During the late 1980s, it was a different time than what floorball looks like today. Indoor bandy’s first associations had been started in various places, but far from today’s offer and if you didn’t have a club to play in, it was just as well to start your own association.
– It was a reviled leisure activity and a reviled sport. It was society’s prejudices that were just beginning to be washed away. There were only a few associations started in Uppsala at the time, but where I lived in Vilan near Nåntuna, there were none, says Johannes and goes on to say:
– We were a group of 14-year-olds and a group of 30-year-olds who played floorball together. Erik, who was 30 years old and a veterinary student, was next door to my friend Markus and we were the ones who played small games on the street or in a hall if we were lucky. So finally after all the Fridays we played, we started the association Loke IBK.
“Indoor bandy was my sport”
The naming rules at that time were different from today’s and the evil demigod’s team Loki had to face everything from Gottsunda IF to the slightly more personal Markus IBK. The multitasker Johannes Gustafsson did everything from judo to tennis, but when he turned 16 he took the step from Loke to Ekeby IBK and then it became a more serious investment.
– I wonder how many times I was questioned because I wanted to bet on floorball instead of soccer, for example. But it was just like that, floorball was my sport and it was a big part of my identity. Now in Ekeby there was also a real pre-season, real coaches and sponsors who came in. Then it became another thing to bet as well.
Although Ekeby was a notch more professional, there was still a great settler spirit that also appealed to Johannes. The annual meetings were held and consisted of the players themselves and thus the direction was set together for both the women’s and men’s teams. Ekeby became Uppsala City IBK and at the same time the team entered Fyrishov.
– It went quickly for us and it went quickly for the sport as well. There was a lot in the energy that was among us in floorball. We fought against other sports but also against each other. They wanted to grow and develop.
A professional life in Switzerland
He would never say that Johannes was one of the best in the team, but when he was asked before the 1996/97 season, he went to Switzerland as a professional and something of a superstar. At least for the teammates in the Alligator Malans, right?
– I have never been a star, I have never had that natural star shine. I have sort of wrestled with my splendid and kind identity that I had. It is important to me to be a kind person. but the big stars as I see it have had a different kind of aura than me.
– I went down to Switzerland and nobody knew who I was or what I could do. I was lucky because my coach in Ekeby had spoken well of me and then I got the chance, so I took it and I was the only Swede in the team.
However, the Swiss adventure was successful. Alligator Malans had not been a team with success, but with, among other things, Johannes Gustafsson’s great play in the first five, the team made it all the way to the final.
– In the final we met Chur and I will never forget that. They had those WC 94 jerseys solid white and red. Everyone had Adidas and it felt like we were facing the entire Swiss national team. We won the championship and we were wildly praised. It really was that big. I think I won the points league and everything was just such a fantastic year, says Johannes about the season that just became just one season:
– I probably would have stayed if I wasn’t ambitious. It has to do with the fact that I wanted to join the national team and measure myself against the best in the world, and they were in Sweden. It’s probably a bit of fear that expressed itself there, but then there was no internet either. There was no way to get the eyes down there then I thought.
Alptoppen’s choice ended up on Haninge
However, the decision in which club Johannes would join was not entirely easy. At the top of an alpine peak, the choice was made after considerable deliberation. Despite tenders from Karlstad, Sundsvall and Balrog, the choice fell on Haninge.
– I went home in May and Haninge was what felt right. It was a team that was underdogs and that triggered me. Jonathan Kronstrand was there and both he and the team had a style and demeanor that I liked, it was attractive. The fact that Janne Mattsson was a coach in the team also contributed a lot.
No one claimed that Haninge was the best team at the time, but there was a culture that would make them the best. The hierarchy in the team increased depending on how helpful or important you as an individual made yourself to the team, remembers Johannes.
– It was important to help others in order to be someone who became a role model. It is difficult to put into words a power structure that exists in teams, but I saw that I had to play box play from the start, for example, and I think it was due to what I did already on the track and in the gym in the pre-season, says Johannes and elaborates:
– I tried to solve things and contribute, regardless of whether it was the pre-season in the mountains or in box play. It was clear to see that connection for me.
The competition in the Stockholm area was incredibly great during these years before the turn of the millennium. Big teams like Balrog, Fornudden and Kista were three other top teams and it would take a strong first line to break through.
Center life and the GÖK chain
Haninge’s first chain was exactly the wall break that would become a feared one. The trio with Jonathan Kronstrand, Micael Östlund and Johannes Gustafsson in the middle was a success.
– Janne Mattsson, sporting director Kenta Sjögren and the gang wanted to build around us and I was a good fit to build around in the middle there, so I became a center instead of a forward. I had to learn the defensive game which was an art and learned to control the tempo in matches. When should we move forward and when should we calm down.
Johannes Gustafsson’s influence in the middle showed itself immediately. He was also the Center of the Year two seasons in a row and in the 1998/99 season Haninge also won his first SM gold. A SM gold that would be the start of three in a row.
– When we win the SM gold in 99, we are in the top five a pure mower. We more or less carry the whole team. It was Robert Lindér and Daniel Norstedt who back with me in the middle and Jonathan Kronstrand and Micael Östlund, says Johannes and then pays tribute to the opportunity that the first chain got.
