PHOTO: Bildbyrån
He is one of Sweden’s best hockey players of all time.
Peter Forsberg was an absolutely fantastic hockey player on the ice.
But a completely different person on the sidelines, as revealed by his old teammates and coaches.
Many consider that Peter Forsberg is Sweden’s best hockey player of all time. If we take a look at his solid track record, it is also easy to agree.
Forsberg’s greatness
“Foppa” scored an incredible 885 points in 708 games in the NHL and had to lift the Stanley Cup trophy on two occasions with the Colorado Avalanche. The Swedish NHL legend also won the Calder Trophy, Art Ross Trophy and Hart Trophy individual awards during his successful years in North America.
In the blue and yellow national team jersey, Forsberg made over 100 international matches and won both Olympic gold twice and World Cup gold twice with Tre Kronor. He goes down in history as one of the best hockey players of all time.
READ MORE: Peter Forsberg names Sweden’s best hockey player of all time
But on the side of the ice, Peter Forsberg was a completely different person and his closest teammates and coaches reveal the truth about the hockey icon.
– I had to take care of Foppa during the Olympics in Lillehammer in 1994. We had to share a room and it was terrible. He was extremely distracted. We started every morning by searching for his accreditation for half an hour. I don’t understand how he managed to miss things all the time, says the Tre Kronor teammate Challe Berglund in an interview with Aftonbladet in 2004.
– I made sure that he fit the times. Was it food, buses, matches? Yeah, he didn’t really have a clue.
“Fop shit in”
Former national team captain Curt Lundmark well remember all the fuss surrounding the actual hockey matches with Tre Kronor.
– Foppa’s accreditation concerns made the whole team suffer in the Olympics. Once we waited half an hour in the bus while Foppa and Challe turned in and out of their hotel room. Then Foppa realized he had it around his neck, under his shirt, says the Tre Kronor coach in the same interview.
– Foppa had a damn hard time fitting times as a youngster. It often happened that he missed the bus from school to the ice rink. But he instead ran the distance of three kilometers and he was always on time on the ice, says Anders MelinderForsberg’s junior coach and teacher at the hockey high school.
READ MORE: Peter Forsberg now admits what he thinks of Niklas Wikegård
Not only was he bad at keeping appointments, Peter was also incredibly careless.
– Foppa completely sucks in his equipment. I remember so well when he came to Tre Kronor for the first time. Everything was broken and I tried to get him to accept new stuff. It didn’t work. “There is no need, I can manage with what I have,” he said. But he learned a lesson during the World Cup in the Czech Republic in 1992. In the final against Canada, his skates broke and he had none to spare. After that, I tried to explain to him how important it was to keep track of things, but I don’t think it really went in, says Anders “Pudding” Weiderstållegendary material manager in Tre Kronor, to the evening newspaper.
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