appearances for Halmstads BK before moving to the Premiership with Arsenal for £3m, turning down Sheffield Wednesday, in 1998. Ljungberg made the best possible start, notching up a debut goal against Manchester United after just five minutes in a Gunners shirt.

Arsenal were runners up in the league for the start of the Swede's Gunners career, for three years in a row, before the 2001-02 season saw him finally find consistency and be labelled as one of the best attacking players in the Premiership. He missed part of the season through injury, but came back at the best possible time as Robert Pires was ruled out for the remainder of the season.

Ljungberg would net six goals in the run-in to help Arsenal take the Premiership crown, his ghosting late runs into the box being a trademark of their challenge. He also scored in the FA Cup final as Arsenal beat Chelsea 2-0.

He struggled with fitness at the World Cup in 2002, featuring in only two of Sweden's four games as they reached the second round. But the midfielder was in Sweden's squad for Euro 2004, and netted the opening goal in their opening game against Bulgaria and they went on to reach the quarter-finals.

Ljungberg was back on form in 2004-05 and despite niggling injury troubles scored ten goals in 24 Premiership starts. That form earned him a new contract at the end of the season after helping Arsenal to win the FA Cup.

His 2005-06 was disappointing due to further injury problems and a loss of form, though he battled back to play in the Champions League final defeat to Barcelona.

The 2006-07 term saw Ljungberg on the sidelines for most of the season - he played in only half of their League campaign and was second choice behind Aleksander Hleb and Tomas Rosicky on the wing.

He left in the summer of 2007 to join West Ham for a fee of £3m, making his debut in a 2-0 defeat to Manchester City. It was another stop-start season for the Swede and the Hammers fans never saw the best of him.

Broken ribs ruled him out for the rest of the season and in June 2008 he retired from international football. With constant speculation linking him with a move away from the club, Ljungberg agreed to terminate his contract after only one year into his four year deal for a reported sum of £3m.

Linked with a host of European clubs, Ljungberg eventually signed for the Sounders in October 2008. The new franchise signed up the former international for a reported two-year contract worth US$5m per season.

After surgery to repair a persistent hip injury, Ljungberg made his Sounders debut on 28 March 2009, coming on as a substitute in the 2-0 victory over Real Salt Lake and got his first goal against Toronto days later.