PHOTO: Bildbyrån
Sweden’s national team captain Janne Andersson turns 61 today.
Now wife Ulrika reveals the truth about Janne’s lie.
– I have never seen that side of him before, she tells Hallandsposten.
2016 took Jan Andersson about the finest coaching assignment that exists in Swedish football. After great success with Halmstads BK and IFK Norrköping, “Party-Janne” became the new national team captain for the blue and yellow men’s national team.
Janne in Blue and Yellow
It would also be a real dream start for Sweden who qualified for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia and created an unforgettable summer that year. Janne led Blågult all the way to the WC quarter-finals after several fine efforts and with an absolutely world-class team dynamic.
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But the time after that has been tougher for Andersson, who has not managed to lift Sweden to the same heights. In EC 2020, there was an unexpected exit against Ukraine in the play-offs, in WC 2022 Sweden did not even manage to make it and the dream of EC 2024 is as if blown away.
Wife Ulrika
By his side during all this time he has had his wife Ulrika Andersson. They have been married for over 30 years and met for the first time back in 1985 in Halmstad when both were studying to become sports teachers.
– I remember Janne with his full-length hair, his slouchy bras and his silly briefcase that he had received when he had worked extra at the county council. And I particularly remember a party at the corps in a room under the dining hall, then we were no more than 200 students at the school. That time, Janne and Mats Jingblad sat and threw things at my neck and thought it was unbelievable, Ulrika tells Hallandsposten.
– Then I lived in an apartment in the city and then Janne used to cycle by without holding the handlebars to impress me. I had hung out with older guys in Stockholm and thought it was terribly childish. But at the same time charming, admits Ulrika.
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Janne Andersson remembers a special moment from their youth when he himself was a goal-oriented striker in Alets IK.
– I remember when Ulrika would see me play for the first time. It was the spring of ’86 and the series premiere against Centern at Sannarp. Lennart Ljung was the coach and told me to take it easy because he knew I was easily provoked. Ulrika is not as good at keeping times as I am, so when she came cycling after a quarter of an hour, she had to see me limping off the field with a red card. But then I would have also managed to score the winning goal, 1-0, says Janne in the interview.
But that is not the truth at all if you ask Ulrika. Now she exposes her husband’s lie in front of the entire Swedish people.
– I didn’t cycle, but walked. And I wasn’t a quarter of an hour late, but maybe five, ten minutes. And limping?! The first thing I saw when I arrived was the Alet leader lifting an insane Janne off the pitch. I had never seen that side of him before, so it was a bit of a shock. But then you got used to it…, she tells the local newspaper.
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