Ronnie Hellström celebrate the day in Beddingestrand, some hefty utsparkar from Sweden’s southernmost point Smygehuk. Where he has landed after his career and retirement, together with his wife, Anne.
” I have seven grandchildren and Anne’s two, then there needs to be a large house. Many people move into an apartment in town on the older dar, we did the opposite and left Malmö, ” he says.
of footballers. ”Svenne Berka” is legendary, ”Rio-Kalle” Svensson stands statue in Helsingborg, sweden and Thomas Ravelli made 143 appearances.
But Ronnie hellström’s track record is hard to beat. He made three world CHAMPIONSHIP between 1970 and 1978, and was during the era regarded as the world’s foremost burväktare next to the German Sepp Maier. In 1974 and 1978, he was selected to the tournament’s best goalkeeper.
Sepp said once when we were both in a tv show that he was happy that I was not German, he had not had to play in the national team, ” says Hellström.
Ronnie Hellström was the professionals in the German Kaiserslautern between 1974 and 1984. After career end he got a stellar avskedsmatch. To get a similar celebration in Germany, the player must have made ten behind closed doors: dreams, at least 250 games and 70 caps, and German.
” I passed all the requirements, except for German of course, but they made an exception for me. And than in the day, I am the only non-German player that scored a ”tackmatch,” he says.
But it was close to his career never took off. As pojkspelare rejection he of Malmö FF.
” I was considered to be too small.
As we sat in the bus home, we had mostly lost since it was born, we went to the kvartingen among the older guys.
the Family fled from the southern to Tyresö, south of Stockholm, put the momentum on his career. The lille goalkeeper got a place in Hammarby as a 13-year-old and in just four years he became other than. Two years later he was the national team.
At the time, was At a lindansargäng. According to Hellström himself, it was his narrow happiness.
” We were at the bottom, or played in division 1 and I always had a lot to do in goal. Landslagsledningen got up the eyes for me. I had not had a chance in the national team if I had not played in Hammarby.
had full-time jobs and football was more of a hobby. The early years of the club was marked by playfulness, but also of alkoholproblematik.
As we sat in the bus home, we had mostly lost since it was born, we went to the kvartingen among the older guys. It was the way it was at the time, not just in Hammarby.
” I, myself, never had any problems with alcohol. Also, I had a job in a chain store, it was most important. If I was away from the job because of the match I got a deduction on the salary. Of the club, we could get 200-300 sek in matchpremier, more it was not, ” he says.
In Sweden, the synthesis later the greppsäkre goalkeeper on giant posters in the large Flush bend campaign.
” It happened that I went on sale anyway. I was a little nervous to be recognised and I remember a time when a guy saw me and yelled, ”Fuck Ronnie, not, you may take the bend?”. ”It is for my dad,” I tried, ” he says with a laugh.
instead, the pitchman for a brewery when he had reached stardom.
– They built a bar in my basement, yes, basically, a whole pub. On Thursdays they called and asked me what I wanted, and on Friday they delivered. 50 beer and two crates of soda to the kids, I could say. After the matches, we always had a lot of people at home and often came to visit from Sweden.
After ending his career and move home to Sweden, drove Ronnie a sportartikelfirma and was the goalkeeping coach. Later, he became the etableringsansvarig for a German home improvement stores.
His final home game he made in 1988 for Gif Sundsvall. He was also on the bench in a match for hjärtelaget Hammarby as 47-year-old.
the motion to walking and golf. In 2014, he achieved his one knee, ravaged by arthritis, is replaced with an artificial.
” Oddly enough, it was not but from my own career, but from the years as goalkeeper coach, where I stood and fed the shots on halvvolley against the goalkeepers.
Ronnie is not forgotten in his homeland. In short, his autobiography, which came out in Sweden in 2017, released also in Germany.
” I have been down and promoted it and has also helped with the translation. It is needed. In the book it is a part Södersnack that can be difficult to translate, ” says Ronnie Hellström in his peculiar mixture of skåne and stockholm.
