John Guidetti

John Alberto Guidetti (born 15 April 1992) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a striker for Allsvenskan club AIK.

Whilst growing up Guidetti played football in his native Sweden as well as Kenya. He returned to Sweden in 2008 and played with IF Brommapojkarna when at the age of 16 he earned a move to English club Manchester City. He spent time out on loan back at Brommapojkarna and with Championship side Burnley in November 2010. He joined Dutch club Feyenoord on loan for the 2011–12 season where he scored 20 goals in 23 games before a virus ended his time in the Netherlands. In January 2014, Guidetti joined Stoke City on loan until the end of the 2013–14 season, and in September of that year he was loaned to Scottish champions Celtic for the following season, winning the Scottish Premiership and Scottish League Cup. In July 2015, Guidetti signed for Spanish side Celta Vigo.

Having represented Sweden at several youth levels, Guidetti earned his first senior international cap against Croatia on 29 February 2012. At under-21 level, he won the 2015 European Championship. He represented Sweden's senior team at UEFA Euro 2016 and the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Club career

Early career

Guidetti began his football career at the Swedish club IF Brommapojkarna's youth system in 1998. In 2002, Guidetti moved with his family to Kenya, as his father had a job there. This meant that Guidetti had to leave BP, and he joined the Impala BrommaBoys football academy based in Nairobi.

After one year with the Impala club, Guidetti joined Mathare United's academy, the MYSA organisation for sports development aid, in the slums of Nairobi. In 2004, Guidetti left the organisation and joined Ligi Ndogo. In 2006, he returned to Sweden with IF Brommapojkarna. In total Guidetti spent around five years living in Kenya which he states helped him to develop on and off the pitch:

In April 2008, at the age of sixteen, Guidetti signed a three-year deal with Manchester City. Inter Milan, Sampdoria, Lazio, Roma and Ajax Cape Town (Ajax's feeder club in South Africa), among others, had all been in competition for securing his services.

Manchester City

Manchester City's manager at the time, Sven Goran Eriksson, spotted Guidetti's talent in his native Sweden, and immediately signed him. Guidetti enjoyed a fine first season with the Manchester City under-18 team, scoring 13 times in 19 appearances. He also marked his reserve team debut with a remarkable hat-trick against a Burnley side containing several seasoned campaigners.

Loan to IF Brommapojkarna

In 2010, he went out on loan to his old club Brommapojkarna, impressing by scoring three goals and racking up three assists in only eight appearances.

Return to Manchester City

Manchester City's manager, Roberto Mancini, wanted to see how the youngster matched up alongside the City first team, so he handed him a chance to impress on the club's pre-season tour in the United States during the summer of 2010. During this American tour, Guidetti managed to make his debut for the Manchester City first team, coming on as a sub in the second half in a match against Sporting Lisbon.
Two months later back in England, Guidetti went on to make his full debut in a competitive match for the Manchester City first team when he was selected as striker for the starting lineup in the League Cup third round match against West Bromwich Albion on 22 September 2010, in which he provided the assist for City's only goal in the game.

Loan to Burnley

On 25 November 2010, Guidetti signed an initial one-month loan deal with Burnley, with a possible option for Burnley to extend the loan when it expired on 1 January 2011. On 26 December 2010, in his first start for Burnley, he scored his first goal in a 2–1 victory at Barnsley.
Manchester City would not extend his loan spell at Burnley and Guidetti was called back to parent club on 31 December 2010 to subsequently be added to Manchester City's registered 25-man squad for the Europa League competition.

Twente controversy

Guidetti's development contract with Manchester City was due to run out in July 2011. In late May, he visited Dutch club Twente with his father and several Swedish, Dutch and British media outlets reported he had signed a pre agreement with the Dutch club. In mid June, reports indicated that there were problems with this agreement. Twente understood they had a Bosman deal agreed with Guidetti's camp, but agent Per Jonsson insisted nothing had been agreed upon in contract. Twente chairman Joop Munsterman said: "We do not know if Mr. Jonsson is his agent. We have done business with Mike uidetti(the father of the player). The most important thing for a young player like Guidetti is that he plays a lot of games. For that reason, Twente is the logical choice."

The Dutch football association ''FBO'' (Federatie Betaald Voetbal Organization), let a lawyer review the preliminary agreement between John Guidetti and Twente. The club announced that the contract should be regarded as valid. – "In our opinion it is a valid contract. We look forward to welcoming John for his first practice 1 July", said Twente chairman Joop Munsterman to ''Voetbal International'' magazine.

On 9 July 2011, Manchester City released a set of photographs as the team set off on a North American pre-season tour. Despite his alleged transfer to Twente, Guidetti was spotted in the photos taken at the airport with his Manchester City teammates. On 19 July 2011, Guidetti was offered and signed a first team contract binding him to the club of Manchester City for three more years.

