If the name 'Williot Swedberg' rings a bell, it's probably because you were sitting behind your television set on 7th December last year, watching Celta Vigo record a prestigious 2-0 victory over Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu.
There was only one name on the scoreboard; that of the 22-year-old Swede, with his number 19 emblazoned on his back. But perhaps that name brings to mind other matches too: the one against Real Madrid a fortnight ago, in which Swedberg was instrumental in setting up Borja Iglesias before a late Fede Valverde goal in a 1-2 defeat, or the one in October 2024, when he was Celta Vigo's only scorer in another 1-2 defeat.
In total, Williot Swedberg has already scored four goals and provided one assist in six games against Real Madrid. So when it comes to describing their 1.87m midfielder, Celta fans have one word on their lips: clutch. Clutch as in his first goal for Celta de Vigo in September 2023, when he came on and scored the winner in a 3-2 win over Almeria, in a match that was already decisive for their survival in the top flight.
And that didn't come as much of a surprise to Theo Graasvoll, a goalkeeper who cut his teeth with Williot at Hammarby: "Nobody was as calm and focused as he was when it came to playing the big games."
"Better than his dad"
At the Stockholm club, where he arrived at the age of seven, Swedberg was already categorised as a player capable of turning games on their head. In his very first match with the first team in Allsvenskan, Sweden's top flight, on 11 July 2021, the young talent came on as a 78th-minute substitute against Degerfors. Three minutes later, he scored Hammarby's third goal to seal victory. And a few minutes later, he provided his first assist of the season, helping Bajen to a comprehensive 5-1 victory.
The Hammarby fans in the stands were chanting: "Better than his daddy, yes, he is better than his daddy." His father was one of the 7,000 fans present at the 3Arena, watching with tears in his eyes as his son, who had been given his licence four days earlier, made a very successful debut.
But Hans Eskilsson is no ordinary man: a former Swedish international with eight caps to his name, he played for Hammarby on several occasions between 1988 and 2001, as well as Sporting CP and Braga, before being forced to retire following a serious injury. Swedberg's mother, from whom he takes his name, also excelled at professional level: Malin Swedberg has 78 caps for Sweden and is a legend with Alvsjo, with whom she was Swedish champion five times.
"He's been at Hammarby since he was seven, which is ten years. Born in Sodersjukhuset hospital, he has a strong sense of belonging to Hammarby," said his father soberly after the match, not wishing to steal the limelight from his son. "He's not comfortable with phone calls, like all youngsters his age, so we're going to have to fight with him for the media."
After his first major performance at just 17 years of age, Swedberg has to juggle this legacy with his promising debut on Swedish television: "I've heard the fans sing that I'm better than my father, but my father is much better, he's had a great career and I'm proud of him. He's always helped me and been there for me, as has my mother. She played for the national team and won the Diamantbollen (the Swedish Diamond Ball), so she was actually even better. Both of them meant a lot to me."
"One of the most talented players to come through the Hammarby academy"
Milos Milojevic, Hammarby's coach at the time, recalled, "He doesn't play here because his father is a legend at Hammarby, he plays here because he's a great player." Mikael Hjelmberg, Hammarby's current sporting director and head of recruitment when Swedberg was at the club, insists that he is "one of the most talented players to come through the academy."
"From an early age, he was a very technical and intelligent player with an excellent understanding of the game. His creativity was probably the hardest thing to manage in training," recalls Theo Graasvoll, who knew him from the U16s onwards.
"He was always asking for the ball. As a goalkeeper, it was very reassuring to have him in the team, knowing that he was always ready to intervene. I remember that I could send a long clearance to him in midfield and he could recover the ball and project himself towards the goal, even if he was surrounded by three or four opponents.
At Hammarby, Williot Swedberg quickly became the talk of the town. Yet he grew up surrounded by one of the best generations of players to emerge from the Stockholm club's youth academy, alongside Mayckel Lahdo, now with AZ Alkmaar, Jusef Erabi (Genk), Ben Engdahl (Hacken) and Oliver Dovin (Coventry, in England's Championship). But he is the only player from 2004 to make it into the first team so quickly.
