São Paulo in Sweden for a 700th anniversary celebration | OneFootball

On the day of Japan vs. Sweden at the 2026 World Cup, São Paulo’s Historical Archive revisits the story of Tricolor’s last match in Scandinavia, played in mid-1988.

In June of that year, São Paulo’s board was invited, through the ESAB Brasil group from Belo Horizonte (part of the major Swedish conglomerate Elektriska Svetsnings-Aktiebolaget, which made electrical, welding, and cutting equipment), to take part in the festivities celebrating 700 years of Stora Kopparbergs.

Stora was a traditional Swedish company. In 1988, it was in the pulp production and paper manufacturing business, but in 1288, when it was founded, it operated in copper mining at the Falu Grava mine, in the Falun region. Until the company was sold to Enso in 1998, it was regarded as the oldest active limited company in the world.

For such an important celebration, besides São Paulo, American actress and singer Barbra Streisand was also invited to the ceremony. In the end, the pop star did not attend, and her no-show became a local legend and anecdote for years, but Tricolor did go — after all, it had been promised 40 thousand dollars for the appearance.

The one who bailed, like Barbra, was coach Cilinho. He claimed to have the flu and, as his teammates joked, it was a more worrying strain, the “Flu 737” variant, a clear reference to Boeing aircraft models. In other words, what São Paulo’s commander had was a fear of flying…

Domnarvsvallen, the stadium for Tricolor’s match against IK Brage

The commemorative match would be against Idrottsklubben Brage, better known as IK Brage, a club from the region that was living through the peak of its own history (in October, it would even host Internazionale of Milan in the UEFA Cup at the same Domnarsvallen where Tricolor would play during Stora’s festivities).

However, so as not to embarrass themselves on such an important date, the local club was reinforced with players from other teams, specially loaned for the occasion (Glenn Hysén from Fiorentina; Robert Prytz from Bayer Leverkusen; and Mats Gren from Grasshopper, of Switzerland). This led many journalists covering the event to report the match as being against a Borlänge Select XI or Combined XI, the city that hosted the clash, or even against the nonexistent Storan or Stora.

Few details are known about the match itself. It is known that the team took the field in a kit sponsored by ESAB (which made that set a very rare item for collectors, considering it was used only that one time).

Pupo Gimenez, the assistant and youth-team coach promoted for the occasion because of the head coach’s “flu,” did not have Silas, who was in the process of transferring to Europe, and almost did not have Müller among the lineup either, as he was in talks with Torino.

In any case, the temporary reinforcements and São Paulo’s absences balanced the contest, which ended in a 2-2 draw, after Tricolor took the lead through Lê in the 21st minute of the first half and grabbed the final equalizer through Edivaldo in the 9th minute of the second half. The result was enough for São Paulo to win the Orrefors Sweden trophy, as champion of the Stora 700 Years tournament.

IDROTTSKLUBBEN BRAGE 2 x 2 SÃO PAULO06/19/1988. Stora 700 Years Trophy: Final (Only Match).Borlänge (Sweden), Domnarsvallen Stadium

SPFC: Roberto Rojas (Gilmar); Zé Teodoro, Adílson, Ivan and Nelsinho; Bernardo (Zé Carlinhos), Raí and Renatinho (Paulo Martins); Müller (Marcelo), Lê (Aritana) and Edivaldo. COACH: Pupo Gimenez. GOALS: Lê, 21/1; Edivaldo, 9/2

OPPONENT: Bengt Nilsson; Plamen Nikolov, Göran Arnberg, Patrick Englund and Olle Pärätalo; Glenn Hysén, Robert Prytz (Mats Gren) and Jonas Källström; Hans Holmqvist, Simon Hunt and Anders Erlandsson. COACH: Jan Lindstedt. GOALS: Glen Hysen, 40/1; Mats Gren, 6/2.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.