Eric Kahl

Eric Kahl

Personal information
Full name	Eric Andre Kahl [1]
Date of birth	(2001-09-27) 27 September 2001 (age 23)
Place of birth	Solna, Stockholm, Sweden
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s)	Left-back
Team information
Current team	AGF
Number	19
Youth career
2005–2019	AIK
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2019–2021	AIK	29	(0)
2021–	AGF	85	(3)
International career‡
2020–2022	Sweden U21	13	(0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 28 May 2024 ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 14:34, 11 June 2022 (UTC)

Eric Andre Kahl (born 27 September 2001) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a left-back for Danish Superliga club AGF.

Kahl has represented AIK since he was 4 years old, when he joined the clubs academy. From there he has gone from youth and junior teams all the way to the first squad. Kahl signed in October 2019 his first professional contract with the club. He has since played over 30 games and has been one of the decisive players in the team.

Since August 2020, Kahl belongs to the Sweden U21 national team. Prior to that, he had not represented any of Sweden's youth teams, apart from training with the U18 team but without playing time.

Club career

Early life

Kahl was born and raised in Solna Municipality, in central Stockholm County, by a Thai mother and a Swedish father. ^[2] He started playing for the youth team of the largest club in the Swedish capital, the team he supports, AIK, at age four. ^[3]

AIK

2020 season

Kahl signed his first professional contract with AIK on October 17, 2019. ^[4] The contract made him linked to the club until 31 December 2022. ^[5]

Kahl made his first-team debut for AIK and Allsvenskan debut on 28 June 2020 playing the full match in a 2–2-draw against Malmö FF on Friends Arena in Solna. ^[6] After the match, Kahl was highly praised by the media and also by the then head coach Rikard Norling. Norling meant that Kahl made a simple and stable effort. ^{[7] [8]}

Kahl made his first assist in the Allsvenskan on October 18, 2020, when AIK played a home match at Friends Arena against rival IFK Göteborg. The assist came in the 61st minute when Kahl sent a ball to Henok Goitom who could then place the ball in the right cross after he shot outside the penalty area. The goal meant a 2–0 lead for AIK and it also became the final result. ^[9]

In November 2020, AIK's sports director Henrik Jurelius confirmed that the club had received an offer for Kahl, but they chose to refuse, reason? The bid must simply have been too low for AIK to agree to make a deal. Eric Kahl's agent Fredrik Söderström confirmed in an interview that there was interest in Kahl already during the summer of 2020, but that no concrete offer had been received by then. ^[10] In September 2020, the Portuguese newspaper A Bola wrote that the Primeira Liga club Famalicão had shown interest in Kahl. ^[11] According to the Transfermarket survey from 10 December 2020, Kahl's value will be around 1 million euros.

2021 season

At the beginning of 2021, AIK received a bid for Kahl from the MLS club New York Red Bulls on $600,000, a bid that AIK thought was "shameful" and that the club valuing the player at $2,400,000 at least. ^[12] There must also have been interest in Kahl from the Belgian club Club Brügge and from Italian clubs. ^[13] Kahl also said in an interview with the Fotbollskanalen that it is in AIK that he will play for at least until the summer of 2021. ^[14]

However, Kahl and AIK began the season 2021 with an exhibition game against AIK's cooperative club Vasalunds IF. AIK lost 2–0 after two quick goals at the start of the match. ^[15] AIK then played three more exhibition games against Örebro SK twice and IF Elfsborg once (3–1, 0–1, 1–0) all games at Friends Arena. ^[16]

The competition games then started February 20, 2021 with a cup-match against Oskarshamns AIK. Kahl and AIK won the game with 2–1 and Kahl played the whole game. ^[17] Following to the second game in the cup AIK beat AFC Eskilstuna at home with 4–0 and Kahl played 68 minutes before he was replaced by Yasin Ayari. The former Birmingham City and Sunderland midfielder Sebastian Larsson scored twice. ^{[18] [19]} Before what will be the last match in the Swedish Cup for Kahl and his AIK was a derby against arch-rival Hammarby IF. Hammarby pulled the longest straw in the derby and won the match 3–2, which meant that AIK did not advance from the group stage after finishing second in the group. ^[20]

AGF

On 24 July 2021, Kahl joined Danish Superliga club AGF on a five-year deal. ^[21]

International career

Youth

After only training with Sweden's U18 team before, Kahl had never represented any of Sweden's youth teams. ^[3] Despite that, he was called up to the Swedish U21 national team on 28 August 2020 together with teammate Bilal Hussein. The reason was that Jens Cajuste and Kalle Björklund had been forced to rebid. Sweden would play two European Championship qualifiers against Iceland and Italy on September 4, and September 8, 2020. ^[22]

Although Kahl had been called in as a kind of emergency solution, he still played both matches against Iceland and Italy from the start. The match against Iceland ended with a loss for Kahl and his Sweden with 1–0, but the match against Italy the Swedes pulled up and beat the Italians 3–0. ^{[23] [24]}

Personal life

Kahl was born and raised in Solna Municipality, in central Stockholm County, to a Thai mother and a Swedish father. ^[2] Kahl has a brother, Oscar Kahl, who is three years his senior and who is also a professional football player in the Thai League 1. ^{[25] [26] [27] [28]}

Career statistics

Club

As of 10 March 2021.

