324: Jesper Blomqvist, Manchester United, Merlin's Premier League 99 Official Sticker Collection

Today Emlyn Jones brings us the fascinating story of a gifted footballer via the classic route of Championship Manager albeit with a significant detour through the food industry. Emlyn and I once considered pitching a food programme based around our own culinary skills interspersed with interviews with a niche collection of guests from the worlds of music and sport. As you will find out in today’s post it’s probably best that this project never made it out of the hungover train journey it took place on. Over to Marcus Wareing Emlyn.

As I'm sure was the case for many, I had a fair amount of free time available in the limbo period between Christmas and New Year. In between Bacchanalian cheese and wine feasts, and chomping residual Quality Street, I downloaded the 1996/97 Italian version of Championship Manager as a sure-fire way of filling a few hours/days.

Utilising the time honoured "close eyes, wiggle mouse, click" method of team selection gave me the very fortunate selection of AC Milan to start my career, though my carefully selected Italian name was foiled by the rigid character limit. The squad held an embarrassment of riches; Maldini, Desailly, Baggio, Davids, Boban, Weah... Captained by veteran Franco Baresi. However, there was one name that I hadn't considered for several years, despite his Champions League medal and having helped Sweden to a third place World Cup finish. Available in a slightly inaccurate central attacking midfield position was Swedish winger, Jesper Blomqvist.

Blomqvist had arrived at Milan that season for £2.7m. Prior to this, he had won a third tier title with Umeå FC before establishing himself with IFK Göteborg in Sweden's top tier. Göteborg won the title in all three seasons he spent at the club, and he also won 1995's Goal of the Season prize. Lacking an agent, he decided to pick one based on whoever could set up a meeting with his dream club Milan, spurning approaches from Newcastle United, Sampdoria, Manchester United and Barcelona.

Unfortunately, Blomqvist's time in Milan was frustrating, starting only thirteen games. He found the net only once, against Bologna, and went on to receive a red card a few minutes later. Oops. Frustrated at being a substitute for the bulk of the season, Blomqvist moved to Parma for a year, becoming a key part of the side. Following this increased game time, long-term admirer Sir Alex Ferguson swooped to bring the Swede to his Manchester United team, having first become aware of him some three years prior when Göteborg had bested United 3-1 .

Ferguson had been keen to revamp and bolster his squad following a trophyless 1997/98 season, adding Dwight Yorke and Jaap Stam to the squad alongside Blomqvist. Although signed ostensibly as cover for Ryan Giggs, Blomqvist performed well, racking up 38 appearances across all competitions as Ferguson rotated his squad. With midfield stalwarts Roy Keane and Paul Scholes both suspended for the final of the Champions League, Blomqvist was selected to start, and indirectly helped by being subbed off for goalscorer Teddy Sheringham as United completed their much vaunted Treble, much to the joy of David May.

Sadly, this would be the last game Jesper would play for the club. Shortly afterwards, he suffered a serious knee injury, which kept him sidelined for two seasons. The club supported him throughout in the hope of bringing him back to fitness, even providing him with his own cookery show on supporter channel MUTV ("Cooking With Jesper" – more on his culinary exploits later). However, with his contract expiring, the club allowed him to move on to Everton on a free in the hope he could recover his career.

Blomqvist started well at Everton, and scored his first goal for the club in January 2002, however, injury problems persisted and he moved on at the end of the season to Charlton Athletic. Further injuries resulted in only three games for the Addicks before a return to Sweden with Djurgården. The side won the title in his first season back, however, he made only nine appearances and would never recover his place in the side following this season. In 2005, surrendering to his ongoing injury woes, Jesper called time on his career – bar a couple of games as player/coach due to injury crises in 2008 and 2010 (one of which he did little to help by getting sent off in his cameo appearance).

In retirement, Blomqvist initially tried coaching and punditry, but was never able to find the passion he'd felt during his playing days. After completing studies in commerce, inspired by his memories of the food he had enjoyed during his days playing in Italy, he opened a pizza restaurant on the Swedish island of Lidingo, which remains open and has fantastic reviews on TripAdvisor. Having perused the menu with assistance from Google Translate, it's clearly carefully thought out, with Blomqvist having taken inspiration from a university course in food and wine pairing he completed. That said, if anybody needs advice on which wine pairs with Cadbury’s Miniature Heroes... My Twitter handle is in the bio.