PHOTO: Bildbyrån + TT
He is one of Swedish football’s greatest players of all time.
Now Ralf Edström puts his foot down against today’s football and admits what he hates the most.
– We have to remove that. There I think you have to put together a group, he says to Expressen.
During the 70s was Ralf Edstrom Sweden’s best soccer player and reaped great success in his club teams and for the Swedish national team. He represented Degerfors, Åtvidaberg, PSV Eindhoven, IFK Gothenburg, Standard Liege, Monaco and Örgryte during his brilliant career.
Edström’s career
Edström won SM gold and became double cup champion in Sweden, double league champion and double cup champion in Holland, Belgian cup champion and league champion in France and was awarded the Golden Ball in both 1972 and 1974. For the Swedish national team, there were 15 goals in 40 international matches and games in both the 1974 WC and the World Cup in 1978.
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Most remembered is the attacking legend for his unforgettable volley goal against West Germany in WC 74, which is one of the most iconic goals in the national team’s history. After his active playing career, Edström worked as an expert commentator at Radiosporten for over 30 years and soon he will be in an episode of the SVT program “Footbollens historia”.
Ralf raises his voice
Today he is 71 years old and has suffered strokes on two separate occasions. Which has affected his memory in recent years – but he never forgets what he accomplished on the football field.
– All that remains, what happened a long time ago. But don’t ask me what happened last year, because then it’s over, he says in an interview with Expressen.
– You are a little tired. I have done well, I want to say, there are those who have it much worse. But I feel brain fatigue.
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Edström has a good grasp of Swedish football today and follows the Allsvenskan as often as he can. But now he raises his voice for what he hates most about today’s football, where he wants to get rid of two things above all.
– Partly how the players try to deceive the referees by filming, we have to get rid of that. There, I think you have to put together a group that looks at situations in retrospect and shuts them down. That and the brutality in the stands. With firecrackers and people running onto the pitch and having fun…, he tells the evening newspaper.
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Ralf remembers the time when he played himself and there were big crowd parties in the stands, but there was never any row about that.
– I will never say that it was better before, he says in the interview and waits a while.
– But I think damn it was more fun.
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