MALMÖ. The golden ball in the middle of a mess among drunken beer cans, a well-filled ashtray, a loose door handle and a dosage box for medicines.
The Instagram picture made many in football Sweden wonder:
How is Robert Prytz really doing?
Sportbladet met the old national team star over a long lunch to ask, among other things, that.
Before the first SM final of two between AIK and Malmö FF at Stockholms Stadion in 1986, a helicopter landed in the center circle. Robert Prytz jumped out, was met by the chairman of the Swedish Football Association Lennart Johansson, received his Golden Ball, posed for the photographers and jumped back into the helicopter.
– It was wonderful. I had never ridden a helicopter, says Robert Prytz.
He had taken off from Zurich the same day.
– I flew to Copenhagen and on to Arlanda. There the helicopter picked me up. Then I flew the same way back: helicopter–Arlanda–Copenhagen–Zurich. We had a match with Young Boys on the same weekend.
In 2008, Robert Prytz moved back home to Sweden.
But it was only in January this year that his Gold Ball was back in Sweden again after he took it with him in the helicopter on that October day just over 36 years ago.
– It has been at my ex-wife’s house in Glasgow for 30 years in the house we lived in.
Prytz divorced Joyce in 2006.
You haven’t missed your Golden Ball?
– Missed and missed. It’s a trophy. I’m proud of it and it’s wonderful to have it. Because it is absolutely fantastic to have been named the best player in Sweden. I remember being surprised when I got it.
“It’s damn poetry”
On a Saturday evening at the beginning of March, the 63-year-old posted a picture of the Gold Ball on Instagram and wrote “Here is the Gold Ball proudly”.
But it is not only the Golden Ball that can be seen in the picture. Instead, it is on a very messy desk, where you can also see three drunken beer cans, an ashtray with six or seven ashtrays, a loose doorknob and a dosage box for pills.
The picture has attracted a lot of attention. The podcast Offside spent a good while talking about the picture in its Episode the following week and it made many in football Sweden wonder: how is Robert Prytz really doing?
– The image is incredibly raw – and strong. You get both the glory from the Golden Ball but also a couple of too many beers, an ashtray and a pillbox. 99 out of 100 old footballers who want to show off their old Golden Ball had cleared that table. But he just leaves it at that and writes “Here is the golden ball proud” It’s damn poetry, says Johan Orrenius in the Offside podcast.
So how are you, Robert?
– My knees are not the best. I have osteoarthritis in both, but I’ve hardly been injured before. I’m fine. But I’ve had a bit of a rough time. Karen, my oldest daughter, passed away almost two years ago from lung cancer. She was only 32 years old. It was really hard.
Both his daughters remained with their mother Joyce in Scotland when the parents divorced. He has no contact with the other daughter, Emma.
– We had a good relationship after the divorce, but then she suddenly didn’t want to talk to me anymore. I do not know why. I haven’t done anything to her. She doesn’t want to say anything about it to her mother either. I spoke to Karen once or twice a week.
We will see each other over today’s lunch at a restaurant at Gustav Adolfs torg in the middle of Malmö. Prytz doesn’t even look at the salad table (per se, neither does the undersigned) and quickly pokes away the only small green, a sprout, on the plate when the waiter comes in with it. He drinks a glass of mineral water with his meal.
Living on activity support
For several years in the mid-10s, the old inside midfielder worked as a mover.
– Then I cleaned beer taps in restaurants. But it ended a couple of years ago. It wasn’t such a nice ending. My ex-father-in-law in Scotland, who was one of my best friends, and my brother passed away within a week. I wanted a week off but then the boss said I didn’t have to come back. I thought it was a bit tough. Since then I haven’t had a job. I’m trying to find one but at my age it’s not that easy.
How do you support yourself?
– I have what is called activity support (from Försäkringskassan).
Prytz’s career spanned the years just before the Bosmandom and he has told in several interviews over the years that he has no money left from his football career.
He bought two houses in Scotland – one for his own family and one for his in-laws, who he says were like his step-parents. When he left Scotland he let them keep the houses, which were then taken over by the daughters.
– Then I knew that my two children would be fine. Now I only have one left. But she doesn’t have to worry about the rest of her life. I am happy and proud of that.
Agent Dieter Langhans swindled Prytz, Dan Corneliusson and several other soccer stars out of money in the 1980s and 90s. According to Prytz, Langhans, who was sentenced to prison, owes him three million kroner, but of course it is money he will never see.
How does pension work? You have mainly earned your money from football abroad?
– I have a friend who is checking that out now. I should get a pension from Scotland, Switzerland, Germany and Italy. Maybe I can retire now.
