Klas Ingesson (August 20, 1968 – October 29, 2014) played a season at the Eindhoven club PSV in the early 1990s, for which he played 12 games. In 2014, the football world was shocked by his death.
IFK Göteborg, KV Mechelen, PSV, Sheffield Wednesday, Bari, Bologna, Olympique Marseille, Lecce. These are the clubs that are and remain connected to Klas Ingesson, the Swede who managed to score thirteen times in 58 international matches. The Swede played football in the 1993-1994 season in Eindhoven, after which he achieved third place with his native country at the World Cup in the United States in the summer of 1994. In Sweden he was nicknamed "Klabbe".
Ingesson, a midfielder by trade, started his career with national champions IFK Göteborg. Here grew from talent to basic customer. After 59 games (three goals) he was 'discovered' by even bigger clubs. In 1990 he therefore moved to KV Mechelen, where he soon became one of the mainstays of the team and 'made good weather', as they tend to say it lyrically in Belgium. After a few months he already spoke perfect Dutch and René Eijkelkamp became his best friend. In 1993 he was brought to PSV by Aad de Mos. Trainer De Mos saw in him the ideal man to add physical strength to midfield. But he quickly got back from that.
After just one season, Ingesson was allowed to exchange 'the City of Light' for Wednesday, the club from Sheffield. PSV received 2.5 million guilders for the midfielder, who was found too light in Eindhoven and no longer belonged to the A-selection. For Ingesson there was also interest from Liverpool, IFK Göteborg, Benfica and Arsenal. However, those clubs dropped out when PSV initially asked for three million guilders. Unfortunately, he did not become a permanent fixture at Sheffield Wednesday, in two seasons.
After this, the tall blonde Swede of 1 meter 90, with flax beard, went to play in the Italian Serie A, where he first for 2.2 million guilders at AS Bari and then at Bologna grew into a valuable force. At Bari, the midfielder came to 94 games in two seasons (eleven goals) and at Bologna to four goals in 64 games. With the latter club he also managed to win the UEFA Intertoto Cup in 1998.
In 2000, he decided to leave Serie A and try his luck at Olympique Marseille, where he found it difficult to join the group. After half a year in Ligue 1, he let himself be let to US Lecce, which narrowly managed to maintain itself that season in Serie A. As Ingesson did not want a return to Olympique Marseille, where he still had an ongoing contract, decided he put an end to his active career in 2001.
No more flying along the sidelines, with long strides and at high speed, but fishing and drinking a beer every now and then. Also no longer take the penalties, but still the man of the chewing tobacco. During competitions he put a strip of snus – as it is called in Sweden – under his upper lip. He returned to Sweden and became a trainer of IF Elfsborg. Even though that happened in the end from a wheelchair.
The "Swedish Stefan Effenberg" made 58 international matches. He was active in the 1990 World Cup, the 1992 European Football Championship and the 1994 World Cup, where he managed to take third place with Sweden. Klas made his debut on May 31, 1989 in the friendly home match against Algeria (2-0) in Örebro. In that game, he came in for Robert Prytz after 26 minutes, and took both Swedish hits during his debut. A truly excellent debut! In the end he managed to score thirteen times for his native country.
In 2009 it became known that Klas Ingesson was suffering from a form of leukemia. A year later he was declared cured after stem cell surgery, but the disease returned at the beginning of the year. Lately before his death, he suffered from a persistent cold. He finally had to die on October 29, 2014. Ingesson was only 46 years old.
(Photo: Wikipedia)