São Paulo in Sweden for a 700-year 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, the São Paulo board was invited, through ESAB Brasil, from Belo Horizonte (part of the major Swedish conglomerate Elektriska Svetsnings-Aktiebolaget, focused on electrical, welding, and cutting equipment), to take part in the festivities celebrating Stora Kopparbergs’ 700th anniversary.

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 considered the oldest active limited company in the world.

For such an important celebration, in addition to São Paulo, American actress and singer Barbra Streisand was also invited to the ceremony. In the end, the pop star did not show up, and her absence became a local legend and anecdote for years, but Tricolor did go — after all, they had been promised 40 thousand dollars for the appearance.

The one who bailed, like Barbra, was coach Cilinho. He claimed he had 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 the São Paulo boss had was fear of flying…

Domnarvsvallen, the stadium where Tricolor faced IK Brage

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

However, so as not to fall short on such an important date, the local club was strengthened 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 Selection or Combined XI, Borlänge being the city that hosted the match, or even against the nonexistent Storan or Stora.

As for the match itself, few details are known. It is known that the team took the field wearing a kit sponsored by ESAB (which made that set quite a rare item for collectors, given that it was used only that one time).

Pupo Gimenez, the assistant and reserve-team coach promoted for the occasion because of the starter’s “flu,” did not have Silas, who was in the process of moving to Europe, and almost did not have Müller among those lined up either, as he was in talks with Torino.

In any case, the temporary reinforcements and São Paulo’s absences balanced the contest, which ended 2-2, after Tricolor took the lead with Lê in the 21st minute of the first half and found the 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 champions 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.