Back in the day there were famous stories of footballers who played other professional sports during their careers. Leading the way was Ian "Beefy" Botham, who managed 11 appearances (seven starts) for Scunthorpe United between 1979 and 1984, at a time when he was also hitting all-comers out of the ground for both Somerset and England.
Then there was Denis Compton, who not only represented Arsenal and England on the football field, but also spent 22 years with Middlesex CCC, amassing 78 Test caps in the process.
Legends like that tend to be a thing of the past. They simply don’t happen today. Or at least they didn’t until Sweden’s evergreen super-striker, Henrik Larsson, decided to build on his love of hockey, and swap his boots for a stick as he attempts to change professional sports.
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Using the sport as a way to keep fit during the off-season, Larsson has stayed loyal to his club side Helsingborg by joining the club’s indoor hockey team, where unsurprising Larsson plays as a forward. And just a few days ago Larsson made his competitive debut for his new side.
Highlights from Larsson’s "Inne Bandy" (as indoor hockey is called in Sweden) debut can be seen here. (Apologies for the quality of the footage.)
Better footage of Larsson playing hockey can be seen in this report from Swedish TV. Sadly, as we don’t speak Swedish, we can only assume everyone from Larsson to the team-coach (who seems very excited by the whole thing) is enjoying the moment.
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about 1 month ago
Reminds me of Bo Jackson back in the late 80's. He was a professional American football player and also was a professional baseball player at the time.
Michael Jordan also tried to pick up baseball, but it was just a train wreck.
I think it is cool that some sports stars use other sports to keep fit in the off-season. Thanks to Canada's Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns (NBA), quite a few basketball players have picked up playing soccer to keep fit.
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