'I am a good football player and not only the son of Henrik Larsson'

Jordan Larsson had been speaking beside the away dugout at Richmond Park last Thursday night when a mischievous group gathered a few feet away from him. They took their camera phones out and began to film.

The 22-year-old didn’t flinch. He smiled and kept talking.

IFK Norrkoping had just secured a 2-0 victory over St Patrick’s Athletic in the first leg of their Europa League first round qualifier – meaning tonight’s return fixture should be a formality for the Swedish side – and Larsson was being as kind as possible after cruising to a win that could have been twice that margin.

“I don’t know if that second goal was the killer. Of course, it is very good for us to have that advantage at home but we still have to be on our toes and focus on how we play. We have to make sure we do our part because St Patrick’s are a good team and they will be capable of punishing us.”

The camera phones were still out but now there were some laughter and teasing. Larsson, as the son of Swedish legend Henrik, is used to this sort of attention. Even in this instance, when it was a half dozen or so of his own teammates who were the perpetrators.

“They’re just taking the piss out of me,” Larsson shrugged. “I get it a lot, but they are good guys and they know that I will get them back.”

The slaggings were in good spirits. Larsson, after all, has been Norrkoping’s most potent threat this season. He may have been wayward with his finishing against St Pat’s last week, but the striker is top scorer in the Swedish Allsvenskan with 10 goals in 16 games.

He is primed to add to his tally in European action this evening, having found the net again on Sunday in a 2-1 defeat away to Ostersund. This may well be the season Larsson Jnr, who led the line for Helsinborg three years ago when they were relegated under his father’s stewardship, makes the breakthrough and emerges from his shadow.

Exactly. That has always been my goal. To make a name for myself and show everyone I am a good football player and not only the son of Henrik Larsson.

Of course, that is something I focus on and is a determination for me. You should never put limits on what you can achieve.

“You always want, I always want to develop. I want to become as good as I can, to try and see how far I can go. That is always the goal. If we could go to the Europa League it would be a good place to show yourself.

“In Sweden it was always AIK and Malmo before,” Larsson explained. “Now there are more teams. The league is developing, teams are investing and becoming stronger. It is still nowhere near the Premier League, La Liga or even the Eredivisie but it is definitely stronger.

Of course, it depends on who we play but I think we can go to the Europa League. It is one of the biggest stages to play. If we were to make it all the way it would be a massive achievement for the club and the players.

As his teammates began to lose interest with their recordings and made their way instead back to the team coach, Larsson the provided an insight into the mentality he hopes will help take him to the top.

A quick, skilful attacker with a powerful left foot, he is most at home on the right of a three-man attack. In Dublin, he missed two sitters from six yards and another inside the box.

“You always think of the next chance,” Larsson insisted. “The next one is most important. That’s how I am. I can’t say that all strikers are like that. I just try to focus on the next chance, and focus on how the next time I will get it I will score. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. That’s football.

“But you have to always put yourself in the right position and take chances, take shots. If you don’t have confidence it’s very hard to do that. I just try to put that behind me. Maybe in the next game I can curl one in.”

He didn’t lick it off the ground.