What do you do during the day?
– I try to keep going. I walk, I can’t run with my knees. But you would like to have something to do, a job. I hang out with my friends as much as possible and am often a dog or cat sitter for them. I love dogs and most animals like me. I have many friends, both old childhood friends and new friends. We have fun. Sometimes we party, as all people do.
How would you say your life is today?
– It is decent. I have so I manage. As I said, I have many friends that I love. They are absolutely fantastic. If I can make them happy, I will.
When Prytz returned home from Scotland in 2008, he moved in with his ailing mother and cared for her until she died two years later. He still lives in the apartment on Sorgenfrivägen, the same apartment Robert and the family moved to when he started junior high school.
He was born the sixth child of eight and was the youngest of the five brothers.
– Now all my brothers are dead. I don’t spend much time with my sisters. I keep some contact with my oldest sister’s daughter.
Prytz lived separately with a woman for several years.
– But now I am myself.
Still loves his ex-wife
Prytz has never been afraid to cry in public. We remember the classic tears on television when Sweden missed the World Cup in Mexico in 1986 and with tears in his eyes, Prytz told the Master of Masters in 2011 about when his father died of cancer when he was only 16 years old. In newspaper articles, it has been described how he began to cry in the middle of the interview when he talked about his ex-wife Joyce and his love for her.
At the lunch table, he wipes himself with a napkin under his eye, maybe it’s a tear, when he talks about his daughter’s passing.
Does it feel like you suffer a lot of tragedies?
– Yes, I don’t get it. Still, you try to be humble and kind. It’s tough, but you have to survive.
The image of you is that you are very kind.
– Many people say that.
Have you been too nice for your own good?
– Yes, I probably have. I have always wanted to help other people. I brought that with me from home. Many people tell me that I am too kind; that I should stand up for myself and be kind to myself. But I don’t think so.
The fact that you are close to tears and emotions has probably made you popular too.
– That could probably be the case.
There is something fragile about Robert Prytz. It feels like the whole of football Sweden aches a little for him.
I think a lot of people feel a little sorry for you.
– They don’t have to do that.
It’s not a shame about Robert Prytz?
– No, exactly. I’m just very emotional. I have been all my life.
Would you say you have been lucky or unlucky in life?
– Unlucky in the way that I was ten years ahead of my time as a footballer, considering money and such. And bad luck that I never got to play a major championship. But I’ve also been very lucky in my career. I have won the Golden Ball and the Medal of Achievement and played in a European Cup final. I have learned three languages. I met my ex who I love to this day. It’s really crazy. But it is the love of my life. She was the one who wanted a divorce.
Is there anything you regret in life?
– No, not that I can think of. What I have done, I have done.
Attends MFF with his first(!) girlfriend
We are talking about old MFF profiles such as the recently deceased Krister Kristensson, Jonas Thern, Stefan Schwarz and Eric Persson.
– A wonderful person, Prytz says of each of them when they come to speak.
He has almost no contact with old teammates in MFF, for whom he played in 1977–82 and 1993–95.
– But I had lunch with Anders Andersson the other week. A wonderful person.
What does your contact with football look like?
– I go to basically every home game with MFF. With my first girlfriend.
With your first girlfriend?!
– Yes, Brita. We were together when we were 14 years old. We then kept in touch and met again when I moved home. Since then we have been friends. I was at her wedding but her husband doesn’t want to go to football. So she and I have been dating for the past few years.
Just after the New Year, Prytz was over in Scotland for the first time in ten years. He went there with seven friends for a few days to watch the Old Firm derby between Rangers and Celtic at Ibrox.
Prytz played in Rangers midfield from 1982–85.
– We were supposed to get tickets from the club but their secretary had made a mistake so we didn’t get any. She said it was full so we got to watch the game in a pub instead. Suddenly everyone recognized me. Then there was a bit of talk and photos, he smiles.
Robert also got to meet his beloved Joyce for a little while. That’s when she handed over the Golden Ball.
– She didn’t want it in front of her. She has intended to send it over, but it weighs quite a bit. Now it was over.
And then there was that picture.
What were you thinking there?
– It’s not at my place. I was at a friend’s house and took it out then. He wanted to see it. Then we took a photo. I have a better one but I posted this anyway. I have received some criticism for it. But it’s not my tablets and it’s not my beer cans.
– Now it is in a suitcase. I haven’t had time to unpack it.
But it should go on a shelf?
– Yes, definitely.
What kind of reactions have you had to the picture?
– Someone wrote on Instagram. But I don’t have to explain to them.
You didn’t think people would wonder how you were doing?
– No, I don’t care.
