The last kick before it gets real
Viktor Andersson scored the winner with the final kick of the match. AIK beat VSK 1–0 in their last friendly before the Allsvenskan restart, a result that reads more comfortably than it played (2). VSK are not the opponent you want to be level with deep into stoppage time when the league returns in seven days. This was meant to be a tune-up. It looked like one only at the very end.
The bigger story is who was not on the pitch, and who will not be on it when the games count again.
The squad is being hollowed out
Bersant Celina is gone. His contract expires at the end of July and the move to Al-Ettifaq is effectively done (1). Erik Flataker is deep in negotiations with Go Ahead Eagles. AIK want 16 million kronor. The Dutch club's offer sits around 1 million euros, and the gap is being worked (3) (12). Zadok Yohanna is already in England, sold to Brighton for a club-record fee, giving interviews about the setbacks that shaped him (6).
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That is three attacking players heading out in one window. Creativity, goals, depth, all leaving at once, and the club sits tenth with a negative goal difference and fresh memories of a 4–1 derby thrashing by Hammarby.
Kevin Filling sees the opening. "Where the coach wants me, I'm ready," the 20-year-old said this week (1). He may not have a choice, readiness is about to become necessity. Filling can play across the front line, and right now that versatility looks less like a bonus and more like a life raft.
The club is also trialling 18-year-old winger Elie Mpungu Kongolo from Genk U23 for two training sessions (8). A trialist from Belgium's second tier is not a transfer strategy. It is a signal that AIK are scrambling to fill holes on the fly.
The women's side: a mirror and a warning
AIK Women beat Eskilstuna 1–0. Ellie Junetoft, 17 years old, scored the winner and said simply: "We've practiced those situations" (5). A teenager delivering a set-piece goal and talking about it like routine work. That is what a functioning pathway looks like.
But the women's team is losing its top scorer. Olivia Garcia's loan from Brighton is over. "It will be tough," she said of returning to England and the level waiting for her (7) (9). Junetoft steps forward just as Garcia steps out. The cycle does not pause, and AIK's women now face the same equation the men have been failing: lose your best attacking output and hope the next name delivers.
What to watch
The Allsvenskan restarts. The Flataker negotiations will resolve, and the fee will tell us whether AIK held their nerve or folded. Jonah Kusi-Asare, the academy talent who got away, just moved from Bayern to Fulham for around 6 million euros on a five-year deal (13) (14). AIK did not see a krona of that. The club cannot afford to keep letting assets walk, and right now, they are watching several head for the exit at once. Filling and Junetoft are the names being handed the burden. The coming weeks will show if either is ready to carry it.
