An Interview with Pontus K?mark; Exclusively in English for TalkingBalls

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SwedeFox

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Hello everyone,

Today I did an interview with Pontus Kåmark, the former Leicester player if anyone remembers him. The interview is published on our Swedish site but I have made a translation for my dear TalkingBallers.
All of the grammar and spelling mistakes are the work of my own and should not be credited Pontus. :icon_wink

Link to the article in Swedish here.

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How are you doing, Pontus Kåmark?

It's okay, I've done some exercising and I'll do another training session in the gym later.

Can you shortly tell us what you have been up to since you left Leicester?

I signed for AIK 1999. I was really enjoying life in England and I got a contract offer from Leicester, but it was too much travelling to my daughter in Sweden and I had promised my family to come home so I moved to Stockholm. I was injured quite a bit there so it was up and down. I started to work as a TV expert and I've continued doing that. I am also working for Expekt (betting) and I have a betting blog.

How did you land up in Leicester?

It was a bit fun, there was a guy named Ronny ”Geson” Gunnarsson who came up to me at ICA (Swedish Tesco) where I was working and said that an English club, Leicester, were interested and wanted to discuss a contract. ”Leicester”, I thought, it wasn't the best I could imagine, I was kind of hoping for a bigger club. After the World Cup a lot of clubs were chasing me so I told them I wanted a pretty good salary, more than the others were offering me, and I thought that it might go quiet for a while. One week later ”Geson” came up again and said everything was set so then I just had to get my stuff and move to Leicester.

What was your first impression of the club?

An incredibly charming and familiar club. It's not a huge club but a hundred times bigger than the biggest Swedish club. The fans are great as well, positive and keep pushing the team. It feels genuine. As a World Cup player I suppose I was a pretty big signing and I was taken care of in a very good way when I arrived. It was Mark McGhee who signed me after seeing me in a match with the national team against Scotland when I had a good game, but then he moved and was replaced by Martin O'Neill.

And how was Martin O'Neill as a manager?

He wasn't really that popular as he demanded so much from the players. He had this punishement-reward way of thinking. It was great when we won, but when we were bad we had to run och hardly see the ball at the trainings. It is an enormous difference compared to Sweden. Swedish football is like Friskis och Svettis in comparison.

What was the most memorable moment during your time in Leicester?

The League cup win 1997. We drew in the first game so there was a replay and that was a really big breakthrough for me. Middlesbroughs biggest star was Juninho and I got a lot of credit in the papers and so for my man-man marking in the final. We know each others really well in the cup winning team.

Who were your best friends in the team?

My roommate Emile Heskey was an academy player by then and I sort of took care of him. We spent some time together outside the football so I am still in touch with him and I know his family well. I, a Swedish friend of mine, Heskey and the back up keeper Peggy Arphexad were hanging out together a lot.

How do you follow Leicester now and how do you think we will do this season?

I check the results and look in the table how we're doing although you have to scroll down a bit through the leagues to find us now, we're hardly featuring in the papers anymore.
I think we will get promotion this season and get right back. Forest have done the same thing although it took them some time to get back. And then we'll see how Derby will get on. Robbie Savage was my neighbour in Glenfield, I can tell you he won't get a Nobel prize...

Oh really...?

He was a stupid blonde, people were teasing him in the team because he was so thick.
He's had some incredible luck to get to this level and played for such a long time, he really is a ”lucky star”. No technical skill, but he runs and does his job and I have nothing bad to say about him in that way.

Thank you, Pontus Kåmark, for taking time and good luck with your projects.
 
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Fantastic, thanks for that
 
Thank you for brightening my day with a pontus story :)

yum yum...
 
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good little interview. Sav being thick and MON being a nasty pasty were good ingredients for success back then
 
I remember Pontus used to run round the local park when he was regaining his fitness and he always seemed like a nice bloke

and savage used to live at the top of my road!
 
Interesting little piece SF, I enjoyed reading it.
 
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Great work SF - interesting read. Some goals I'll never forget and Claridge at Hillsborough is definitely one of them. Pontus was magnificent that night.
 
I remember Pontus used to run round the local park when he was regaining his fitness and he always seemed like a nice bloke

and savage used to live at the top of my road!

Another Glenfield loon then! I was brought up there (probably a long time before you), but had moved to LFE by then and Neil Lennon was the nearest City player to me at the time.
 
Did Kamark ever score for City?

Did he not hit the post in his first start (or one of the early ones anyway) away at WBA when we nearly threw away a 3 goal lead thanks to Spiders goalkeeping? That was about as close as I remember him getting to scoring.
 
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