Marcus Antonsson and Pawel Cibicki are living in Victor Orta’s parallel universe — Square Ball 9/9/25

What could have been

Written by: Patrick Gunn

Every year I forget how early the international break arrives, and every year I’m annoyed by it. But while Leeds United’s season might be coming to its first, premature pause, some leagues around Europe are heading towards their conclusion. One of those, Sweden’s Allsvenskan, is set for a potentially exciting and groundbreaking title-race, alongside numerous clubs fighting for survival at the wrong end. And, in our own way, Leeds United is involved at both ends of the competition.

Those of you who read my article in issue one of the magazine (and if you haven’t, you can read it for free here) will know that I spent a little time looking into the Swedish players who have represented Leeds over the years, in the hope that Gabi Gudmundsson will be the first to really live up to expectations. In that process, I realised that, in one of those lovely kind of coincidences that football throws up at times, two of the individuals I was writing about had somehow found their way back to each other in their native land.

Pawel Cibicki and Marcus Antonsson never actually played for Leeds at the same time, despite both being under contract in the 2017/18 season. Antonsson had already gone out on loan to Blackburn by the time Cibicki arrived on deadline day, replacing his predecessor’s three goals with his own return of zero. By the time Cibicki left Leeds officially in 2020, Antonsson was long gone; already back in Scandinavia before his brief forays in Saudi Arabia and Australia. Cibicki, on the other hand, headed to his parents’ native Poland, where he became embroiled in a match-fixing scandal and banned from football for four years.

The ban was a complicated process, subject to various challenges from Cibicki and others, but eventually the Swedish FA was successful in its efforts. Cibicki, for his part, appeared on a podcast and discussed his long-standing issues with gambling. He had lost millions and even turned to suicidal thoughts at his worst points. In that sense, a return to football might have represented two things to a still young Pawel: one, a chance to earn the kind of money to alleviate those losses; two, the chance to ensure his legacy wasn’t one of off-field infamy.

Whatever the reason, earlier this year he returned to football at IFK Värnamo, a club based in a town of just 20,000 inhabitants in the south of Sweden. Värnamo had only just avoided relegation the previous season, scraping through the relegation play-off to stay in the top flight. Cibicki was brought in to boost the firepower of a squad that had only scored thirty goals in thirty games. Joining him was Marcus Antonsson, returning to the club after his aforementioned journey to the other side of the world. Switching from Sydney back to a provincial town in southern Sweden must have been a slight adjustment for Antonsson, but no doubt having a reminder of his days at Leeds would have been, erm, a comfort.

Unfortunately, Cibicki and Antonsson haven’t been able to do much to help Värnamo. After 22 games, the club have scored 23 goals (Antonsson with three, Cibicki remains goalless) and sit rock bottom of the league on just twelve points. With eight games left, there’s still hope to turn things around, but the outlook is pretty bleak for the former Leeds duo.

At the other end of the table, however, an extremely interesting story is brewing. Mjällby AIF won’t be known to many people who don’t take an interest in Swedish football, and for good reason: the club represents the village of Hällevik on the south coast, with a population so small that it’s seemingly impossible to find an accurate number. As of June 2025, for example, the municipality that Hällevik is in has around 17,000 inhabitants. In 2010, 813 of them were listed as living in Hällevik. Yet somehow, despite the relative stature of their surroundings, Mjällby are top of the Allsvenskan by eight points with eight games left to go.

Now, there are no ex-Leeds players turning out for Mjällby — although we were loosely linked to their goalkeeper Noel Tornqvist two years ago. In fact, the only player to have played for both clubs is, surprisingly, maverick forward Frank Worthington, who appeared in Hällevik a handful times in 1980 on loan from Birmingham. So how are Leeds connected to this Cinderella story? The answer is Magnus Emeus.

For a successful businessman, Mjällby’s owner Emeus keeps a low profile online. His Instagram page is home to just four posts, but one of them is in remembrance of Norman Hunter. His Twitter profile, which now seems defunct, also states that Junior Firpo is one of the ‘worst left full backs’ he has ever seen pull on the shirt. Though his day-to-day involves the running of this surprisingly successful Swedish club, Magnus Emeus is very much a Leeds United fan.

So much so, that if you look at previous iterations of the Mjällby shirt, you’ll find a sponsor on the back for a company called Marching On Together AB. A quick search will find you a land and property leasing company, based in Hällevik’s municipality, owned and operated by Emeus himself. The sponsor is no longer there, unfortunately, otherwise I’m sure plenty of West Yorkshire-based orders would be coming in if the club do manage to hang onto top spot come the end of the season, but it would be nice to know that one of the greatest stories in Swedish football history would have a little bit of Leeds United behind it, so here’s hoping for a happy ending at both Mjällby and Värnamo.