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In December 2002, Alf Westerberg took in a skinny teenager from Lund in his small office in the catacombs of the Malmö stadium.
Almost exactly 18 years later, a few days before Christmas 2020, Behrang Safari is back out through the gates of Malmö FF.
For the last time as a MFF player.
– It was a hard and sick decision. I think of how great I have been, says Behrang Safari.
It is not possible to shorten the history of Safari and Malmö FF. So we take the longer version.
The one that makes us sit here at St Jakobs Stenungsbageri and watch Fall 2020 come through the windows.
The one that started in Alf Westerberg’s office and is now coming to an end.
Because it goes fast in football.
Under Uwe Rösler, Safari was the key player who would be on the field at all costs. It was a very painful foot game when MFF defeated FC Midtjylland away and went to the Europa League, it was a flight to Istanbul on match day and straight to the starting eleven after three days of vomiting at the source when Besiktas was defeated and Malmö went from a European group game for the first time.
There were matches in every Europa League game last year and when Jon Dahl Tomasson took over, Behrang Safari wore the captain’s armband in the two round of 16 matches against Wolfsburg in February this year. A captaincy that continued during the group stage match of the Swedish Cup.
– I came into this season with a lot of power and energy and I felt like I wanted to play this year and one more. I felt and noticed that I stayed with the required class, says Behrang Safari who raised the idea of extending the contract that expires this year with the club.
– But at some point along the way, I felt that I did not receive the correct signals from the club and my coach. First of all, you will be disappointed. You still think that the level is there, that I have the experience, that you mean something to the club and have a certain value. At the same time, this is the case in the football industry. I have seen it before.
Behrang Safari continues:
– I don’t know what the club’s plans are. Should the squad rejuvenate? I’m the oldest, then my head smokes first. Having a coach who doesn’t believe much in me is also part of the sport. I have really tried to drive and be as professional as possible to help the team achieve a totally Swedish gold. Then it’s time to thank me.
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Largest MFF memory is from 2002
When Behrang Safari now thinks about his career, he doesn’t hesitate for a second when asked what his most important moment is in Malmö FF.
– That’s when I sit inside Alf Westerberg’s office. I just finished two weeks of test play with team U in December, on the gravel field that is where the stadium is now. I remember the bus trips through the dark from Lund, how I ran from Södervärn to the stadium to catch up and always had a hard time timing. How I came from abroad and didn’t know anyone. Affe asked, “How is your right foot?” “It’s not great, but it can be trained,” I replied to show that I was willing to train. Then he asked me how I thought it had gone and I said fine. He accepted. “Welcome back in January,” he said.
Behrang Safari landed a one-year contract with the Malmö FF team, but did not tell his parents directly.
Instead, he wrote a letter and placed it as a Christmas present under the Christmas tree at his home in Lund.
– Everyone was as happy as I was.
During the second year of Behrang Safari in Malmö FF – 2004 – the club won its first gold in 16 years.
In the shadows, Safari became, year after year, one of the stars of the club and was sold in the summer of 2008 to Basel.
A moment that has become very important for the Malmö FF that we see today.
– My first year in Switzerland went well for me, but we didn’t win the league. We arrived third. I saw the anger and understood the anger and how unacceptable it was. Before that they had finished fifth, seventh and ninth in the Allsvenskan, Malmö was not a winning club then. The pressure to win and the winning culture were in the club, but not so much in the field. What I learned in Basel was what it means to be a winner. What does it take to win.
After that first non-title year, Behrang Safari won eight league titles in a row – in Switzerland, Belgium and then in 2016 and 2017 in Sweden after returning to Malmö.
Safari: a unique MFF player
Together with players like Markus Rosenberg and Rasmus Bengtsson, Safari represented the unique combination of Malmö FF’s total legacy and the winning mentality that the club lost after 1989 and only during the second half of the 2010s did it find its way back.
– You can say you were born a winner. But if you haven’t won, you don’t know what winning means either. You should not lose it in a team or in a club. You need people who know what it is to win.
The desire to give everything to win has always created a special bond between Behrang Safari and Malmö FF fans. A band that goes at least as much from the field to the stands as the other way around.
– I have probably always felt that I am not something strange in the field. I’m there, I play every game, I make an effort. But I didn’t score goals or 190 assists. Therefore, I did not think that the Malmö fans would see me that way. But then I gradually noticed that there is such a sick and pleasant love. They understand me, I understand them. I understand that I meant something to them as they meant so much to me. They have seen a side of me that is more than what you see in a game, says Behrang Safari and continues.
– Since then they took my back when it comes to my family … It has been completely magical. It is a love for which I am very grateful.
Praised for outspokenness about children’s autism
In a 2017 high-profile interview, Behrang Safari told about his family life with his wife Ivana and their two children Emiliano and Leon, who were diagnosed with autism.
Safari’s outspokenness about the diagnosis and what life with it looks like received a great response from Malmö FF supporters, who, among other things, repeatedly raised money for autism research.
– I’m very happy that everyone wanted to get involved in this. My boys became almost like rock stars. People recognized them at matches, etc.
– Boys have been challenged in their own way. This to move in environments they are not used to. I never thought they could run inside the stadium and shoot goals and wave to the fans. The love as a parent, seeing them there in front of the fans, has moved me a lot, says Behrang Safari, who in 2020 gained an even greater understanding of the importance of followers.
– Fans are at least 50 percent of the sport. And when you, like me, have reached this stage in your career and are at 100 percent, you should have the fans there who wake up week after week. Now it’s been like training games all the time. Playing without an audience affects you in many ways.
When you remember everything you have done in football, what made you succeed?
– The speed, the head and the passion for football. But I never thought it could take me where it did. Now that I remember, I just think, “Shit.” I am so damn happy. Happy for all that I have lived.
The most common assessment from Malmö FF Safari teammates since returning home in 2016 has been that the hill is an inexhaustible source of joy.
Markus Rosenberg consistently and consistently stressed the importance of Safari to the group and to successes in the field.
Now that Rosenberg has stopped, Behrang Safari will stop. Other cultural carriers have also left in one way or another. Guillermo Molins broke his contract, Johan Dahlin is injured for a long time and Rasmus Bengtsson stuck in Jon Dahl Tomasson’s freezer.
– In a soccer club, most players and coaches come and go. To maintain the club culture and keep the winning mentality alive, you should always be very careful around people who have the club experience.
– Only those who can maintain it and help others who come from below to assume that role in the future. It is a great challenge in which you must not fail. On Malmö FF’s part, it’s about never forgetting what Malmö FF is and represents, says Safari.
Starting to work for Markus Rosenberg?
Now he waits another three months as an active elite footballer.
The question is what happens next.
– It will be a change. I have daily contact with Mackan (Markus Rosenberg). During the years that we lived together all the time in hotels, we often discussed future plans. “We talked about the way of working with which he has now started,” says Safari and smiles.
– I hope Mackan welcomes me with open arms when it’s my turn. It will be OK. But the lack of football, there is nothing that can fill that void.
Before that day arrives, Behrang Safari can catch up with another group game in Europe and a fourth Swedish Championship gold.
– I reach the last to continue thinking and believe that I am number 1 in my position. And when I’m not playing, I push all I can to win this Swedish Championship gold.
Behrang Safari will finally be out a few days before Christmas. He can do it with great pride for what he has achieved on the football field and for Malmö FF.
Behrang Safari himself returns to the gratitude he feels.
– I really enjoyed every day. And I tried to show it to everyone who cares. I can’t say enough how incredibly lucky I feel for everything I’ve experienced and everyone I’ve had on my side.
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