Swedish lock: Farewell to Maroni Halstrom, symbol of the period and great goalkeeper of the seventies
He did not win any titles with the Marbie, Kaiserslautern and the Swedish national team, but his instincts, leaps, positive attitude and even appearance made Roni Halstrom a mass idol.
Together with Cruyff and Cannbauer, he defined his time
Michael Yochin
09/02/2022
Wednesday, 09 February 2022, 12:00
Share on Facebook
Share on WhatsApp
Share on Twitter
Share on Email
Share on general
Comments
Comments
Saturday's goals in the Premier League (Sports 1)
Germans like to set rules even when they don't really have to.
For example, a club may organize a farewell game for a footballer only if he has at least 250 Bundesliga games, at least 80 appearances for the national team, and he must also be German.
Why?
There is no knowing.
The Germans also know how to break rules when they really have to, and that's exactly what happened on April 24, 1984 at Kaiserslautern's Bettenberg Stadium.
35,000 spectators filled it to pay huge tribute to beloved goalkeeper Roni Halstrom.
He played for the team "only" 77 times, and was a Swede at all, but it turned out that stupid rules were not valid for him.
To this day, Halstrom is the only foreigner to receive this type of honor in Germany.
Among the players who came to rejoice with the legend and wore the uniform of the rest of the world team that faced Kaiserslautern were also Bayern Munich stars who retired long ago.
There was Franz Beckenbauer, who at the time asked Halstrom to join him in the New York cosmos across the ocean.
The Americans offered a huge salary, certainly compared to what he received in the Bundesliga, but Halstrom politely declined.
"I love this area and the people here, so I stay here," he stated - completing a full decade at Kaiserslautern.
There was also Sepp Meyer, the greatest Bayern goalkeeper of all time as of that point in time, and some still believe that this is true even after the appearance of Oliver Kahn and Manuel Neuer.
Once, when he was at his peak of fitness, Meyer was asked if he felt lucky during his career, to which he replied, "In one sense absolutely yes, because if Halstrom had been born German, I would not have played a minute on the team."
Good to know (promoted)
An innovative rowing swimming teaching method makes a crazy difference in life
Submitted on behalf of TI SWIM
Sepp Meyer felt inferior to him
He was completely serious, because Halstrom was the best goalkeeper in the world in the 70's.
The younger generations of fans outside Sweden and Germany are unaware of his power because he represented a not-quite-fashionable team and even less fashionable teams, but in his time - in the absence of internet and live TV broadcasts from all leagues on a daily basis - player evaluation was completely different, and the World Cup had a huge impact.
In two consecutive World Cups, Halstrom was named the Outstanding Goalkeeper, making him a cult hero even among those who have never had the opportunity to stand on the Kaiserslautern stands.
It was a combination of spectacular leaps, feline instincts, quick exits towards pioneers to close the angle for them, and also a playful look with a mane of blond hair and a mustache that was popular in those days, and an extraordinary charisma he radiated everywhere.
As soon as he stepped on the field, Halstrom drew attention to him, and the performances in the summer of 1974 were brilliant on every scale.
Halstrom finished the first home stage with no mandatory goals at all, and kept a clean sheet even in a zero-draw with the Netherlands.
In the second home stage came the big battle against West Germany, which took place in pouring rain on a fairly flooded pitch in Düsseldorf, and yet the game ran from field to field, and the two goalkeepers toiled non-stop.
In the first half, Halstrom would frustrate Gerd Müller, perhaps Hans and his teammates, and Sweden led 0-1.
After the break, he absorbed a quartet, and the Germans won 2: 4, but was still the great hero.
It was the day a number of German teams decided to try to sign him, and Kaiserslautern ahead of Stuttgart in the last line to get the man who would become the idol of her fans forever and ever.
Player of the Year in the bottom team
Until then, he had not even been defined as a professional, because that term did not exist in Sweden.
Halstrom even played on a team that did not compete for titles in his homeland.
When his family moved from Malmö to Stockholm, 13-year-old Roni read in the paper that Hamabri had an excellent football academy, asked his mother to contact them, and since then love has blossomed.
He received his first jersey in the 1967 season that ended in relegation, and waited two more years to return to the Premier League, but immediately made such a strong impression in 1970 that coach Orber Bergmark included him in the squad for the World Cup in Mexico.
1970 was also the year that Marby fans started singing in the stands.
"It helped us a lot. We were at the bottom in the middle of the season, and then the fans took the initiative and pushed us forward with songs they wrote themselves, and we finished in the middle of the table," Helstrom later recalled in his autobiography.
The connection to the green-and-white crowd was strong, and he strongly identified with the club's values that football should first and foremost spread enjoyment and joy.
From time immemorial, net results have been secondary for the Marbie, who have won just one championship in its 106 years of existence, but are nevertheless considered one of the most rooted and important clubs in Sweden.
Bottom struggles were a part of Helstrom's tenure, but the goalkeeper was revered all over the country, and was named Sweden's Footballer of the Year in 1971 even though the team finished 10th out of 12.
"I handed out more than 100,000 signatures"
Even in a decade in the Kaiserslautern uniform, Halstrom did not win anything, losing twice in the Cup final - to Hamburg in 1976 and to Frankfurt in 1981.
Thus ended his entire career without any degree, but that did not really bother him, nor did it stop him from becoming a cult and promotion figure in the Bundesliga.
Anyone familiar with the culture of football in Germany knows that the experience is more important than the victories, and it was very easy for an Marabi veteran like Halstrom to identify with this worldview.
He got on the grass to enjoy himself and give a show to the audience, and was inspired by every successful rescue and applause he received.
These did not stop for a moment, and the admiration for him in the city knew no bounds.
"There are 100,000 residents in Kaiserslautern, and I'm sure each of them got at least one signature from me, because I handed out more than 100,000," the goalkeeper joked.
The popularity also brought with it myths.
It is alleged, for example, that Halstrom participated before the 1978 World Cup in Argentina in a demonstration by mothers whose children were abducted by the military junta that ruled the country to express support for their struggle.
The story was copied from article to article, and it was easy for the janitor to confirm the details that presented him in a positive light, but he preferred to really stick to it and admitted that it was an invention - and had no idea how it was created.
On the other hand, he was chosen as the outstanding goalkeeper in this World Cup, even though Sweden was eliminated in the home stage - and this myth, which sounds a bit strange in retrospect, is actually true.
That same year he was again named Player of the Year in Sweden, and remains the only goalkeeper in history to have done so twice.
Part of the period died with him
People who did not live in the period in question will not understand the phenomenon, but anyone who saw Halstrom's smile was captivated by his charm, and even decades after his retirement any mention of his name evoked pleasant memories - not only among Marby and Kaiserslautern fans for whom he was almost God, but every football fan who watched Bo leaps on the grass.
In some ways, he defined this period - alongside Johan Cruyff and his orange friends for Total Football, alongside Canberauer, Müller and their teammates from Germany and Bayern, there was also a place of honor for the tall Swedish guy who was in complete consensus.
Meyer Justice - Holstrom was the greatest goalie of his generation.
Earlier this week he died of cancer at the age of 72, and part of that special period died along with him, but his legacy is still felt.
Below you can see the gesture that the Marbie fans made to him for his birthday last year.
And if Kaiserslautern, who have gained surprising momentum in recent months, move up from the third division to the second in May, it will dedicate the achievement to his memory.
Follow Yochin on Facebook
sport
World football
Tags
Sweden national team