Loan to Feyenoord

On the last day of the transfer window, Feyenoord and Manchester City agreed a loan deal for the rest of the 2011–12 season. Guidetti made his debut in the game against NAC Breda on 11 September 2011 in which he scored a penalty. He also scored a penalty in the match against De Graafschap and two more from the penalty spot against VVV-Venlo. He scored his first goal from open play for Feyenoord against Vitesse in the 4–0 away win, netting two goals in the game. The following week he scored another crucial goal, the equaliser in a 2–1 away win against RKC Waalwijk. On 18 December 2011, he scored a hat-trick in Feyenoord's 3–2 victory against FC Twente.

On 29 January 2012, he scored his second consecutive hat-trick, scoring three goals in De Klassieker against Ajax, which Feyenoord won 4–2, their first victory in 6 years over the arch-rivals. This helped earning him a hero status in Rotterdam, with coach Ronald Koeman describing him as "phenomenal". On 12 February he scored his third hat-trick since joining the club in a home game in a 3–1 win against Vitesse, putting him third in Europe for goals scored/minutes played, at 17 goals after 15 league appearances. This happened to be the third consecutive hat-trick in an Eredivisie home game, becoming the second player in the history of the league to achieve this after Cees Groot did this in 1963. Ove Kindvall was the last Swede to achieve this in the Dutch league in the 1970s, also playing for Feyenoord. Also, Guidetti was the first Feyenoord player to score three hat-tricks in one season since Dirk Kuyt in 2004–05.

Guidetti scored his 18th goal from the penalty spot in his 16th league game, a 1–1 draw against RKC Waalwijk, and celebrated by pulling his shirt off which gave him his second yellow card in the game. The opponents then equalized three minutes before the end, and Guidetti later apologized to the team, the supporters and the coach, saying it was "one of the worst moments in my life". Due to this red card, Guidetti missed the important game in the title challenge against PSV Eindhoven the following week. A couple of weeks later, Guidetti scored his next goal away to De Graafschap in a 3–0 win. He scored his 20th, and final, goal of the season in a 3–0 city-derby home win over Excelsior Rotterdam in April. Guidetti then missed the rest of the Eredivisie season, as well as UEFA Euro 2012, after losing all feeling in his right leg while suffering from a mystery virus.

Without the injured Guidetti, Feyenoord managed to secure only second spot of the league, but it guaranteed them a place in the qualification rounds for the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League. Guidetti, who watched from home the game against SC Heerenveen which clinched second place, was then carried on the shoulders of some Feyenoord fans towards De Kuip stadium to celebrate this achievement. Later on he was seen singing "Feyenoord till I die" with the fans at the stadium and singing a Champions League song at the pitch amongst the other players. In total, Guidetti scored 20 goals and provided eight assists in 23 games for Feyenoord during this loan spell.

Struggling for fitness

Guidetti was back at Man City for the start of 2012–13, but spent most of the season struggling to recover from the virus that curtailed his spell at Feyenoord. The severity of the disorder saw Guidetti diagnosed with an infected nerve, which caused him to lose feeling in his right leg. Commenting about Guidetti's condition, assistant manager David Platt explained, "For about two or three months he uidetticouldn't do anything and it takes a long time to get that back." Despite this, Guidetti signed a new three-year deal with Manchester City on 18 October 2012, keeping him at the Etihad Stadium until 2015.

He finally returned to playing football on 14 January 2013 when he played in the first half of an Under 21 League match between City and Reading U21s, scoring the opening goal in a 3–1 win. Guidetti scored a further five goals in his next six games for the Development Side, before sucummbing to a knee injury which later required surgery.

Loan to Stoke City

On 14 January 2014, Guidetti joined Stoke City on loan for the remainder of the 2013–14 season. He made his debut on 18 January 2014 coming on as a substitute in a 1–0 defeat against Crystal Palace. After not playing in Stoke's next match against Chelsea in the FA Cup, Guidetti vented his frustration towards manager Mark Hughes to the Swedish media. Guidetti later insisted that he was not being disrespectful to Hughes. He had an unsuccessful time at Stoke as he made just six appearances, all of them as a substitute.

Loan to Celtic

On 4 September 2014, Guidetti joined Scottish Premiership side Celtic on loan for the 2014–15 season, but was ineligible for the UEFA Europa League group stages. He made his debut nine days later, replacing Scott Brown for the final 29 minutes of a 2–1 home win over Aberdeen. On 24 September he scored his first Celtic goal, opening a 3–0 home win over Heart of Midlothian in the last 16 of the Scottish League Cup. Three days later he scored his first Premiership goals, netting both as Celtic won 2–1 at St Mirren.

He scored a hat-trick on 29 October, as Celtic advanced to the semi-finals of the Scottish League Cup with a 6–0 win over Partick Thistle. His treble was the 15th hat-trick scored at Celtic by a Swedish player. Three days later he scored the only goal in a league win over Inverness Caledonian Thistle, his ninth goal in his last seven games. He was named as the Premiership Player of the Month for October 2014, with six goals in four games, all won by Celtic.

Guidetti scored a penalty in Celtic's 4–0 win at Heart of Midlothian in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup

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