During a short visit to his home country, former Swedish tennis pro Mats Wilander, who has been living in the US for a long time, has sparked a debate by calling to abolish countries in an interview with the Swedish daily newspaper Expressen.
“I live in the world. I don't think there should be countries at all. I believe cultures should remain, not countries,” Wilander told Expressen. According to him, the idea is to get different cultures together.
Answering the journalist's assumption that Donald Trump “mustn't be his type then”, Wilander surprisingly came to the US President's defence, arguing that he “makes you see the other side of it all”.
“I do not think I agree with much of what he does, but you also have to understand that there are people in the US who believe he is completely okay. He is needed for them, but not for us. Still, he is needed so that it becomes different next time, I think. <…> You have to have both sides, so that there is some kind of middle ground,”Wilander said.
At the same time, Wilander admitted that he misses the Sweden he grew up in.
“The Sweden I grew up in does not really exist any more. The tennis court where I grew up is not there, it has become a factory store,” Wilander said. “Obviously I miss my family and I miss the language,” he continued, suggesting that regardless of the language proficiency you can never fully appreciate history, culture and humour in America, if you haven't grown up there.
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On social media, Wilander's former compatriots reacted strongly.
“It's clear as day that Sweden is not as it used to be. There is so much we have to adapt to, such as theft, fights, shootings and robberies, you are not even safe in your own home. Our entire oblong country is not as it once was,” a user named Camilla Heil wrote on Facebook.
“He lives safely in a gated community with private guards, etc. and then no boundaries are needed,” another user chimed in. Many more suggested it was time for Wilander to move to another country outside of his safety zone.
“I'd like to see a tennis court without lines and without a net in the middle,” a user named Magnus Fogelberg wrote sarcastically, mocking the idea of a world with no borders.
“Away with nations, but keep the cultures. He has not understood that a nation is borders for a culture to exist. Hence the globalists' push for multiculturalism,” another user suggested.
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Mats Wilander broke through in 1982 as a 17-year-old when he won the French Open Championships at Roland Garros and became part of the Swedish “tennis wonder” that rocked the sport in the 1980s. In 1988, Wilander's career was crowned with three Grand Slam titles in a single year, when he also managed to reach the top of the world ranking.
