It’s 2-0 to home side Aris Limassol in the Cypriot top flight against Omonia Nicosia when Franz Brorsson pounces in the 69th minute to try and seal the match and contribute to three vital points.
For the home fans, it is quite an unusual sight to see the Swedish centre-back start on the bench considering that during his two years at the club he has been a given starting player.
But it works. The reigning champions from Limassol win 2-0 and move up to third place in the table.
After the match, Fotbollskanalen meets Brorsson.
– We have rotated a bit. There have been a lot of games and I only have five or six months left on the contract. We’ll see what happens after that, he says.
How have your two years in Cyprus been?
– Fantastically good. When I went here I hoped the club would go to play in Europe, but it’s always difficult to do that. Last year I played almost all the games and helped take the team to the Europa League group stage. It was beyond expectation. And then to score some points there. So two good years, but it feels like it’s time for new challenges now.
We come back to the centre-back’s thoughts on new challenges. First, we want to know what it was like to be part of and win the club’s first league title, if there was any difference to winning the Allsvenskan, which he did four times with Malmö FF?
– It was a different kind of feeling to win here compared to in Malmö. In Malmö it was more of a pressure and then a relief. Here it was more that no one had expected anything. So the fans were lyrical. You thought we might finish top four, then we went 17 straight games unbeaten in the playoffs when everyone meets everyone, and then we took a hell of a lot of points. Since then I have been given a big role here with a lot of responsibility and a leadership role, a little more than in Malmö where there were many other profiles, he says.
Aris Limassol failed to qualify for the Champions League. There was a loss against Polish Rakow in the third qualifying round.
Then they made it to the Europa League group stage, where they came last after Rangers, Sparta Prague and Betis.
– They were extremely tough matches. Good resistance. If we had won the last game here at home by two balls, we would have progressed to the Conference League, so there are small margins. But it’s matches like this that you want to play and are passionate about, it gives an extra kick and I like matches like this when there’s extra pressure and a lot of people. I would like to play in more European finals in the future, says Brorsson.
Back to thinking about new challenges. Franz Brorsson’s contract expires this summer and he doesn’t seem to be keen on extending it.
– I enjoy the heat so it would have been nice to be able to stay somewhere nearby. After all, if you’ve been here in Cyprus and won the league and played in the playoffs in Europe, I might feel ready here. I hope it will be something close down here, but then you never know where you will end up. But I feel it may be time for new challenges, he says.
What does the interest look like, are you talking to any other clubs?
– There is always interest. There has been some against the Aten side. Greece. Then there is some other stuff. Greece would have been a fun challenge. A bigger league, more supporters, slightly bigger cities.
Is there interest from there?
– Yes, there is. Then you don’t know with concrete bids. Now I have five months left, so if it happens this winter, my club here will accept it, so this summer it will be easier, then you are free. So there is perhaps a greater chance that something will happen this summer.
In the 2-0 victory against Omonia Nicosia, Alexander Kokorin was one of the scorers. A couple of years ago, the former Russian national team striker was in a bad mood when he and Pavel Mamajev attacked two well-known political bureaucrats who were injured to the point that they had to be taken to hospital. In 2019, Kokorin was sentenced to 1.5 years in prison.
– He’s a lovely guy. He has told some stories about his time in Russia, when he ended up in prison. So it’s an entertaining and down-to-earth guy, even though he’s been in the biggest arenas. So he’s a lovely guy, I have to say that, says Brorsson.
He was convicted and jailed for six months, is that something you guys have talked about?
– Yes, he has been open about it. There was a lot of ping pong in the prison. He’s not proud of the moment but he’s been open about it and shared a little. He has made that mistake and hopefully he has learned something from it.
About a year ago, Franz Brorsson gained attention when he and a friend started a podcast where the first episode was called “50 differences between men and women”. It received strong criticism from Lena Martinsson, professor of gender studies at the University of Gothenburg, among others.
Now Brorsson says that he hoped the podcast would be noticed.
– Attention is always fun. That was probably not the point. I don’t really have anything more to say than that I want to continue as long as I think it’s fun. There could certainly be some controversial guests in the future, he says.
It was a controversial first episode where you differentiated between men and women – how do you see the reactions?
– You can’t say that a man is a man and that a woman is a woman today without there being some writing. I sat quite calmly in the boat and don’t think there are any strange things. But there are no obvious things today, which has become a bit sick. But it will probably turn around soon and in ten years it won’t be a big deal… or even today there aren’t that many people who care, I can imagine.
Do you have any regrets about it?
– Absolutely not.
2024-01-10 09:20:00
#Franz #Brorsson #defends #criticized #podcast #woman #woman #today #Fotbollskanalen
