Little Stefan began playing tennis at the age of seven in Västervik, Sweden. Youth-trainer Sven Bergsten noticed Stefan's talent for the game, especially the kid's feeling for the ball and his excellent movement on the court. Bergsten decided to become Stefan's coach along the way to what eventually became the top.
In 1977 Stefan won his first big title: the Kalle Anka Cup (Kalle Anka is the Swedish name for Donald Duck). At the age of twelve it was time to discover the youth tournaments around Europe.

1980 became his breakthrough year as youth player by winning the European Championships in both singles and doubles. Västervik was by now far too small to further develop and train young Edberg. A move to Stockholm was a fact and Percy Rosberg took over the coaching job from Bergsten. It was Rosberg who convinced young Stefan to drop his double-handed backhand for a smooth single-handed one (although it took him almost six months to fully learn to play one-handed!).

At (sweet) sixteen Stefan became again a European champion and succeeded in winning the most prestigious junior title in tennis: the Orange Bowl. (He defeated American Robbie Weiss 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.)
As tennis now played such a big part in Edberg's life he had to choose between school and the game. Obviously he chose the latter (great move!).

At the end of 1982 his name appeared for the first time on the ATP World Ranking List: position 523.