From Premier League to Page Six: Swedish power couple Victor and Maja Lindelöf on living life beyond the tabloids

There’s a buzz in the air at Lögarängsbadet, a vast open-air public pool in Västerås, a town about an hour and half’s drive west of Stockholm. It’s an idyllic day: the sky is an unbroken blue, inviting waters gently lap at the sides of the swimming lanes, all against the backdrop of the sparkling Lake Mälaren. But that’s not the reason for the palpable excitement. Every now and then, heads of various pool-goers turn towards one target and hushed interactions ensue. A group of squealing young boys clad in swimsuits and goggles scurry past before coming to a sudden halt, fixated on one subject, entranced.

The object of this attention is Västerås’ golden couple: Victor and Maja Lindelöf. Surrounded by a small, huddled team squinting in the sunlight, Victor, Manchester United defender and Swedish national team captain, and Maja, media-savvy influencer and brand founder, recline in chairs usually reserved for the pool’s lifeguards. They’re both decked out in the season’ most supple black leathers to shoot their Vogue debut. Their hands, laden with chunky silver jewellery, rest on the chair’s sides, throne-like. Every now and then they comfortably find each other’s eyes, before gazing back at the camera lens. Most onlookers would find it hard to believe it’s the couple’s first photoshoot together. “It’s a bit different from what I’m used to,” Victor says later. “It’s nice to have Maja here to help me a little.”

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Coincidently, just metres from where they’re perched, Victor and Maja had one of their first dates 10 years ago. While they both grew up in Västerås, the pair first crossed paths at Summerburst Festival in Stockholm, shortly thereafter meeting for a picnic on the grassy stretch neighbouring the pool. “It was really nice,” Maja says, adding with a laugh, “And then he went home because he needed to watch a game on TV.” “I also needed to pack,” Victor chimes in, countering her dry sense of humour with his sensible tone. He was returning to Lisbon, where he had moved at just 17 to join the Portuguese club Benfica.

The pair shoot several more leather-heavy looks by the pool before we head inside for a break, where the moto jackets and biker pants are switched out for their own slinky lounge sets. We take a seat in the cavernous underground staff area of the pool complex, where the air is laced with chlorine.

What followed that fateful picnic date was a long and challenging one-and-a-half-year period of long-distance courtship, with Maja studying in Oslo and Victor playing football in Lisbon. “I invited myself to Portugal,” Maja says. “I was just like, ‘I’m going to come for a week’. And I was so nervous, because it’s not normal to just live with a stranger, but we had talked so much. At that time it was on Skype.” “We had no idea how it would be,” Victor adds. “We had only seen each other in real life two times. But it obviously worked out well. Here we are now: two kids, married. We must have done something right.”

Diving into a week together as relative strangers certainly came with rewards. Maja made a permanent move to join Victor in Lisbon and after several happy years in the Portuguese sun, they relocated to the United Kingdom in 2017 as Victor secured a dream move to Manchester United. They were then wed and welcomed two boys, the now four-year-old Ted Louie and two-year-old Francis, in quick succession.

Despite their international spirit as a family, raising children abroad is not without its challenges – and surprises. The boys speak both Swedish and English at home in Manchester, with Ted Louie – who is now old enough to recognise and enjoy seeing his dad on TV, but still young enough to not realise it’s not the norm – even picking up on some local British idioms. “I gave him a snack the other day, and he didn’t like it, so he told me, ‘Mummy, that’s not my cup of tea!’,” Maja laughs. “And I was like, ‘OK, my son’.”

While it’s not yet clear where the Lindelöfs will call home once Victor’s contract is up in 2024, one thing is for certain: he won’t be stepping off the pitch any time soon. In the wake of 42-year-old Zlatan Ibrahimović’s emotional retirement announcement in early June, Victor says he’ll be staying in the game as long as he can. “As long as I feel fine physically and mentally, I’ll keep going,” he says. “I’ll continue until I can’t keep playing at the highest level.”

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While Zlatan has stepped away from the game, the new wave of Scandinavian football talent is strong, with Norwegian Erling Haaland and Danish Christian Eriksen also being snatched up by the Manchurian football empires. “There’s a lot of footballers living around our area where we live. We see them and talk a little bit,” Victor says. It’s as neighbourly as it sounds, with the Lindelöfs situated, in Victor’s words “just one house away” from Eriksen.“I love his girlfriend, they’re both amazing,” Maja says of Eriksen and his partner Sabrina Kvist Jensen. “And I think that just happens. If someone’s Scandinavian. It’s just natural, you have an easy connection.”

Amid her work in the Swedish media and multiple ambassadorships, Maja is leading the charge at her own game: fashion. “I’ve always loved clothing and fashion, always, since I was a little girl,” she says. “I would get changed five times a day just to enjoy new outfits.” Pair that with the business acumen she’s acquired – both in her marketing studies and from her real-world experience – and her very own brand Lis Bonne Atelier was born. With a mantra of empowering the wearer to feel “strong, beautiful and confident”, Maja describes the design language of Lis Bonne Atelier as a balancing act. “I love Scandinavian style, Rodebjer, Anine Bing, the classics,” she says. “Sometimes I want to be more minimalistic and very Scandinavian in the designs, but then my true side always comes through with patterns and colours.”

Just two years in, she’s making team hires and venturing into menswear; Victor is sporting a newly-released black coordinate set as we speak, and is clearly her biggest cheerleader. “You’ve realised that I have sacrificed a lot, and that has always made you so good at pushing me,” Maja says, turning to him. “When I want to do something, you’re always like, ‘Yes, yes, yes!’ so there’s always that balance. You can do you, and I can do me as well, it’s never been a question about just one of us doing things.”

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There’s a distinct sense of this balance, which Victor affirms: “We’re like a unit. We just have that trust that whatever happens in life we’re always going to have each others’ back and support each other.” This solidarity was put to the test most publicly, and traumatically, when someone broke into their house last year. At the time, Maja and the children were home, forced to lock themselves away during the incident. Victor, who was away in London and in the midst of a game, found out what had happened when he came off the pitch. “It still feels very difficult to be alone with the kids when you’re away,” she says to Victor. “It’s still going to take some time to really feel different and overcome that.” The police assured them it was part of a string of studied attacks on similar homes in the same area, and not necessarily a targeted attack due to them being public figures.

But that’s not to say they’re not unrelentingly in the public eye, particularly in the English and Swedish tabloids. “To be honest, I don’t really follow it at all,” Victor says. “If someone has an opinion about me, or us, it’s not a problem. I’m very calm and I know who I am as a person, and I know which people I like to be around – a small and strong circle who I’m glad to have.” “I’ve always admired that about you,” adds Maja.

While the Lindelöfs have bases in both Stockholm and Västerås, these homecoming moments are extra sweet. “It’s our hometown, it’s special. It’s where both of us grew up. It’s very nice to be close to family and friends, and everyone here, out on the streets, they’re so kind,” Victor says. “That’s what I love about Västerås,” Maja agrees. “If people here recognise us, or you, they’re like, ‘Welcome home again!’. It’s such a nice feeling.”

When asked whether they’ll settle full-time back in Sweden one day, all they can say is that the ball will be in Maja’s court, or pitch, so to speak. “She moved to Portugal, and now to Manchester, for me and my career. So I want to do my best to support her and push her to fulfil her dreams. After my career, she’s going to be the one in charge of where we live,” Victor says. “It will be my turn to follow her.”