Henke Larsson: I don't see myself as Swedish

Published March 3, 2024 at 4:34 p.m.

Domestic. Soccer player Henrik Larsson, 52, helped take Sweden to a bronze medal in the 1994 World Cup. But Larsson, whose father comes from the third world, tells The Guardian that he does not feel Swedish.< /p>

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With 106 caps, Larsson is considered one of the best Swedish players of all time. But with a father from Cape Verde, he is what many countries in the southern hemisphere still call a mulatto, and he himself does not feel Swedish.

– I consider myself a foreigner. I don't know what I am to be honest, Larsson, whose African features have become more visually prominent over the years, told the Guardian.

Both the father's roots in the third world and the Swedish society may be the cause of that he doesn't feel Swedish, he says. Only when he broke through did he start to feel like a part of Swedish society.

– I know I'm somewhat Swedish, yes. But I never felt 100% Swedish. I have to respect my father's roots, so maybe that's why, but I don't think I felt Swedish until I started to succeed on the pitch. When you are nothing, you don't matter. But when you are something, then you become part of this society. Then people forget one's origin and race.