Arsenal midfielder Freddie Ljungberg has been named Sweden’s new captain.

I just got this off a Swedish news site, so here you go:

Sweden are scheduled to play Germany in a friendly at Gelsenkirchen on 16 August as part of their preparations for Euro 2008 qualifying. Today in a press conference Lars Lagerback announced that they needed to build a team that would help succeed at Euro 2008 and as part of those efforts, Ljungberg is being appointed as captain.

What of Mellberg? The former Sweden captain relinquished captaincy two days ago. It will be interesting to see how the two get along after clashing at the last two World Cups. In their last altercation one of the quotes attributed to Mellberg was that “Ljungberg didn’t know his place in the squad” - well…how things change

Mellberg will still continue to play, while Ljunberg won’t be able to take part in the friendly against Germany due to his foot injury (Freddie will also miss the start of Arsenal’s Premiership campaign). Tobias Linderoth will deputise in his absence.

Here’s the link to the news item in Swedish, and here’s a piece from the Toronto Sun (what?) covering the news.

I’ll have a full report of Arsenal v Dynamo Zagreb Champions League qualifier up tomorrow.