Premier League football is a global game and that is showcased perfectly by those who make their way to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to watch Ange Postecoglou’s side.
The Australian helms a team that is captained by a South Korean, backed up by Argentinean and English vice-captains, with a couple of Italians in the backline alongside a Dutchman and a Spaniard. In the midfield you’ll find players who represent Uruguay, Senegal, Mali and Sweden while the attack is led by an Englishman. That’s not to mention the Wales internationals, a Brazilian, Romanian, German and a young Frenchman, along with a number of young English talents.
Spurs is a multicultural club and that’s reflected in the ever-expanding 50million-strong fanbase which follows them from around the world, whether sat glued to their televisions, laptops, tablets or phones at ungodly hours to watch them from the other side of the globe or those who manage to get to these shores to take their place regularly in N17 among the locals to watch their team.
One of those constant Tottenham travellers is Sverker Otterström. The 53-year-old from Sweden has had a season ticket in that big south stand since the new stadium opened, having been able to get one when the club increased its numbers in making the move to Wembley in 2017. His regular pilgrimage from Stockholm throughout the season is when he’s at his most happy, regardless of whether Spurs do their utmost to spoil that mood.
So how does a youngster from the Swedish capital all the way back in 1981 end up falling in love with a team from north London? Well you can thank the hand of Ghod for that.
“Back then there was no Swedish football on TV so the only matches you could see were from England,” Sverker told football.london. “It just so happened that the guy running this football show on Saturdays supported Tottenham, so maybe there were more games involving Spurs than other teams, and my eye caught one player that stood out and that was Glenn Hoddle!
“I guess them winning the FA Cup in 1981 helped me in my choice of a favourite team and when my friend’s dad came back from London with the gold kit from the 1982 FA Cup final I was hooked.”
Tottenham fans will always remember what it felt like the first time they stepped out of the dark concourses and reached the top of the steps inside White Hart Lane and saw that lush, green grass bathed in light before them. It felt like home, and for Sverker it was the culmination of years of anticipation.
“The first time was incredible. I had waited all my life to get to Tottenham and White Hart Lane, somewhere that I’d seen on TV so many times,” he said. “Unfortunately it took until 2006 when I went to my first match, when we beat Manchester City 2-1 on a sunny day in April and I knew that I needed to come back to this place!
“There’s a difference now in the stadium of course. Old White Hart Lane had its charm but our new stadium is state-of-the-art. Even though it’s huge outside it feels very compact when you’re in the stand. The best thing is that the new stadium is still in N17 and it’s a great feeling to walk down Tottenham High Road on a match day!”
The Swede travels over to London regularly throughout the season to watch Spurs, sometimes with a group of friends and sometimes on his own because in his words “there’s always someone at the game that you know”. It’s not cheap of course with the flights and accommodation on top of his season ticket, but as he says: “You need to prioritise!”
Tottenham have brought as much pain to their fans – perhaps more so – than they have joy over the years. It’s bad enough for those supporters who have a half hour trip to the stadium to be put through the emotional torture and those who follow the team away up and down the country. So what keeps you going when you’re someone regularly travelling 2,300 miles to N17 throughout a season?
“Well, what can I say? Experience over the years has taught me that there are always tough times when you support Spurs, but my feelings for this club are so much deeper than winning trophies,” said Sverker. “Don’t get me wrong, of course I want Tottenham to win a title or a cup but it doesn’t define my support or love for the club!”
On social media you will find some local football fans turning their nose up at the thought of foreign supporters, referring to them as tourists and day-trippers. In reality many of those abroad have often been passionate fans for far longer than those who are fortunate enough to live so close to the club they love.
For Sverker, a business operations manager in Stockholm, the experience in coming to north London has always been a positive one among his fellow Tottenham fans and he was quick to point out that those UK fans do a lot of travelling themselves to follow the Lilywhites.
“Everyone I meet is always supportive of me and other traveling fans. I’ve never heard a bad word. I know that there are a lot of fans in England that travel long distances and crazy hours for every home and away game so it’s not just us from abroad that travel a lot,” he said.
“I try to meet up with all the local supporters that I’ve got to know over the years when I’m over and when I’m not there we stay in touch on social media.”
Sverker also spreads the word of Spurs throughout his homeland. He is a former chairman of the official supporters’ club Sweden Spurs, which has been running for 20 years now and has thousands of members.
“I had worked many years in Sweden Spurs, handling ticketing, as I still do, and arranging our members’ trips before I was asked to join the board and then take over as chairman,” he explained.
“In a supporters’ club with 2,000 members there’s a lot of work, and a lot of time you spend on it during the year, not only during the football season. I had this honourable position for two years and now Sweden Spurs is chaired by Gunnar Peterson.”
One perk of Sverker’s hard work was the chance to hand Spurs’ South Korean star Son Heung-min an award on the pitch at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and he couldn’t resist the opportunity to have a quick word in the skipper’s ear.
“It was an absolute honour to be given the opportunity to hand over the prize for best goal of the 2022/23 season to Sonny,” he said. “I told him that everyone loves him and want him to stay forever!”
Sverker has been around the world with Spurs, not only travelling to N17 but going to European matches and when you ask him what his favourite games have been, he takes a moment to think.
“I hold the first game against City high but then the most important games are of course the North London Derbies. They are frustrating as they can be heaven or absolute hell depending on the result. Fortunately I have seen more wins than losses!” said the Swede. “My favourite European match must be against AC Milan at San Siro when we won 1-0.”
There’s a Swedish feel to Tottenham right now, with Dejan Kulusevski and Lucas Bergvall in the men’s team and Robert Vilahamn in charge of a women’s side that contains both Amanda Nilden and Matilda Vinberg.
“I’ve got high hopes for all our Swedes at the club,” said Sverker. “It was a long time ago that Erik Edman played for Spurs so it’s really good to now have four Swedish players in the club.
“I can admit that I’d not watched any of them much before they joined Tottenham but Deki has showed that he’s one of the top players in the league and I hope that Lucas will keep developing and get time to play more later on. Amanda has settled as a regular in the women’s first team and I hope that Matilda will do so in the future.
“It’s also great that we have Robert Vilahamn as a coach for the ladies and it’s really great to have followed the women’s team becoming a stable side in the Women’s Premier League.”
What of the manager in the dugout for the men’s side? With Ange Postecoglou undertaking a major rebuild of Spurs and the way they play and think on and off the pitch, the Australian’s era so far has brought positives but also inconsistency in the results, particularly away from home.
“I trust Ange! We all know that success doesn’t come direct but takes time to build up to,” said Sverker. “I understand it can be frustrating when the team play like gods one week and then the next week it’s like they don’t know what to do. I think that the positive performances will take over the longer Ange has the time to set his mark on the team.”
One thing is clear. Regardless of how Tottenham Hotspur are doing and who is playing for them or managing them, you’ll find fans like Sverker making the 2,300 mile trip to watch them for distance only makes the heart grow fonder.
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