If there is a place that represents the spirit of Södermalm, central and cosmopolitan neighborhood of Stockholm, that is the Morfar Ginko, run by the brothers Joanna and Johan Ray. Restaurant, bar, nerve center of activities or simply the ideal place to have a few drinks with friends, the Rays have a weakness shared with thousands of Swedes: it is called Hammarby, a football club and, although their windows sound hollow (a league and a Cup in more than a hundred years of history), it is the team with the most followers in all of Scandinavia.
Why? Difficult to understand without experiencing one of their home games in situ, today the Tele2 Arena stadium, with capacity for 33,000 spectators and which is almost full regularly. Preconceptions about cerebral Swedish society are shattered during 90 minutes of quasi-religious delivery. The amateur prototype is socially transversal, it goes from the most humble origins to the liberal professions, but the ball rolls, the differences are blurred and the chants, constant, prevail. A bad result does not change the mood. One is from Hammarby wholeheartedly. Tattoos proliferate among fans and a respect for the humble origins of Södermalm, today largely overcome by an air between cool, neo-bourgeois and hipster, translated today into a club with anti-racist values and promoter of causes typical of traditional social democracy. , recently threatened by the extreme right. “Working class football club”, reads the motto of a sweatshirt put up for sale by the marketing department.
And what is the point of talking about Hammarby now? Well, it turns out that his coach is called Martí Cifuentes, he was born in Sant Cugat (Barcelona), and the Ray brothers, like the entire Bajen community (as the followers of the Blanquiverde club call themselves) are delighted with him. This season they have been Cup finalists (lost on penalties against Malmö in May) and have qualified third in the Allsvenskan, the Swedish league, trailing only first-time champions Häcken and rivals Djurgården. citizen, and obtaining the passport for the Conference League, that is, he will compete in Europe. "We are delighted with Cifuentes, he is one of the best coaches we have ever had, he has given a different touch to the team, we played better," says Johanna, so attached to Hammarby that she literally ripped her member's seat out of the old stadium and took it to House. In the last league game, against Kalmar a few days ago, thousands of fans, including the Rays, dedicated a fun song to Cifuentes in recognition of his work. "A beer please". In Spanish.
Martí Cifuentes (40 years old) was a mediocre player, that's how he describes himself, but he is a restless and emerging coach. He began directing Third Division teams like Rubí and Second B teams like Sant Andreu, Sabadell and Hospitalet, but his open mind demanded a getaway to dare new experiences. He traveled with his staff to discover other ways of understanding football (the Netherlands, Italy, England... he still does it every year, he has just visited Xabi Alonso's Leverkusen...) and finally, after a visit to Sweden, A proposal came to him: direct the methodology of the AIK Solna in Stockholm. He said yes.
Cifuentes had previously studied Business Studies and obtained a master's degree at the Johan Cruyff University, whose figure has always been a reference in his life. "I grew up watching the Dream Team, I lived in the Netherlands and I love the philosophy of Ajax," Cifuentes tells La Vanguardia, who wanted to impregnate that idea of football into his Swedish adventure, just when in this country they were opening up to new concepts beyond granite 4-4-2 from the eighties (the great Göteborg), later extended by an iconic coach like Sven-Göran Eriksson. After two experiences in Norway (Sandefjord) and Denmark (Aalborg), the call came from Hammarby. They even paid a termination clause of around 300,000 euros to be able to sign him.
“When they contacted me I did not hesitate. I asked Aalborg for permission and they behaved very well. Without being a winning club, Hammarby have always played happy football and their social following is very strong, in addition, now they are growing, they have aspirations”. Cifuentes refers to the boost recently given by an illustrious investor, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, owner of 23.5% of the shares (51% must always belong to the partners) and a global character who has just put Hammarby on the map. “It is a fantastic club with passionate fans. I'm going to help him become the best club in Scandinavia," Ibrahimovic said, drawing the ire of the radical fans of Malmö, the club and the city that saw him born. They smashed a statue in his honor, in fact.
Partner and father of two children, Cifuentes has settled in Stockholm to continue making history at Hammarby, and that his partner, Swedish, preferred life in Barcelona.
