Larsson's Sweden surprise

Striker comes out of retirement for Euro 2008 finals

Last updated: 13th May 2008

Henrik Larsson

Larsson: Surprise return

I wasn't counting on playing football this long.

Larsson
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Henrik Larsson has made a surprise return to the Sweden squad for Euro 2008.

The Helsingborgs striker has been named in Lars Lagerback's 23-man squad for next month's finals in Austria and Switzerland.

Larsson quit the international arena after Sweden crashed out to Germany in the second round of the 2006 World Cup.

Former Celtic ace and Manchester United loanee Larsson confirmed he did not give it a second thought before accepting Lagerback's request: "I said yes pretty much right away.

Exciting

"I think football is extremely exciting and I love playing football. ... I wasn't counting on playing football this long and above all that I would be doing this well."

The return of Celtic legend Larsson will come as a massive boost for Sweden as they will face Spain, Greece and Russia in Group D.

Sweden's full 23-man squad

Andreas Isaksson (Manchester City), Rami Shaaban (Hammarby), Johan Wiland (Elfsborg Boras); Olof Mellberg (Aston Villa), Petter Hansson (Stade Rennes), Mikael Nilsson (Panathinaikos), Niclas Alexandersson (IFK Gothenburg), Andreas Granqvist (Helsingborg), Daniel Majstorovic (Basel), Fredrik Stoor (Rosenborg Trondheim), Mikael Dorsin (CFR Cluj); Tobias Linderoth (Galatasaray), Daniel Andersson (Malmo), Anders Svensson (Elfsborg Boras), Kim Kallstrom (Olympique Lyon), Christian Wilhelmsson (Deportivo Coruna), Fredrik Ljungberg (West Ham United), Sebastian Larsson (Birmingham City); Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Inter Milan), Johan Elmander (Toulouse), Marcus Allback (FC Copenhagen), Markus Rosenberg (Werder Bremen), Henrik Larsson (Helsingborg).