An Arsenal legend was once victim of the “best prank ever”.
Anders Limpar, who made nearly 100 appearances in midfield for the Gunners, winning the old First Division and starring in the Premier League, was fooled into believing he’d time travelled two years into the future.
After boarding what seemed to be a run-of-the-mill flight in 1997, the Swede – who won the FA Cup with Everton – was the butt of a two-day long joke in his home country on TV show Blåsningen, who got him hook, line and sinker.
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Not only did they hire out a whole airport, but they also employed qualified fighter jet pilots and professional actors pretending to be scientists. The supposed scientists told Limpar they’d achieved what no one had ever done before as they happened to be on the same flight as him to Stockholm.
Picking up the story, Limpar – who turned 59 today (September 24) – told Ladbrokes Fanzone: “There were something like 20 guys involved, all to fool me, and I just bit. I was perfect for them, I suppose, maybe because they thought I’d believe anything.
(Image: Offside via Getty Images)
“So, yeah, I believed I was flying in some sort of time machine, because we were already in an actual plane from Gothenburg. I had a bar at the time, The Limp Bar, in Stockholm, and we were going down to Gothenburg to launch our new beer.”
Limpar added that two scientists were also on the flight talking about time travel as the plane was “diving up and down and all over the place. I can laugh at it all now, but at the time, my God, it was scary; it was really, really scary. They actually involved these jet fighters to guide us into Stockholm!
The passengers could hear everything over the radio, with air-traffic control insisting they’d just popped up on the radar. “I’m just thinking ‘what the f*** is going on?!’ This science guy just goes: ‘I’ve done it.’
(Image: Blåsningen)
“‘Done what? What the f*** have you done?!’ ‘I’ve flown two years in time.’
“Everyone was so professional, it was incredibly realistic. Apparently they’d done something similar with a Canadian guy two years before me, and he actually had to have psychological help afterwards because he was in such a bad state.
“It was such a horrible feeling. We thought we were dead. When we landed, we were told they’d had funerals for us and everything, because apparently the assumption was that we’d died.
“This prank went on for two days, by the way. It wasn’t just a quick joke. We landed the plane, and they took us straight into a hanger, where there were science guys asking all of us questions.
“They showed us newspapers – which obviously weren’t real – where crazy things had apparently happened. They told us Norway had won the World Cup in 1998… ‘what the f*** is going on here!’ I saw that headline and told my friend: “Look, look! Norway won the World Cup while we were away!”
“From the two days we spent in this prank, they cut the whole thing down to just one hour for TV. There was so much more to the whole story. Of course I was so glad when the guy, Lennart Swahn, finally showed up to tell us it was all a prank.
“I felt like I’d had a rucksack full of stones just fall off my back, I was so relieved. He suddenly popped up from behind a load of smoke by the door. He just shouts: “Anders! I’ve been back to medieval times!”
“Again, I’m just like ‘what the f*** is going on!?’ ‘Anders, it’s a prank!’ No, come on…I couldn’t believe it. I was happy, of course, but I just felt ridiculous for something like half an hour afterwards, to even think that I was flying two years into the future.
“But, for years afterwards, I was angry with it all, because it made me a laughing stock in Sweden. I wasn’t happy with that at all. That’s why, when they asked me if they could sell the whole thing as a DVD, I said no.
(Image: Allsport)
“Look, it was an incredible prank, so funny when I look back now, and I felt so many emotions at the time. I was happy when it all ended, but when everyone in the country laughed at me for years afterwards… that was hard to deal with.
“It affected my personality, my profile, whatever you want to call it, because I was just seen as this laughing stock.”