"When I arrived at Hammarby, he was 16-17 years old and the youngest player in the team, having already started with the first team last season. But with me, it was the season of his consecration," recalls Marti Cifuentes, Hammarby's coach between January 2022 and October 2023.
"He was a regular starter and played in all three attacking positions: as a false number nine, with the freedom to come inside, as a number 10, as a winger... He has the same qualities that we see today: very good crosses, very good shots, able to break forward, able to play between the lines, a very good eye for goal. He's a very intelligent player, who's very shy off the pitch but has a great personality on it."
The Catalan coach also remembers a "very calm" youngster, with a "very healthy" entourage who "knows the world of football very well."
"His parents helped him a great deal to become a professional, but also to leave Sweden at a very young age," even though Barcelona had been courting him since his early days with Hammarby.
Swedberg has been immersed in the world of football, and not just at the highest level. "He has a huge love of football and watches a lot of matches," adds Cifuentes, while his father Hans keeps a record on his Instagram account of all the games he attends, from the third division of the Valencia community to the Champions League, the Teheran derby and the Swedish amateur league.
An aborted transfer to Russia before a return to Spain
Marti Cifuentes has been a key figure in Swedberg's professional development, so much so that his father, who refuses to talk about his son in the press because he himself did not like his parents doing the same when he was a player, describes him as "the right person to talk about Williot". It was with him, in fact, that the young midfielder, just 18, made a decision of vital importance to his future:
"Before I signed for Celta de Vigo, during the 2022 winter transfer window, a Russian club (Lokomotiv Moscow, editor's note) was interested in him. I spoke to him about it and recommended that he wait before going to Russia because he was young and had time to wait for other offers from other countries. Then the war started and everything came to a standstill, but negotiations between the clubs were very advanced."
A blessing in disguise for Swedberg, who made an excellent start to the 2022 season, scoring five goals in the first five league games to earn him the title of Allsvenskan Player of the Month in April. Two months later, Swedberg finally joined Celta in a transfer valued at €5 million, a record fee for Hammarby, and returned to Spain, having spent three years growing up in the Valencia region as a child.
"He wanted to play in Spain and his father knows the country," explains Cifuentes, who spoke fluent Spanish with Swedberg during training sessions, bringing the two men closer together. For me, it was a good thing that he went to LaLiga.
His first few months at Celta were complicated, with Swedberg spending most of his time on the bench. But he is taking it in his stride. "He's always had a rather relaxed character, but he's always shown great professionalism," recalls Mikael Hjelmberg.
In Galicia, the 21-year-old impresses with... his level of Spanish. "After training, people often stop here to take photos. Sometimes they ask questions in English, and then there's always a teammate who says: 'He speaks Spanish, come on!' They're completely surprised and that allows me to shine a little," he laughs to Expressen.
The days when the midfielder used to warm the bench are long gone, and the man who has been replaced as left winger is now an undisputed starter in Claudio Giraldez's XI, which should rely heavily on him against Lyon on Thursday, despite the Celtic attack already being without Borja Iglesias (suspended) and Ferran Jutgla having just returned from concussion. "He made enormous progress in Spain," says Hjelmberg. "And I have to say that I'm really surprised that he hasn't been selected for the Swedish national team."
With the arrival of Graham Potter in the Sweden dugout, Williot Swedberg has been called up for the 2026 World Cup play-off match against Ukraine. Could this finally launch his international career?
In the meantime, the 22-year-old is gradually becoming an idol at Vigo, and has been renamed 'Kraken' by the fans in reference to a gigantic octopus-like mythological creature from the Nordic seas, capable of swallowing up opponents. But also simply because he is a 'crack'. So much so, in fact, that some people see him as the heir to Iago Aspas, who is rumoured to be getting closer and closer to retirement. And when asked if he will be better than his father, Hjelmberg, who saw Hans play with Hammarby, has the answer: "I'm sure he's already better than Hasse and will become even better."