Countdown; 4 days left. Breakdown; Goalkeepers

It’s 4 days left until Allsvenskan starts. The first match of the season for Hammarby is Ljungskile away on Monday, March 31^st. In a series of four parts, Rumours About Bajen will inspect each part of the squad and present the players in detail. We’ll also try to assess the weaknesses and strengths of each part. We start off with our GOALKEEPERS!

Last year, Hammarby started the season with Ghana National Team goalkeeper Richard Kingson. He came to Hammarby on loan, and his stability drove Hammarby to the top of the league. When Kingson left in the beginning of the summer 2007, everything fell apart. During the rest of the season, no less than 3 more keepers stood between the goalposts for Hammarby. The Green and White slowly but surely descended in the league table, finishing in position 6. After the season, the main objective for Hammarby recruiters was a goalkeeper with high standards, and Rami Shaaban was signed in February this year. With the signing of Shaaban, Hammarby now have three keepers:

Rami Shaaban (considered number one)
Kristoffer Björklund (reserve)
Erland Hellström (out on injury)

In our second team, Hammarby TFF that currently is situated in Swedish third division, George Moussan guard the goal. He put in some performances last autumn when no other options remained, but as he’s young he’s considered to be a prospect for the future.

In the training match vs Brazil on Wednesday 26^th, Rami Shaaban played the second half. A terrible mistake 20 minutes from the end by Shaaban made him the scapegoat of the evening. An nonsuccessive clearing landed on Alexandre Pato which made no mistake. But I couldn’t care less. Every goalkeeper makes a mistake like that throughout a season, and it’s much better that Shaaban did his in the National Team rather than Hammarby. He’ll probably be reserve in this summer’s European Championships behind Manchester City’s Andreas Isaksson, but that’s only positive as the risk of Shaaban being injured is reduced.

Our reserve goalkeeper, Kristoffer Björklund, give Hammarby stability if Shaaban should be injured. For the last years he’s been guarding the goal for Brommapojkarna, last year for the first time ever in Allsvenskan and now in Swedish second division.

Erland Hellström, son of legendary Swedish National Team goalkeeper Ronnie Hellström, is unfortunately lacking some of his father's potential. He have had several opportunities to grasp the first position in Hammarby during the last years, but never really took it. Currently he's out on an injury, and I doubt he'll ever guard the goal for Hammarby again.

In an Allsvenskan point of view, there’s no doubt that our set of goalkeepers are of the highest standard.

Score: 5 out of 5