A tribute to the King himself

1988-1993: THE HELSINGBORGS YEARS

"I scored 16 goals and was among the top scorers in Sweden. They were two great years"

When I was 19 I met the girl I was going to marry, Magdelena, and she helped to settle me down. We met in a restaurant, but I'm not saying what my chat-up line was, it's personal. Life was pretty good then and, although I was still enjoing football, it wasn't everything to me. Then when I was 21 I heard the local semi-pro team, Helsingborgs IF, who were in the First Division, were interested. It's a small city and they knew who the talented players were in the region.

To be honest I'd begun to think that my dream of becoming a pro might never happen. When you get to your early 20s and you haven't broken through, the doubts creep in. I had an idea that Helsingborgs were interested in me, and they had been watching my progress. I was at work one day and got a call from the club. A friend drove me down and I signed immediately for £300 a month without bonuses.

I started training seriously and in that first season I scored 34 goals. The team was promoted to the top division, the Swedish Premier League, for the first time in 22 years. That gave me a great chance to see how I would perform at the top level. I scored 16 goals and was among the top scorers in Sweden. They were two great years. Then in September 1993 I signed for Feyenoord.

1993-94: FEYENOORD AND THE 1994 WORLD CUP

"I hit it to the left, the keeper went right, and the ball just sneaked in off the post. My heart stops even now when I see that film"

I had nearly moved to Grasshoppers of Zurich before I joined Feyenoord. We were just finalising the details when I heard Feyenoord wanted me. With all due respect to Swiss football, there was only one decision there. Feyenoord had been watching me for a while. I cost £295,000, and half of that fee went to my first club because of an agreement in my contract. It was a big adventure, going down to Holland, learning a new language, making new friends, and I knew that I'd made it as a pro.

I couldn't actually join Feyenoord until November because I had to make sure Helsingborgs were safe from relegation before I left. But when I did arrive in Holland, I loved it both on and off the pitch. I was great friends with Orlando Trustfull and we played a lot of snooker and pool together. When Magdalena arrived, she made friends with Orlando's wife and the four of us would see a lot of each other.

My first game was against Vitesse - it was minus six degrees and the pitch was frozen solid. I didn't have a brilliant season, I only scored one goal in about 16 games, but the next season I managed to get about 11 and that summer, 1994, I played in the World Cup finals in America. I had hoped I'd be in the starting line-up for Sweden, but when I turned up at the training camp I was really tired and I had lost my touch a bit.

As training went on, I realised it wasn't going to happen for me, and for our first game against Cameroon I was on the bench. We were 1-0 up and then they went 2-1 ahead. I came on with 25 minutes to go and was playing on the left wing. I remember wandering over to the right and getting the ball just outside the centre circle from Roland Nilsson. I had this crazy idea to have a shot. I struck it hard and the ball came down off the cross bar letting Martin Dahlin score from the rebound.

I played the whole of the next game against Brazil on the left wing. I played badly and the match ended 1-1. Then I spent the whole of the next game against Russia on the bench, and we won 3-1. To be honest, it was such a hot day, it was quite nice to be on the bench because it was air-conditioned.

The next game, against Saudi Arabia, we managed to win 3-1 but in the quarter-final against Romania we threw away a 1-0 lead with 10 minutes to go. Dahlin was tired so I came on in extra-time. After extra-time it was 2-2 and so it went to penalties. Patrik Andersson came over and told me I was going to be the sixth penalty-taker, probably because they didn't think it would go that far. Unfortunately, our first penalty went over the bar, they missed one, and that meant I had to take my penalty.

I remember it like yesterday. I sat in the centre circle thinking about all the penalties I'd ever taken and trying to calm myself down. I hit it to the left, the keeper went right, and the ball just sneaked in off the post. My heart stops even now when I see that film. We went through to the semi final, but again I didn't play and we lost to Brazil. The third and fourth place play-off was against Bulgaria. I scored and we won 4-1.

I remember the goal. I found myself just inside their half. I think it could have been Kennet Anderson who played a square ball to me and I was able to touch it past the Bulgarian defender as the Bulgarian team tried to push up on us. I had the goalkeeper to beat and, as I got into the penalty area, he came out and I pushed it to his right. The goalkeeper was down and beaten and the goal was in front of me. A Bulgarian defender came flying across trying to block me and I dummied to shoot with my left. He tried to get in the way and as he put his knee down he simply fell over, which was pretty funny. I then rounded him and all I had to do was roll the ball over the line, which, luckily, I did. It was a good goal to score and, because of the importance of the game, it's one of my favourites. The feeling was incredible and getting that medal was unbelievable.