Quick glance at the players representing the junior national teams throughout the years, many of the players were sought-after and decided to leave the Stockholm area and played games for the U18 national team the year after or second year:
Bergvik, Ward, Bergman, Dahlström, Westlund, Hägg, Bristedt, Brodecki, Fernholm, Pettersson, Possler, Ludvig Nilsson etc.
some Sthlm kids stayed and did well, but as a region and a big club they have huge problems with keeping their regional talent that the other regions don't. As I said, can you name one Gothenburg area kid that Frölunda wanted and didn't get?
Tough blow for Rögle but I guess he was never gonna stay long-term anyway..
Stockholm breeds more talent than one club can take in.
Mutze was prefered to Bergvik, which wasnt a good decision in retrospect. Mutze was also a national team player. Samuel Ward (?) is from Nyköping which isnt Stockholm at all.
I don't know which Bergman you're refering to. If it's Julius then he might be born in Stockholm, but he's actually a product of Blekinge...
Carl Dahlström chose DIF, but later moved to Linköping when DIF were relegated after 2 years in the DIF organization.
Wilhelm Westlund chose to leave Stockholm, but at the same time DIF signed up players like Norell, Dahlström, M.Ahnelöv. I've no idea if Westlund would have considered playing for DIF. There's no narrative here.
Robert Hägg (?) is not from Stockholm.
Leon Bristedt went to Linköping for sure. But DIF signed a plethora of national team forwards in that cull. Liljendahl, Lindberg, Andrén, Bergkvist and Garpenlöv. How big of a role could they offer another 95 born forward? The same goes for Brodecki and Ludvig Nilsson. Who knows if DIF even wanted these players at the time?
Really though, it's getting a bit ridiculous. DIF cannot possibly offer all talented and/or national team players going into the J18-age spots on the team every season. The numbers are not, and have never been there.
Sure some players who've they've wanted have left. That will happen in a competitive market, which this is. But it's nowhere near the "kids don't want to play there" or that DIF isn't "competition". That's factually wrong, no ifs or buts.
I'm out.
