This Sweden defender at the World Cup isn't your typical soccer player: He's a baron!

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STEVE DOUGLAS and ETHAN WILCOX

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) — Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are among the soccer royalty gracing the World Cup in North America.If you want real-life aristocracy, head to Sweden’s squad.Gustaf Lagerbielke, a 26-year-old defender who played the entire match in Sweden’s 5-1 defeat of Tunisia on Sunday, is a baron from a noble family in Sweden. His father and grandfather are counts.Soccer players typically come from modest backgrounds — take Messi and Ronaldo, for example.Not Lagerbielke.“I mean, it’s rare,” he said in an interview ahead of the World Cup.Lagerbielke grew up in Djursholm, a wealthy suburb in the Swedish capital, Stockholm. When he played soccer as a kid, he says he had the family’s coat of arms on his shin pads.“When I was kid, I wanted to become a professional footballer,” Lagerbielke said after Sunday’s match in Monterrey. “They have taught me goals. They are very happy for me and very proud.”

Lagerbielke’s heritage has been a talking point throughout a career that has taken him from Sweden (AIK, Sollentuna, Västerås, Elfsborg and Degerfors) to Scotland (Celtic) and now Portugal.

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