– My contribution was to make others feel safer in the whole group. It wasn’t me who was the star, but it became important for me to highlight who actually gave us the opportunity to do it. We had national team goalkeepers and others around who did great things. Second fifth, third fifth, leader and materialist. There were clear roles. But to me they were all equally important.
What made it exactly three straight SM golds, a feat they were the second association in history to succeed in, is precisely a reflection of the culture that existed in the team. A mixture of safety and competition.
– Our recipe for success was neither signings nor the association. But it was that we really challenged each other in training. It focused more on the match play in training and at the same time it was so careful in the tactical moments. Everyone wanted to be there and develop, says JG and points out an important part:
– We also had good leadership that created a healthy culture at the same time as there was competition. It was very important that we did it. Retaliations were things we had to take down, mark and remove. It must never become personal and it was a joint effort from all the leaders within the team.
The world’s best center but not in the national team – yet
While there was joy over the first SM gold, there was also disappointment at the Haningecenter. Because despite double awards as Center of the Year there in the late 90s, the national team debut did not happen.
– Yes, it was stupid not to be selected. Micael Fasth was a journalist at the time and asked me what I thought about it. I was of course frustrated but replied that I cannot influence that choice, I can only influence what I do and I did, Johannes says and remembers:
– The frustration was there, as I said, but I took it out in other ways. I watched so many disgusting clips. At the time it was recorded on VHS so I often took it before the coaches got hold of it to scout myself, and my center rivals. That’s where that ambition came in again. How I was actually selected pushed me to develop even more.
During the 1999/00 season, the long-awaited national team debut also came and there would be four WC gold medals in the national team uniform. What sticks out most in JG’s memory is the WC 2002 and the final against Finland, in Finland.
– I was team captain that year, so it was special to begin with. But the tactics that the Finns had then were a level higher than us. They also had a golden generation with Janne Tähkä, Mika Kohonen and that gang, says Johannes and remembers back to the final:
– It was crowded and a crazy match from start to finish. Tähkä pulls in a magical 2-0 goal for Finland which… Yes it’s just so nice but we turn back again and it just gets tougher and tougher out there. I was thrown into the Finnish booth in a position where Mika stands on my stick with my hand underneath and just stands there so I don’t come loose. There were so many little tricks, fights and duels. The fact that we managed to win that gold in the end is incredibly nice.
The national team also made Johannes Gustafsson take further steps in his floorball career. Both as an official leader and playmaker on the pitch.
– Individually, it was advanced training deluxe to go away with the national team and play with the very best four or five passes and matches. This means that you get the chance to develop in a completely different way than what the others are allowed to do at home, says Johannes and talks about his leadership development:
– The fact that we won the WC gold was largely due to team cohesion. Everyone contributed to achieving balance and harmony in the group. Me and Peter Fischerström had an important role in creating community. One such little thing I remember us doing was that we never sat with our club mates at meals. We really built the group through socializing.
Player of the year for Storvreta and the big misconception
At the same time as the World Cup gold rolled on and Johannes Gustafsson was a leading player in blue and yellow, he made an at least notable transfer to Storvreta in 2002/03.
– Yes, it was a big media transition… For me, it was difficult to navigate moving home. I had become Player of the Year in 2002 and I was 27 years old, while many in Haninge’s gang were mostly 32-year-olds. I was in the middle of my career and needed a new goal in my elite sports career at the same time that we lost a little Haninge, says Johannes and continues:
– Storvreta was not what Storvreta is today. Should Johannes go to a bottom team like Storvreta? That’s how the conversation went. At the same time I was considered a superstar and I wasn’t in my head. In my head, I was a game engine that would make others shine more and become superstars. I have not been a star, neither in terms of appearance nor personality. I want to lead players and mean to the team but I don’t want to be the superstar in the way the media wrote it up.
Storvreta’s shirt number 8 and Johannes Gustafsson were put together from 2002 to 2008 when he ended his elite career. A time where Storvreta took great strides and became a final candidate but without managing to win any SM gold. Today, probably the most common almond effect surrounding Johannes Gustafsson’s time at the club is that he won SM gold in the red-clad team.
– It is a big misconception and a sadness for me that I was not involved in winning a SM gold with Storvreta. We were there but we weren’t far enough ahead, says Johannes Gustafsson, who also thinks he gets too much credit for having laid a kind of foundation for the upcoming SM golds in Storvreta.
– When Storvreta found her recipe for victory, it was actually without me. Maybe it’s a piece of the puzzle that I’ve helped put together, but not nearly as much as some people want me to believe. What I brought to Storvreta was maybe that it got a little better reputation because I and a bunch of other stars were there.
The relationship with both floorball and Storvreta is also strong today, albeit a different one than a decade ago.
– The love for Storvreta is great today. The daughter was training yesterday and my son also has floorball as one of his sports. I’ve been trying for a long time to be something other than floorball-JG now but that’s an interesting part. I go to a lot of floorball as a fan today. I am happy when they are good and do good things but angry when they do the opposite.
Tags: Johannes Gustafsson inducted Swedish Floorball Hall Fame
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