PHOTO: Bildbyrån
He is one of Swedish hockey’s truly great players.
Today we celebrate a true giant in Jörgen Jönsson on his birthday.
And the legend also reveals why he is perceived as boring.
He is the only ice hockey player in the entire history of the sport to win Olympic, WC and national championship gold in the same season. 2006 succeeded Jörgen Jonsson with the piece of art when he took the double with Tre Kronor and also won SM gold with Färjestad.
Jönsson’s career
That says a lot about who the player number 21 was. Few Swedish hockey players can match his fantastic track record, where he has won a total of two Olympic golds, two WC golds, five SM golds, two more SM golds as a coach and broke the Tre Kronor record with the most international matches ever, a whopping 285 .
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Jönsson is forever king in Karlstad and he is well on his way to a similar status in Växjö after leading the Lakers to SM gold in the 2022/23 season. In addition, he has been inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame and won the television program “Champions of Champions”.
Jörgen admits
But despite all the success and many years in the spotlight, not much is known about Jörgen Jönsson off the ice. He has long been careful to keep his private life under wraps and not talk about himself that much.
– No, I don’t really like it. There is no purpose for me in being the focus. That is not why I have this job, he admits in an interview with Smålandsposten and continues:
– It’s about me wanting to separate private life and work. I have tried to identify myself “only” as a hockey player and then there has always been a side where I have been private. Now those two have flowed together a bit. For me, it’s mostly about the fact that I have no need for that. There is no end in itself in being a head coach to get attention. It’s fun working with hockey and trying to convey how we achieve success in a group. It’s more what’s important, not me.
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Jönsson is perceived by many as boring and now he himself gives his own image of that.
– I am depressed. Don’t debauchery anywhere. I may come off as boring, but I don’t think my friends think so. On the other hand, I am quite everyday and ordinary as a person, he tells the local newspaper.
– I don’t care that much about what people think, not people I don’t know. Most of the time they have no idea who I am or what I have done to complete my job and help my team as much as I can. Then they have no right to access me. They have the right to think what they want but I don’t care what they think. That is probably a reason not to use social media too much.
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Jörgen Jönsson has tried to be more active on social media over the years, but it is not something he is drawn to and has therefore stopped completely. Instead, he wants the performance on the ice to speak for itself.
– I have never really been attracted to it. I’ve tried Twitter, Instagram and whatever it’s called a few times. It feels impersonal, maybe because I haven’t caved in enough. Thinks that it must be fun when you get a network up, he tells SMP and explains why.
– It’s more about seeing what people I don’t know do. I can’t care about it and it bothers me when I get stuff like that in the feed. On the other hand, it is very exciting to see and be able to follow what my friends and people I know are doing, but nothing has really happened there.
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