Club	Season	League			Cup		Continental		Other		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
AIK	2019	Allsvenskan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	2020		26	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	27	0
	2021		4	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	7	0
	Total		30	0	4	0	0	0	0	0	34	0
AGF	2021-22	Superligaen	24	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	26	2
	2022-23		31	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	34	0
	2023-24		13	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	15	0
	Total		68	3	7	0	0	0	0	0	75	2
Career total			98	3	11	0	0	0	0	0	109	3

References

1. Eric Kahl at Soccerway
2. "Oscar Kahl – omtänksam storebror och Thailandsproffs | Svarta Rubriker". 15 August 2020.
3. "AIK Fotboll överens med Eric Kahl om ett kontrakt". AIK Fotboll (in Swedish). Retrieved 3 March 2021.
4. "AIK Play: Möt A-lagets nytillskott Eric Kahl". AIK Fotboll (in Swedish). Retrieved 3 March 2021.
5. "Kom till AIK som fyraåring - nu skriver talang A-lagsavtal: "Mycket stort"". fotbollskanalen (in Swedish). Retrieved 3 March 2021.
6. "SvenskaFans". www.svenskafans.com (in Swedish). Retrieved 3 March 2021.
7. "Nye AIK-talangen: Han kom inte förbi mig en enda gång". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 3 March 2021.
8. "Debutanten: "Jag är otroligt stolt"". Sydsvenskan (in Swedish). Retrieved 3 March 2021.
9. "SvenskaFans". www.svenskafans.com (in Swedish). Retrieved 3 March 2021.
10. "AIK bekräftar bud på Eric Kahl: "Har varit lite förfrågningar"". Fotboll Sthlm (in Swedish). 26 November 2020. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
11. "Portugisisk press: "Solnamonstret är tillbaka"". fotbollskanalen (in Swedish). Retrieved 3 March 2021.
12. Haley, Ross (15 February 2021). "Report: Red Bulls make unsuccessful bid for Swedish left back Eric Kahl". Once A Metro. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
13. "Uppgifter: Lade bud på Eric Kahl - AIK vill ha 15 miljoner mer - FotbollDirekt". Uppgifter: Lade bud på Eric Kahl - AIK vill ha 15 miljoner mer - FotbollDirekt. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
14. "AIK tror det blir svårt att behålla Kahl hela säsongen: "Kan tjäna pengar på honom"". fotbollskanalen (in Swedish). Retrieved 3 March 2021.
15. "AIK – Vasalunds IF". AIK Fotboll (in Swedish). Retrieved 3 March 2021.
16. "SvenskaFans". www.svenskafans.com (in Swedish). Retrieved 3 March 2021.
17. "aik vs oskarshamns aik 2-1 - Sök på Google". www.google.com. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
18. "AIK Fotboll vs AFC Eskilstuna (4-0) Feb 27, 2021 Live Updates and Match Report". FootballCritic. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
19. sport, Automatisk text- (27 February 2021). "Seger för AIK hemma mot AFC Eskilstuna". gp.se (in Swedish). Retrieved 4 March 2021.
20. "Efter dramatiskt derby – Hammarby vidare till slutspel". SVT Sport (in Swedish). 7 March 2021. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
21. AGF HENTER SVENSK U21-LANDSHOLDSSPILLER Archived 2021-07-25 at the Wayback Machine , agf.dk, 24 July 2021
22. "AIK-duon till U21-landslaget - Aftonbladet live: Kort om sport". Aftonbladet live (in Swedish). Retrieved 3 March 2021.
23. "Eric Kahl efter landslagsdebuten: "En stor ära"". Fotboll Sthlm (in Swedish). 7 September 2020. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
24. "Sverige krossade Italien i måstematch". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 3 March 2021.
25. "Oscar Kahl – omtänksam storebror och Thailandsproffs | Svarta Rubriker" (in Swedish). 15 August 2020. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
26. "Oscar Kahl byter klubb". Silly Season (in Swedish). 21 December 2020. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
27. "Thailand, Bangkok". Sweden Abroad.
28. "Eric Kahl Archives".

External links

• Eric Kahl at AGF (in Danish)
• Eric Kahl at Danish Superliga (in Danish)
• Eric Kahl at the Swedish Football Association (in Swedish)