Goal of a lifetime

Goal of a lifetime

Two Thai-born floorball champions return from Sweden to find the families they never knew

SOCIAL & LIFESTYLE
Goal of a lifetime
Pi Stalberg. Photo courtesy of Thailand National Floorball Team

Two orphans, adopted in Thailand and brought to Sweden, they've now returned to find their roots. In the process, a facilitator to their unlikely journey is an unlikely sport called floorball.

Robin Karlsson, born and abandoned at Lerdsin Hospital, and Pi Stalberg, left at an orphanage in Nakhon Si Thammarat, grew up with their adopted parents in Sweden. There they took up floorball, also known as floor hockey, and now excel in it.

Their reputation travels across the continent, and the two now play for the Thai national team, which has clinched a spot at the Men's World Floorball Championships to take place in Riga, Latvia, from Dec 3-11.

Their desire is to watch Thailand rise through the world floorball rankings. In Latvia, Thailand is in the same group as the US, Canada and Singapore. But Robin and Pi have come to their birthplace for a more personal reason: to look for their biological families. They cling to the hope that if they take the Thai team to glory, their fathers or mothers might notice their names and come forward.

Robin's Thai parents left him at Lerdsin hospital in Bangrak days after his birth. Today, the 24-year-old, who was born Prawat Thaidit, proudly wears the Thai national team jersey. He was recruited eight months ago. His debut match for the team, the World Cup Floorball qualifier in Pattaya earlier this year, saw him as the top scorer with nine goals and 11 assists in five games. He was the top scorer at the qualifiers.

Since the age of three, he has resided with his adopted parents in the city of Malmo. His adopted mother works for an old-people's home and his father is a salesman. Robin recalls a happy childhood, filled with love and affection for the Swedish family that adopted him from Rangsit Babies Home. Robin grew up as an only child, but never felt alone because his Swedish parents were always there for him.

"My parents have never left my side since they adopted me," he said. "When I was about 10, I missed not having siblings like the rest of my friends. However, that was just a fleeting emotion. My parents used to not just drive me for my ice hockey training but also wait in the freezing cold for hours watching me practice. So I am indeed very grateful to them."

Robin tells us that his Swedish parents told him he was adopted from Thailand when he was seven years old. However, it was only three years ago that he realised just how much he wanted to search for his Thai parents.

"All I know is that I was left at a hospital after birth," said Robin. "I was first sent to an orphanage on Klong 5 before eventually being sent to Rangsit Babies Home, where my Swedish parents found me."

In Sweden, Robin plays floorball at the club level. The sport originated in Sweden and remains popular there, and there is a push to include it in the Olympics. One day Robin saw a Swedish television programme dedicated to finding the lost parents of adopted children, which sparked his interest in finding his biological parents. There was even one episode, he said, in which someone was looking for their parents in Thailand and found them.

Things started to pick up eight months ago when the Thai national floorball team showed an interest to recruit Robin. Finally, he had reason to return to Thailand.

But looking for his parents after over two decades isn't an easy task.

"My birth certificate -- which I handed over to a Thai television programme that was supposed to help me find my biological parents -- hit a dead end. They weren't able find anyone by my parents names -- mother A-runya Chansena, and father Pradid Thaidit."

In retrospect, he remarked: "I wonder why they decided to give me the name Prawat Thaidit when they had already decided to not bring me home. I guess this is one of many questions I would like to ask them one day."

Robin hasn't given up hope on finding them. He continues to use social media for leads on their whereabouts. His bubbly character momentarily turns solemn when he shares his deepest desire: "When Thai newspapers wrote about my achievements at the World Cup qualifiers, I had my fingers crossed that my parents or anyone from my family would happen to read it and, on seeing the name Prawat Thaidit, attempt to get in touch with me. I am still waiting for that day to arrive."

Things are a bit more hopeful in the case of the other Swedish-Thai floorball player. Pi Stalberg was five years old when his adopted parents took him from Rangsit Babies Home to a good life in their home country.

The Thai boy grew up to become a gifted floorball athlete. Today, at age 32, he is living a surreal life. For one, he plays for Thailand's national floorball team, and he was able to track the whereabouts of his twin sister after a decade-long search.

"My desire to search for my Thai family began in 2001, after my elder, South Korean-born brother decided to find his family," said Pi, who also holds Thai citizenship. "When he was successful in locating his mother, uncle and sibling, I felt I could do the same. Having watched a Swedish television programme dedicated to finding lost family members pretty much set the course for not just finding my twin sister but playing for the national team."

Stalberg is a physical education instructor back home and plays for the Halmstad Floorball Club. He was recruited to join the Thailand national floorball team a year ago. Since then he has adjusted well to Thai culture and spends a large part of his free time learning Thai so that he'll be able to converse with his sister, who is divorced with three children.

Stalberg's adopted parents accompanied him to Thailand when they received word that he would be able to access information on his birth.

"It was a long waiting process to get the information about myself," remarked Pi. "I was 25 by the time I received word that I was born in Songkhla province. They told me I was sent to an orphanage in Nakhon Si Thammarat for a couple of years before being transferred to Rangsit Babies Home.

"While conditions at the orphanage in Rangsit Babies Home were pretty good, I couldn't say the same about the one in Nakhon Si Thammarat. My first emotion was sadness -- there were so many babies and very little air conditioning. The thought ran through my mind: I wanted to adopt all the children from Nakhon Si Thammarat orphanage and give them good lives in Sweden. I felt bad that the children had no adopted parents to love and care for them."

Pi said he was further notified that the search for his parents couldn't be continued because they were not able to locate their whereabouts. Distraught, he walked the streets of Bangkok contemplating his next move.

Shortly before deciding to return to Sweden, he was able to get in touch with a staff member at an adoption agency who promised to help him. She requested he draft a letter to an affiliate government agency to request further investigation into the whereabouts of his family.

In 2013, he was finally told they had located a sibling.

"My adopted parents and girlfriend at the time were about to travel to Thailand for a backpacking trip when I received word that they had located my twin sister. In fact, it was just a day before we were supposed to fly to Bangkok," he recalled with a smile.

"I was told she was residing with a Muslim family that had adopted her and her children in a fishing village in Songkhla. The first time I met her I couldn't contain myself and cried. She looked exactly like me. Her living conditions were not very good. They were residing in a rundown wooden house.

"The first question that entered my mind was, why did they separate us at birth? If we were together, she would also have been adopted by my Swedish parents and today would have a better life." Pi's biggest concern today is his nieces and nephews.

"I hope to see that they have a bright future ahead of them, and to do that, I will support their education. As for my sister, I hope to learn enough Thai to communicate with her better."

Floorball is a type of floor hockey with five field players and a goalkeeper on each side. Men and women play indoors with 96-115.5cm-long sticks and a 22-23cm-circumference plastic ball with holes. Matches are played in three, 20-minute periods.

Developed in the 1960s and 70s in Sweden, floorball is most popular where it has been developing the longest: the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. It's slowly picking up momentum outside Europe. The sport has been included in the SEA Games since 2015 and is vying for a spot in the 2020 Olympics.

Robin Karlsson, left. Photo courtesy of Robin Karlsson

Pi Stalberg with his twin sister. Photo courtesy of Pi Stalberg

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