My brother died after he took a drugs overdose. I was in a bad way afterwards and my wife told me I had to talk with someone...
What could I have done? I have so many questions
UNTOUCHABLE on the park, apparently impervious to pressure, Henrik Larsson rarely looked anything less than invincible during his glory years in Glasgow.
So the idea that the King of Kings, as Celtic fans dubbed Larsson, might have been struggling with some very real emotional and mental turmoil?
It certainly doesn’t fit with the public image of a steely-eyed destroyer of all opposition.
Yet the Swede has spoken movingly about the anguish endured by his entire family when younger brother Robert, an addict, took a fatal overdose in 2009.
Larsson, who revealed that he’d sought professional help in the aftermath of his sibling’s untimely death, urged anyone suffering with mental health concerns to reach out.
And he admitted that concerns over Robert’s wellbeing had affected him even as he was carving out his place in Celtic history.
Speaking on The Lockdown Tactics podcast hosted by ex-Scotland stars Kris Boyd and Robert Snodgrass, both mental health campaigners in their own right, Larsson revealed: ‘There are things you can’t control.
‘During my time in Scotland, I had a brother who was on drugs. Knowing the things I knew about him and having to go out and perform week in, week out, it wasn’t easy.
‘He took an overdose in the end. I mean, the pressure my parents felt about that, the worrying they had every night. Me as well sometimes, it’s not easy.
‘So it’s important. I talk a lot to my wife about things I wouldn’t want to talk about with other people. It’s important to share how you feel.
‘That can be with a professional, which I did after my brother died. I had a period where I wasn’t feeling very good.
‘I had a lot of questions. And my wife said to me: “You need to go and talk to somebody”.
‘I talked to a professional about the different things and felt so much better after that.
‘It’s important and good that a lot of people talk about mental illness now. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.
‘You can be as strong as you like — but you need to share some things with different people to get an input.
‘If that means you are going to cry, yeah. Crying is not bad. If you cry, afterwards you feel relieved.
‘Even though it’s tough things you’re talking about, it’s important to get it off your chest.
‘You can be as strong as you want but, if you can’t share with people, it’s going to be difficult.
‘Try to open up. Find somebody you can trust with the things you want to talk about.
‘I’d recommend a professional because it helped me a lot after my brother’s death.’
Over a decade on from that tragedy, it’s clear that Larsson remains affected by it. He hopes that, by speaking out, others may be encouraged to seek help.
‘Whenever you’re in a bad way and don’t feel there’s a way out, just talking to somebody can put it in a different light,’ he said.
‘Once you’re down there, you don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel.
‘Open up and say something. Otherwise, we don’t have a chance to help you, to rescue you.
‘It’s the only way for us to help because we don’t know. You can look tough on the outside but feel different inside.
‘You have to talk to somebody in order to be rescued. Otherwise, the ones left behind feel guilty.
‘What could I have done? Could I have been a better listener? So many questions.’
In an engaging conversation that covered everything from boyhood idol Pele to playing alongside Ronaldinho and competing against a young Lionel Messi for a place in the Barcelona team, Larsson shared plenty of happy memories from his time in Scottish football. Among the best, he insists, was being part of the Wim Jansen team which stopped Rangers from winning a tenth consecutive title — even though it took him a while to understand what all the fuss was about. Larsson, signed by Jansen in 1997, recalled how it took a tear-stained encounter with a fan to hammer home the importance of stopping ten in a row. ‘Part of the reason we succeeded was we had seven or eight new players,’ he explained. ‘We didn’t really understand what we went into. Because stopping them from winning ten was so important. ‘For me, it sunk home in the second last game of the season, when we came back to Parkhead after the game against Dunfermline.
‘A grown man comes up to me crying and says: “You have to stop them from winning ten in a row”. That hit home to me what it meant to the people.
‘To stop them winning ten was a must — but we didn’t realise the kind of pressure we were under.’
Larsson believes former team-mate Neil Lennon has a great chance of succeeding where Rangers failed in hitting double digits, although he admitted: ‘I think it’s going to be tough because Rangers will do everything in their power to stop them.
‘But I think the quality of players at Celtic is a little bit better than at Rangers. When we came to Scotland in ’97, the Rangers team was a little bit older than the Celtic team is at present, as well. I think
that helped us a little bit, a lot of them having been there for many years, being used to winning stuff.
‘If you get complacent, the hungrier one is always going to win. So I hope that we get ten in a row, a great party.’
Talks about Larsson returning as Celtic boss in 2015 broke down, the Hoops legend revisiting the discussions briefly as he said: ‘Let’s just say my ambitions and the club’s ambitions weren’t really the same at that time.’
As for whether he might be tempted back at some point in the future, he declared: ‘If they want me, they have to come and ask me, simple as that.
‘But I think Neil is doing a great job there. And the previous manager was doing a great job.
‘I don’t know if I will ever come back to Celtic in a managerial way or coaching. I don’t know.
‘It’s the club who have to ask me if they feel I’m good enough to be there. Time will tell.’
There’s an argument to be made that, with a bit of luck, the £700,000 signing from Feyenoord might have left Scotland with even more than eight major honours to his name.
If ever there was a player who didn’t deserve to be on the losing side, for instance, it was Larsson in the 2003 UEFA Cup final against Porto.
Larsson admitted that winning the Champions League with Barcelona, having pipped a young Messi to a place on the bench for the final against Arsenal in Paris, just about made up for that.
‘Being in one big final in Seville with Celtic, losing there, that wasn’t a nice experience — I still don’t really enjoy talking about that,’ he revealed.
‘But being able to win the final in Paris was great because it’s the biggest club competition you can win.’
I still don’t really enjoy talking about that final in Seville