So Patrik "Totte" Gerrbrand has become the latest addition to Craig Levein’s new looking
Leicester
City
squad, the challenge for the Trust was how to gather information about our new recruit.
Step forward Gustav Gelin, who has been a huge fan of Hammarby since he was a kid in the early 80`s, and since watching Leicester City play against his local team Boo FF (a suburb to Stockholm) in 1984 City became his English team. Gerrbrand is one of Gustav’s favourite players and has provided the Trust will a full report
“Patrik Gerrbrand has been playing for Swedish first division team Hammarby since 1995 when he came to the youth team from local team Älvsjö AIK. In May 2000 he made his A team debut for Hammarby in the Swedish first league, Allsvenskan. The following year he played in four games when Hammarby took their first title ever since the club was founded in 1897….
Following the 2002 season being lost through injury in 2003 "Totte" Gerrbrand took a permanent place among the first eleven, mostly playing in the Centre Back position, but sometimes doing short periods in the Left or Right Back roles.
During the five years in Hammarby`s A-squad Patrik Gerrbrand played 52 games, and scored two goals.
In 2003 he made his debut in the Swedish national U21 team when he played Centre Back and beat Spain on November 15 which qualified
Sweden
for the U21 European Championship.
In total Patrik played seven U21 national games for Sweden, but he hasn`t yet made his debut for the full national team, although many people think he is close. 24 year old Gerrbrand is seen as promising and a great man for the future.
He`s a good tackler, quite fast and a bit aggressive, but always with a great eye for the game and safe with the ball. He is a good passer of the ball preferring to play the ball on the floor and rarely opts for the long ball.
He made a short visit to Leicester last season for a couple of days training, but at that time
Leicester
decided to wait. The past winter Bundesliga club
Wolfsburg
showed some interest for Gerrbrand as well, but he signed a new three year contract with Hammarby as recently as May 31st this year
When that contract was signed he said to Hammarby`s Official Website: ‘I like it a lot in Hammarby and can`t think of playing in any other Swedish team, but of course I`m attracted to play abroad. That`s something I believe all football players dream of, and something that`s required to continue develop. If I could choose I`d play in the Spanish League, although I am Centre Back I like the fast and technical football they play there, and the weather isn`t too bad there either.’
Now "Totte" will have the Championship and the Midland rain instead of the Spanish sun, but hopefully he will enjoy it and hopefully he will be a great asset to
Leicester
, as he will potentially form the new Centre Back couple with co-Swede Nils-Eric "Nisse" Johansson.
And maybe he can reach out to be as big as the last Swede who played for Leicester, the great Pontus Kåmark.
Patrik Gerrbrand – Career Stats:
Length: 187 cm
Weight: 81 kilos
Born: 27 April 1981
First club: Älvsjö AIK
Last five seasons in Hammarby IF,
Sweden
:
Season 2005: 13 matches 0 goals
Season 2004: 25 matches 1 goal
Season 2003: 15 matches 1 goal
Season 2001: 4 matches 0 goals
Season 2000: 5 matches 0 goals
Gustav Gelin”
The Foxes Trust would like to thank Gustav for giving all City fans this analysis.