History Literature / AshojdensBK

* MultiEthnicName: Jorma Engmark has a Finnish first name and a Swedish family name. Justified since he is adopted and was a war refugee from Finland.
--> Jorma: According to my papers, my birth name was Jorma Heikku. I was allowed to keep Jorma, but my surname was exchanged for Engmark.

* {{UsefulNotes/Romani}}: Ant-Ziganism is a consistent theme throughout the book and several characters, even sympathetic ones (including Jorma, the narrator), are casually racist towards Roma.

* BoomerangBigot: The Bilberry King is a staunch ziganist, in spite of being half-Roma. It is implied that he is dealing with ParentalAbandonment issues of his own.

* {{UsefulNotes/Romani}}: Ziganism is a consistent theme throughout the book and several characters, even sympathetic ones (including Jorma, the narrator), are casually ziganist.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: It's only natural, given the size of a football team. Also, characters drift out of focus and leave the team as the team rises through the leagues, unwilling or unable to hack it or make the commitments necessary to play in the big leagues.

* {{UsefulNotes/Romani}}: Ziganism is a consistent theme throughout the book and several characters, even sympathetic ones (including Jorma, the narrator), are casually ziganist.
** The narrative, however, is far kinder. Roma are portrayed as clannish, violent, prone to drunkenness and mistrustful of outsiders, but this is always portrayed as a result of the extreme and systematic prejudice they face rather than "it's how those people are". On the flip-side, Roma are also portrayed as hard-working, strongly family-minded and loyal, almost to a fault, to the people that earn their trust. The common stereotype of Roma as thieves and hucksters also never appears.

* NormalFishInATinyPond: "Baker" might have been forced to retire from the national team, but in the bush leagues he is an unstoppable juggernaut.

In the mid-[[TheFifties fifties]], Åshöjden is a small town in north-eastern Scania, where [[NothingHappensHere nothing happens]]. [[IOwnThisTown The Bilberry King owns everything]], sometimes people move away and never come back, and the local football team dosses about in the bottom of division 5. However, when the government decides to build a new highway through the tiny town and the retired national team striker "Baker" Olsson takes over the local café, things are set to change.

In the mid-[[TheFifties fifties]], Åshöjden is a small town in north-eastern Scania, where nothing happens. [[IOwnThisTown The Bilberry King owns everything]], sometimes people move away and never come back, and the local football team dosses about in the bottom of division 5. However, when the government decides to build a new highway through the tiny town and the retired national team striker "Baker" Olsson takes over the local café, things are set to change.

* PutOnABus: Several characters drift out of focus as the series moves on. Most notable is probably Björn Backe, who is Edward and Jorma's closest friend in the first book, but is all but gone from the rest of the series.

* {{Deficitionalization}}: Meta example. Whenever a team from the bush leagues rises meteorically through the tables, the press are guaranteed to use the phrase "Like Åshöjden, but real!". The most recent time this happened was in 1996, when Ljungskile managed to rise from Division 5 to the All-Swedish league in six years.

* TheUnderdogAlwaysWins: Not always. Åshöjden rises meteorically, but they have bad games here and there. [[spoiler: Notably, they also lose the last game in the series, the qualifier for the All-Swedish League.]]

In the mid-[[TheFifties fifties]], Åshöjden is a small town in north-eastern Scania, where nothing happens. The Bilberry King owns everything, sometimes people move away and never come back, and the local football team dosses about in the bottom of division 5. However, when the government decides to build a new highway through the tiny town and the retired national team striker "Baker" Olsson takes over the local café, things are set to change.

* BigFishInASmallPond: "Baker" might have been forced to retire from the national team, but in the bush leagues he is an unstoppable juggernaut.

* UsefulNotes/Romani: Ziganism is a consistent theme throughout the book and several characters, even sympathetic ones (including Jorma, the narrator), are casually ziganist.

* ByronicHero: Edward is one. While he is handsome, charismatic and gifted (in a BrilliantButLazy sort of way), as well as the football team's star striker and a local hero, he is also haunted by the fact that his biological father preferred to volunteer for UsefulNotes/TheWinterWar over being a husband to his mother and a father to him, and driven almost to the point of obsession to prove that he is more than the local magnate's pampered son.

** "Knife" Jönsson is never given a Christian name.

** The narrative, however, is far kinder. Roma are portrayed as clannish, violent, prone to drunkenness and mistrustful of outsiders, but this is always portrayed as a result of the extreme and systematic prejudice they face rather than "it's how those people are". On the flip-side, Roma are also portrayed as hard-working, strongly family-minded and loyal, almost to a fault, to the people that earn their trust. The common stereotype of Roma as thieves and hucksters also never appears.