Jesper Blomqvist goes from Man Utd star to opening up and making pizza at Stockholm restaurant
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JESPER BLOMQVIST is animated as he dusts the work surface with flour and begins a masterclass in kneading dough.
For the past hour, Manchester United’s Treble-winning winger has pondered the club’s recent problems, assessed Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s departure, recalled rejecting Sir Alex Ferguson and remembered a raging Roy Keane.
But as he fastens up his apron and spoons tomato sauce on to a spongy pizza base, the Swede is ready for action in this new world of work.
Six months ago Blomqvist, 45, and his two business partners, Janne and Blendi, opened a pizzeria on the picturesque Swedish island of Lidingo.
So far, so good — but it has been far from easy.
Blomqvist told SunSport: “I can honestly say I’ve never worked so hard in my whole life,” puffing out his cheeks as he sits at a table in 450 Gradi.
His Italian-themed restaurant looks out over the calm waters of the Baltic Sea on a tree-lined bay which has been burnt a deep orange by the autumn months.
Here, he feels at home.
After retiring from football in 2010 due to injury and age, the former winger, who won 30 caps for Sweden between 1994 and 2002, looked for a new path to follow.
Blomqvist, who studied a university course on food and wine pairing, explained: “I did coaching and TV punditry.
“I tried other things like travelling which is OK but I never felt the real passion for it like I do for food.
“It’s always been there a little bit but when I played two years in Italy for AC Milan and Parma that’s where it all started.
“For me, Italian food is the best. They have this passion for produce, just single products to let them speak their own mind, not mixing too much and making it complicated.”
So what is Blomqvist’s favourite pizza?
“We have so many different ones but the Margherita, the most simple one.”
But this reporter decides to be more elaborate, so I try out slices of the caviar-topped Kalix and the garlic-infused Vasterbottensost. And they are amazing.
Meals such as this remind Blomqvist of his year at AC Milan’s Milanello training base that “was almost a five-star restaurant”.
When he moved to United in 1998, the approach to grub was slightly different.
Blomqvist recalled: “You still had scrambled egg and beans on toast before a game.”
PIZZA XI
Hawai-Ian Walker
Steve Finnan crispy
Domnio’s Matteo
Mark Dough ball
Papa (John’s) Boupa Diop
Jozef Varga rita
Crust Poyet
Steve Stone-bake
Cristiano Ronaldough
Wayne Pepper-Rooney
Hal-apeno Robson Kanu
Manager: Sam Allarslice
Team: West Ham & Pineapple
One memory sticks out, though. The iconic 3-2 win over Juventus that saw United get through to the Champions League final in 1999 on the way to the Treble but that is not the story Blomqvist wants to tell.
He said: “We stayed in a really nice Italian hotel.
It had a restaurant but then they opened up the suitcases and brought out tins of Heinz spaghetti and tomato sauce.
“Maybe it was so not to be food poisoned, I don’t know.
“But for me that was like: No, you can’t do this. We’re in Italy and you bring tins of Heinz?”
Blomqvist could have been a United player four years earlier. He said: “Ferguson contacted me. He was interested in 1994 but I decided to stay at Gothenburg, it was too early for me.
“Then 1996 I felt I was ready to move abroad. I didn’t have an agent and I just said to everybody, ‘If you bring AC Milan, I will sign for them and you’.
“I spoke to Kevin Keegan at Newcastle, to Sir Alex, to Sven-Goran Eriksson at Sampdoria. Barcelona came to visit with Johan Cruyff. I wrote an essay at school about wanting to play for Milan and was so determined that I declined Sir Alex.”
When Blomqvist eventually moved to United, he was a witness to Fergie’s infamous hairdryer.
Laughing, he said: “I had it once or twice, and it wasn’t so fun at the time.
“After a while you realised it was more about getting the team going rather than just singling one player out.
“It was a way of showing his passion and he showed that all the time.”
Blomqvist was back at Old Trafford with his six-year-old son to watch the 1-0 Champions League defeat against Juventus this month.
Playing in Legends games and doing work as a club ambassador has seen Blomqvist develop from employee to fan in the years since he left.
Blomqvist feels the pain of a supporter now but does not know where to point the finger.
He said: “It was always going to be hard to follow Fergie’s suit.
“But what a lot of fans are really suffering now is more the way of playing football than the results.
“You can lose a game now and then and people understand but when you are United it’s this feeling that has grown so strong in the 20-odd years with Ferguson, that you play ‘the United way’.
“You keep attacking and you can beat and not be afraid of anybody.”
His countryman Ibrahimovic’s departure was a big loss for United earlier this year.
Blomqvist said: “He has a great presence and aura about him. He can be arrogant sometimes towards the press but you realise how hard he works and how much he is ready to sacrifice.
“These two parts of him in the dressing room is really important because then the young players see Zlatan, how hard he works and how much he wants to win.”
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Blomqvist was a winner, too. While there is no memorabilia in 450 Gradi, he did bring in his Champions League winner’s medal on the day of this year’s final.
If the success continues, his silverware and pizzeria could be on its way to the UK, too.
Showing real pride, he said: “We have a concept that is working. It has been a fantastic half-year and the dream would be to open some in England.”
As Blomqvist rises from his seat, he adds: “Milan could be a tough one, though.”