Former Arsenal player Anders Limpar he related how he was made to believe in time travel. The former footballer thought he moved from 1997 to 1999.

I think this is one of the best draws in history. I really believed I moved to the future for 2 years. After that, they laughed at me in Sweden, no one could understand how I could believe it! But the execution of this joke was top notch.

I remember two “scientists” who were on the plane discussing time travel. The plane was going up and down at the time. It’s funny to me now, but it was very scary back then. They really agreed that the fighter planes would accompany us on the entire flight to Stockholm. We hear everything that happens on the radio: “Where have you been? The radar was able to show it to you just now.

I just thought, “What the hell is going on here?” I entered the cockpit and asked him to respond to messages from the fighter pilot. He ordered me to go back and fasten my seat belt.

They had previously played a Canadian like that, then he had to go to a psychologist. Our plane landed, whereupon we were met by more “scientists” who started asking questions. They wanted to know where we’d been all this time. Terrible feeling. We thought we were dead. When we landed, we found out that they had arranged a funeral for us and all, because, apparently, we were supposed to die. By the way, this draw lasted for two days. It wasn’t just a little joke.

They showed us newspapers that weren’t real, they said absurd things. We were told that Norway won the World Cup in 1998. Of the two days we devoted to this draw, they cut it down to one hour of TV. There was much more to this story. Of course, I was so happy when the guy, Lennart Swan, finally showed up to tell us it was all a joke. I felt like a backpack full of rocks fell off my back, I was so relieved.

I couldn’t believe it. Sure, I was happy, but for another half hour later I just felt ridiculous, it’s even scary to think that I was flying two years into the future. But for many years after that, I was angry about all this, because I became a laughing stock in Sweden. I didn’t like it at all.

That’s why when they asked me if they could sell everything on DVD, I told them not to. I was later told that the normal budget for a stunt was £10,000, but this one was £200,000. They had to pay for the fighter planes, the operation of the airport and everything else. It was the largest ever production in Sweden in terms of jokes. I never found out why they decided to play with me. I guess I’m too gullible guy, I’m easy to fool, naive, call it what you want.

This is one of the smartest pranks ever.