Leeds United defender Pontus Jansson has never hidden from the fact he still holds a lot of admiration for his former club Malmo, but the Elland Road faithful may be questioning how his commitment to the Championship club measures up to that.
At the weekend Jansson was invited back to Malmo for the Swedish champions last game of the season, after they clinched their 20th league title a few weeks ago. The 26 year old was pictured at the side of the pitch wearing the current Malmo shirt, with the player clearly in good spirits.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic was also there, but he chose to wear his own branded top, as would be the way.
Earlier today we covered reports from Sweden that Jansson also hired an airplane to fly over IFK Goteborg’s stadium on Sunday, to taunt them over Malmo’s recent title success.
However, Jansson’s appearance at Malmo’s game with BK Hacken, and the hiring of the airplane, came just 24 hours after Leeds United crushing 3-1 defeat to Brentford.
The central defender had a game to forget at the weekend, giving away a penalty for Brentford’s second goal, and he notched up his lowest rating of the season with Who Scored.
This isn’t the first time Jansson has displayed his alliances to Malmo since joining Leeds United last season. The Sweden international has on several occasions returned to his home country to watch his former club, and last month even joined in with Malmo’s title celebrations via a video link.
Jansson has become something of a cult hero with the Leeds United fans since his move from Torino, but the Swede is held in the same esteem by Malmo fans. The player has spoken in the past about returning to the Swedish side in the future, and despite recently signing a five year contract with Leeds United it seems he’s still distracted what’s happening at his hometown club.
There’s nothing essentially wrong with that, but with Jansson’s almost self styled warrior status at Elland Road coming into question recently, it does sometimes feel he’d be willing to put his head on the line more for Malmo than Leeds.
Southampton rumours, which seemed, at the very least, overstated from the start, were left to grow, and Jansson doesn’t often feel like he lives up to his manufactured image.
With his Leeds United form in question, the club’s season falling to pieces, and a crucially important World Cup playoff now on the horizon, Jansson still found time and heart for Malmo, going to the stadium, lapping up the fans, again, and winding up old foes.
Maybe everything but Malmo is just a job for the big Swede.
ND
