What happens when the light is turned off, and the last battle is over?
Where do you go when the career is over, and you are no longer a football player? It is questions like these that Anders Lindegaard is dealing with in the programme ’Life after the final whistle’, which runs on Xee.
The former Manchester United goalkeeper visiting players, who all have been hit after the final whistle and have struggled to find a new identity.
One of them is the former Brondby striker Johan Elmander, as He is visiting in Gothenburg in the fifth section of the program.
It is barely a year ago that the swede announced that his career was over, and the time after stopped was not easy for the 38-year-old Johan Elmander.
- She (my wife, red.) would say that I was close to being depressed. It would, she tells Johan Elmander, if the mood swung in the time after stopped.
He says that he could get angry over nothing, and sometimes he sat just staring blank into the wall. Other times thinking ’should I just sit here and do nothing’.
- It is difficult. You know all the statistics, all the numbers, about what happens when you stop. But it is not me. It is a different. You push it away.
- But once you are there, in the end (of his book red.), and it dawns on you that it is me now, it is too late, " says Johan Elmander, who in his own words was concerned about his condition.
Johan Elmander (tv.) is one of the players, as Anders Lindegaard (th.) meetings in the 'Life after the final whistle'. Photo: Claus Frederiksen/Doceye Digital
He wondered if he should have it like this in several years and asked himself what he should do with his life now.
Since he had been small, it had all been about football. It was what he was good at, and it was footballer, he dreamed of becoming.
Elmander achieved his dream and got twenty years as a professional footballer, and it hit him hard when he stopped.
- Now I have lived out my dream, so what should I do now? It is difficult to find a new dream, say a frank Johan Elmander, who in addition to two periods in Brøndby went on to play in clubs such as Feyenoord, Bolton, Galatasaray and Norwich.
The last goal he scored in 2017 hjerteklubben Potro in the second row, as he helped to save.
After stopped, it was about to save himself, and Elmander has found a new path in life. He has been the ambassador of The Perfect World Foundation.
- It is difficult to find a new dream. It takes a little time, but now I have a dream to help and make a difference. It gives my life meaning, and I do it because I like it.
- No one is pushing me to it. It is something I really want, " says Johan Elmander in the interview with Anders Lindegaard.
The Perfect World Foundation is fighting for the planet and to save the nature and wildlife around the world.
- It gives me a purpose. I don't like it when people say 'I can't do anything about it' (problems, red.). Everyone can do something. I have much free time, so I can do something, " says Johan Elmander, who also works as a model for a Swedish agency.
Johan Elmander is today a model for a Swedish modelling agency. Photo: Lind Modellagentur
He has found out that he is good for anything other than to play football and has come up to the surface again after karrierestoppet.
- You get stronger when you've been down there. When you are at the bottom and begin to climb up again, you will be stronger.
- I have learned more about myself. That I can do other than just to play football, I'm good at many things, " explains Johan Elmander.
'Life after the final whistle' with Anders Lindegaard appears every Sunday evening on Xee.
The 35-year-old goalkeeper itself is not quite reached to the final whistle. He has a contract with the Swedish Helsingborgs IF until the end of 2021.
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