Swedish St Patrick's Athletic defender had to overcome significant culture shock after moving to Ireland
AXEL SJOBERG has admitted that the biggest adjustment for him in Ireland has been to the sense of humour.
Sjoberg is in his third season at St Pat's, who host Galway United tonight, although his first two campaigns were badly interrupted by injury.
That did not deter either Jon Daly or successor Stephen Kenny from handing the Swedish defender a new contract.
But — apart from convincing the club's fans that he was not a sicknote — he revealed his biggest issue was coming to terms with the fact nothing was off limits when it came to the dressing room.
Asked about the biggest culture shock, Sjoberg said: 'I would say the people. The people are very outgoing, nice people, welcoming people. In Sweden it's a little bit more closed.
'In the same way, at the beginning I didn't really understand all of the banter they were doing.
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"Some of the things were like, I got p****d off easily, but it was good, now I understand it.
'It was just some of the words, I didn't really understand. They made fun of my accent or whatever.
'I understand it more now. Over here, if you are going to do a joke you can say pretty much whatever you want.
"But in Sweden you can't really say certain stuff. It doesn't work there.'
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Sjoberg was signed by Tim Clancy ahead of the 2023 season after his career had not progressed as he would have liked at home.
Released by his home-town club Helsingborgs IF without having signed a professional deal, he was later signed by Hammarby IF but made just three first-team appearances during his 18-month stay.
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And, after spending 2022 in the third tier with BK Olympic, he was ready for a new challenge.
Sjoberg recalled: 'I was in a place back home in Sweden where I was a little bit stuck.
'I wanted to take a move from the club I was playing in but I also wanted a fresh start somewhere, to start from the beginning and start to compete.
'Obviously to go abroad is always a nice experience.
'I had a phone call with my agent and we were in a discussion back and forth. Then I was like, 'I have nothing to lose, let's try it'.
'I had never heard about the league before.
'I went over, I didn't really have a good first season with all of my injuries and I struggled a lot.
'It's not nice to go to a different country and you're not playing but I got through it, the boys helped me.
1
It took a bit of time for Sjoberg to get used to the local sense of humour
'I lived with a few of the lads the first year and that was a really good thing.
'It's not easy to move to a new country. You could easily become lonely or something like that.
'But it was great, I got friends for life. Now they're gone but Conor Carty is now signed so I live with him and he's a really good, close friend of mine.'
That difficult first year did not put him off. He added: 'I was more like, 'I don't want to go home'. I wanted to prove I was able to play in the League and prove that I am not only injured.'
GOT GOING
Last season he was sidelined from the end of March until the middle of June but performed strongly after his comeback as St Pat's impressed in Europe and mounted a late title charge.
The Saints had hoped to carry that form into this season.
They are just a point off the top but there is frustration after not winning any of their last three games, particularly last Friday's defeat to Bohemians when they led going into the final minute.
Sjoberg sighed: 'It's still really annoying. Such a big game and it was just a big disappointment. We should have won.
'We've been discussing the things that went wrong and what we can improve, what we are doing well.
'We just need to do what we've been training on and talking about. To be fair it's very competitive at the moment.
'Every game is a massive game. You just need to be prepared for every game and try to win every game. But there are no easy games."
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