Prica putting golf on hold as he eyes Premier safety

9:25am Saturday 1st March 2008

KEEN golfer Rade Prica has only one driving ambition at present - to help ensure Sunderland are playing Premier League football next season.

The club's latest Swedish import may have one eye on the greens at Wynyard Golf Club but he he is firmly focused on the job in hand at the Stadium of Light.

It is a little over a month since the 27-year-old emerged as a surprise January signing just eight days before the closure of the transfer window.

Since then Prica has been living out of a suitcase, with his family still in Denmark, while he searched for a North-East base.

Earlier this week he received the keys to his North-East home and, having endured a stop-start first few weeks to his career on Wearside, the 6ft 1in front-man is feeling more settled.

"There is a lot of spare time as a footballer and that can be hard if the family is not with you because you're alone a lot," said Prica. "It's a shame I have not had the chance to play golf yet but I'm looking forward to it.

"There are a lot of courses up here, but I've heard Wynyard is a good course. It might be too tough for me though.

"It is getting better and better for me here and it should only be a few more weeks before the family come over."

Moving around is something Prica is familiar with. After seven years in Sweden with Ljungby and Helsingborgs, he moved to Germany in 2003, where he spent three years with Hansa Rostock.

After 113 app e a r - ances, 20 goals and the occasional call-up for his country, it was time to move on again and he joined Aalborg of Denmark in 2007.

It was his 18 months in the Danish league which alerted Sunderland.

Fifty-nine appearances heralded 31 strikes, claiming the leading scorer tag in the Superliga in the 2006-07 campaign with 19.

"It's quite different here when I compare it to Sweden, Denmark or Germany. It's a different world, everything is much tougher, the training, there is more structure," said Prica. "The lifestyle is almost the same. I think the fact I've moved around Europe for my career has helped me settle quickly here.

"When I moved to Germany I was only 22 years old and I'd only just become a father. It was difficult at first, it was hard in the first year, living in a new country with a different language. I know what to expect now and I've adapted well."

His love for football started at the age of five, although he was certainly not pushed into it by his parents - just keen to follow in the footsteps of an elder brother who was tipped for the top before suffering serious injury.

But once it became clear that Prica had the potential to make a living out of the game, it was always his desire to move to England, where he had been brought up watching Premier League football on Swedish television.

It took Henrik Larsson, arguably Sweden's most successful export, until he was in the twilight of his career to enjoy six months on the English stage with Manc h e s t e r United.

Prica, however, feels fortunate that he has just signed a three-and-a-half-year contract at Sunderland and he is only 27.

"Henrik Larsson was a big star in Sweden,"

he said. "In the first game I watched in the Swedish First Division, Larsson was playing with his long hair for Helsingborgs who I supported.

"When you are young in Sweden you know that, if you want to have a good career in football, you will have to move to another country in Europe. To become a professional footballer you know that players like Henrik Larsson went abroad.

"I think all the Scandinavian countries know that, if you want to become a better player, you have to leave. I was prepared to do that from a young age."

Given how compatriot Tobias Hysen lasted less than a year in the North-East, Prica could quite easily have run a mile after learning of interest from Sunderland.

Instead, though, he is confident of being a success.

"I know Tobias a little, I've not spoken to him about Sunderland but my friend, Christian Wilhelmsson, did not like it at Bolton," said Prica, of Serbian heritage. "Things did not go well for them, but that has not put me off. This is what I want and I like the challenge."

Given Prica's goalscoring pedigree in recent years, it will have been no surprise to him that he found the net on his debut - a 2-0 win over Birmingham last month.

Since that night, however, he has struggled to find a starting place and that is something he is looking to improve on quickly; with hopes of a starring role at Derby later today in his sights.

"I would like to have had made more of an impact in the other games I've played," said Prica, who was a substituted substitute in the defeat at Liverpool in his second outing.

"It's difficult. Of the four games I've played I'm only satisfied with my first game, I know I can do much better and I hope it will come.

"I wasn't really aware of how big Sunderland was as a club until I got here. There is a lot of potential, I saw that the first time I came over and saw the stadium and the training ground.

"We all know how important the game at Derby is and it's a game we should win. Sunderland haven't been used to being the favourites this season and it will be a different sort of pressure."

■ Sunderland's youth team will take on Manchester City at home next week in the first leg of the FA Youth Cup semi-final, sponsored by E.ON.

The Under-18s sides will go head-to-head at the Stadium of Light in the first leg of the next Thursday, 7pm kick-off. Tickets for the game are priced £3 adults, £1 concessions (over-65s/under- 16s).

The winners will face either Chelsea or Aston Villa in the twolegged final.

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