A kid with a plan - Patrick Liljenqvist

What a week! Fantastic stuff! Cant help but wonder where you'll end up.....
 
What a week! Fantastic stuff! Cant help but wonder where you'll end up.....

The options are:

PSG
Napoli
AS Saint-Etienne
Toulouse FC
Leicester City
Girondins de Bordeaux

Schalke are also credited with interest, I'd love to go there! I could even stay at IFK Goteborg

What's your guess? Anyone else as well!
 
The options are:

PSG
Napoli
AS Saint-Etienne
Toulouse FC
Leicester City
Girondins de Bordeaux

Schalke are also credited with interest, I'd love to go there!

What's your guess? Anyone else as well!

Well, I'd like to see you go to Leicester, dunno why. Just because.

Really, I'm just hoping you don't become another talent wasting away in the PSG youth teams...
 
Well, I'd like to see you go to Leicester, dunno why. Just because.

Really, I'm just hoping you don't become another talent wasting away in the PSG youth teams...

That's my biggest fear too, I hope the money doesn't talk. Pretty sure I made PSG a disliked team when I created the player to try to avoid that
 
I think that it will be PSG unless you made them disliked if so Napoli edge out Leicester
 
Because I like to be a contrarian I'll go with Toulouse
 

I’m an ambitious young player with big plans for the future. My plans aren’t about money though, I want to be the best player in the world, and to get there, I need to play. I can't afford to spend years in the reserves of a big club like Paris Saint-Germain or Napoli, flattered though I am by their interest. For that reason, I've joined Les Verts, a club I've always quite liked. They've done very well in the last couple of years, but I feel I can come in and make an immediate impact. The presence of my international team mate Anton Tinnerholm (who is a Malmö player in a parallel universe), and John Arne Riise, a Liverpool legend, also influenced my decision.

I'm extremely grateful to IFK Göteborg for providing me with the platform to achieve my dreams, and thank them for allowing me to move on in my career. I loved every minute of my career with IFK.
It's an encouraging sign that I'm considered the club's key player already!
 
Well things started brightly for me at AS-Saint Etienne. I made four starts in the league, picking up two goals and an assist playing as a number 10. I feel equally comfortable there as I do on the left wing, where I played most of my matches in Sweden. Speaking of which, I was called up for the national squad, but then this happened:


Very frustrating. I was forced to withdraw from international duty, and then watched from the sidelines as my team fell to pieces in the league. Manager Elie Baup got the axe as we dropped to 17th place.


We slumped even further, dropping to 19th the following week, in a 3-0 loss. Importantly though, I managed 50 minutes in that game, in my return from injury. And then I announced my return to action by scoring in back to back games.


My good form continued, as by December I had made 11 appearances, all starts, scoring 5 goals and making 4 (10, 4 and 4 in the league). New manager Tuca Ferreti was very impressed with my performances, and was keen to stress that he saw a big future for me at the club. I was offered a new 5 year deal in late November, just a few months after signing for the club. With a pay rise, a guarantee of key player status, and a long term guarantee, it was a no-brainer.
 
I was pleased to see that despite the sales of myself and Gustav Engvall mid-season, IFK cruised to the Allsvenskan title. I didn't get a winners medal though!


Lionel Messi only came second in both the World Golden Ball and the FIFA Ballon d'Or, edged out by Suarez and Hazard respectively, who each finished third in the other prize. Martin Ødegaard won the Golden Boy prize. I've got my eyes on that one, and would love to win it within the next couple of years.



I did pick up an award of my own though - the Ligue 1 Player of the Month prize for December! I was over the moon! With 8 goals and 7 assists in 15 appearances at the time, things were looking very promising.


Unfortunately, that was as good as it got for me for the rest of the season. I found it very difficult to get into a rhythm when manager Tuca Ferreti kept insisting on substituting me in every single fixture. Oftentimes I would find myself off at or before half time. It was incredibly frustrating. In my last 20 appearances, I completed 90 minutes just 3 times.



On the one hand I can understand that he didn't want to tire me out, but seriously, I would have preferred to miss a game here or there, rather than being continuously hauled off. My confidence took a hit, and my form suffered as a result. After my first 14 appearances yielded 8 goals and 7 assists, my last 20 had just 3 goals and a solitary assist. In stark contrast, when I appeared for Sweden again, I shone.



This was the only international played during the remainder of the season, and I was called up for the Sweden squad for the 2018 World Cup. This is really a dream come true! Despite the apparent efforts of my club manager, I'm feeling the effects of a gruelling season, and truth be told, I'm probably in need of a rest. Still, that's not going to stop me from putting in my best for Sweden, and I scored a beauty in a friendly in the lead-up to the World Cup.

As for Saint-Etienne, we never really got going, and finished a disappointing 9th place. We will definitely be looking to improve next season, and hopefully the World Cup will provide me with some more valuable experience, as well as the chance to represent my country on the biggest stage of all. One thing I will say for Ferreti, is that he has us playing the game in the right way. I'm not a physical or dirty player at all, and I value sportsmanship and fair play very highly, and that is reflected in my playing style. Ferreti has a similar approach, and due to our Fair Play record, we were awarded a place in the Europa League for next season. Whilst it fills up our schedule for next season, it's still a competition I'd rather be in than not. Performances at continental level could turn the heads of some big clubs, and if I feel ready to make that step up, then I want the chance to do so. I'm happy at Saint-Etienne right now though, although I do hope Ferreti's management of my playing time improves next season. It's not easy as an 18 year old to produce week in, week out, without playing 90 minutes.

 
How are young Liljenqvist's stats looking Patrick?
 
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