The floorball sticks had been stored away under the stairs in Emanuel Lakongsengs house for years when his wife finally told him to do something about them.
Either throw them out, she said, or use them.
He chose to use them – and two years later, the 45-year-old Swede is helping build what he hopes could one day become one of Laos’ biggest sports movements.
“I know it sounds like, ‘yeah, good luck with that,’” Emanuel says with a laugh. “But you have to set the aim high.”
Today, he is the main driving force behind the Lao Floorball Federation, which is introducing the Nordic sport to schools across the country and trying to build a broader grassroots movement around it.
A sponsored child led him to Laos
Emanuel first came to Laos as a teenager while travelling in neighbouring Thailand in the early 2000s.
At the time he had sponsored a child in Laos through a charity programme and decided to visit the country out of curiosity.
“Laos is close, I should go see if the kid exists,” he says.
”And I fell in love with Laos right away.”
He later returned and eventually settled in Vientiane, where he met his Lao wife in church in 2005. Today they live in the capital with their two teenage children.
Alongside his volunteer work with floorball, Emanuel helps run cafés with his wife and has previously worked as an English teacher and in development organisations.
A hobby that got out of hand
Although floorball is widely played in Sweden, Emanuel never played it at a competitive level.
After moving to Laos, he occasionally joined a small expatriate floorball group in Vientiane. The real turning point came when a Swiss acquaintance gave him a batch of floorball sticks.
For years they gathered dust in his home.
Until his wife insisted something had to be done with them. Instead of throwing them away, Emanuel began introducing the sport to local schools. He also contacted a Lao sports club and offered to teach them the game.
“Now floorball is a hobby that got out of hand,” he says.
Schools are leading the sport’s growth
Today the federation has around 200 members, but Emanuel believes the real potential lies in schools.
So far floorball has been introduced at five schools in Laos. In the coming school year, the federation hopes to expand to as many as 25 schools.
Schools that receive equipment are expected to form teams and participate in a national tournament planned for November 2026.
Teachers from participating schools will also receive training so they can continue coaching the sport themselves.
“Floorball is very easy to learn,” Emanuel says. “All you really need is a stick and a ball.”
That simplicity, he believes, makes it ideal for a country where sports infrastructure is still developing.
A sport open to everyone
For Emanuel, the ambition goes beyond simply introducing another sport.
With a background in development work, he sees floorball as a tool for youth development – not only for physical activity, but also for building teamwork, structure and ambition.
While football dominates in Laos, opportunities are not equal.
”Team sports are very powerful for children and youth development,” he says.
“Football is huge here, but girls don’t really play,” he says. “There are very few team sports available for girls.”
Emanuel hopes floorball can help change that — and his ambitions are high.
“I want floorball to be bigger than football in Laos by 2040,” he says.
