Henrik Lundqvist sat down with Bloomberg Television’s Scarlet Fu the other day to speak about his philanthropic efforts. He said “I wanted to reach people back home and other places around the world and also start thinking about life after my career.”

The full interview can be viewed here.

The transcript, courtesy of Bloomberg TV, is below.

Henrik Lundqvist: Our mission is education and health. And back home I think it is something that you kind of take for granted a little bit with the structure we have.

Scarlet Fu: The social safety net.

Lundqvist: Yeah, exactly. The schools and the health care and all that but I travel a lot and you see a lot of people that don’t have that ability and they are not as fortunate. I also feel like I wanted to reach people back home and other places around the world and also start thinking about life after my career.

Fu: You mention how different philanthopy is in Sweden versus here in the U.S. How does it play out in the Dominican Republic where you’re also active and how do you tailor your efforts then?

Lundqvist: Well, obviously your money goes a long way when you go down there. My wife’s been down there and plan to go down there again and bring a lot of toys and playbooks and notebooks and all that. But then also we have the Presbyterian Children’s Hospital in New York, Food Bank of New York. So, also, organizations here in New York that we want to support.

Fu: Because of 24-hour media coverage, social media–athletes like you are able to connect with your fans in a way that might Mike Richter or Bjorn Borg couldn’t in the past, right? Do you see evidence that your fans feel close to your philanthropic work?

Lundqvist: That’s a good question. I hope so. I could tell a huge difference between now and when I started. Even when I came to New York 10 years ago. Just the way people can follow what’s going on. You can stay connected with your fans and you can raise awareness by just a couple seconds of texting and you try to use that as well.

Fu: To that end, is it more important, more effective for your foundation to get a front-page mention in The New York Times or to get 50,000 Instagram likes?

Lundqvist: That’s a good question. I don’t think I’m the right man to answer that. So you try to do both. You try to get out there at different events and talk about your mission and you do social media but you also sit down and do good interviews, hopefully.

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