Jesper KarlstromSwedish midfielder of theUdinesespoke to Sky of the start of the season for the Friulians, of his arrival in black and white and also of a decidedly more delicate topic. The 1995-born player is in fact diabetic, a disease discovered in his youth years. We start, in fact, from his impact with Udinese: “Only good first impressions, it’s a beautiful, small but welcoming city. There are many nice people and the sensations at a football level are good, we started well: we couldn’t have started better”.
In Italy you can challenge Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
“I actually played with Ibra in the national team, twice. Obviously he is my idol and one of the greatest players in the history of Sweden, it was great to be able to play with him.”
What does having diabetes mean for a professional soccer player?
“It’s a chronic disease, diagnosed when I was 16: I’m used to it now, but it’s something you have to think about at any time of the day. I take injections before eating, I have to think about many things: what I eat, what type of training to do. I think about it all the time, but I’m used to it now and I don’t remember what it was like before. I just have to try to do my best, maybe I can also be a role model for many children with diabetes: I’ve talked about this a lot, since I found out it’s a topic I’ve addressed several times. I want to show, especially to children who think it could stop them from doing something, that I’m in Serie A: it was my dream and it’s nice to be able to show something like that to children, whether they like football or any other sport”.
Do you have a blood glucose monitoring sensor?“Yes, I have a sensor on my arm to see the blood flow. I also have to thank Udinese, it would have been easy to say no because I had a problem. It’s nice that they showed confidence in me.”
Is it something that made you sad?“There have been moments of sadness, of course, but mostly I would say of anger. I do my best, but sometimes my blood sugar is still not good and I have to wake up in the night, drink or eat something to put things right. In the last two or three years I have tried to see things in a better way: sometimes I still get angry because people only see that I do the injections and think that’s all it is. But there is much more, it’s the simplest part: ten seconds and that’s it, there are so many other things I have to think about every day. It’s something to take seriously and to be very careful about, but my message is that I live life like everyone else. In football you have to take things seriously, work hard: sport helps with that.”