There can be two things in “prioritizing”. Making an extra effort to get something done. Or choosing something over something else. As for the first, Norway’s two football greats, Martin Ødegaard and Erling Braut Haaland, have been exemplary, bordering on the astonishing. They have played much more than anyone could expect in a number of international matches where everyone, including a star-hungry Ullevaal crowd, would have understood if they were rested. Ståle Solbakken loudly discusses with VG’s reporter at a press conference. When Norway met Kosovo in a completely meaningless private international match in June, Erling Braut Haaland scored a hat trick, before he was replaced only in overtime. Martin Ødegaard played the entire match as captain. As one of several examples. The fact that Martin Ødegaard has been in Norway at all this week is an expression of real will. Real dedication. Real prioritization of playing for Norway. APPEARED: Martin Ødegaard was at the meeting on Tuesday, but it also became clear that he will not be joining against Slovenia and Kazakhstan. Photo: BILDBYRÅN He’s not going to do that anyway. Because he cannot prioritize Norway. And then we are over to the second form of prioritization. The one who can perhaps help explain why national team manager Solbakken went so far out of character in public as he did in the heated and surprising argument with VG journalist Mats Arntzen at the national team’s press conference before the match against Slovenia. AWAKENING ATTENTION: Ståle Solbakken and national team doctor Ola Sand met the press on Tuesday. There was a commotion. Photo: BILDBYRÅN Åge Hareide’s career as national team manager is perhaps best remembered for two incomprehensible goalkeeping staffs against Turkey that deprived Norway of a European Championship place – and then, in addition, the tirade against the media before an away game against Italy in Palermo, when he thundered “Either you are with us, or with the Italians”. Confronted with the reactions that followed, when Hareide was accused of trying to control the press, he parried quite dryly with “I think you are little hair sores”. Now history repeats itself. Ståle Solbakken’s “You are completely hopeless” is also a quote that will go down in national team folklore. And the press is still in overdrive. But that is not the real story here. Because this is about priorities. The national team manager’s delicate diplomacy There, Solbakken and Norway have no chance anyway. And actually has been for a long time. It’s just been mostly painless up until now. The ongoing questions from VG about whether Martin Ødegaard would have retired even if it was the captain’s club Arsenal that met Manchester City and not Norway, which will play Kazakhstan next Sunday, are as relevant as they are hypothetical. Perhaps that was the first time the national team manager’s deepest fears really came to the surface. And the really quite academic discussion suddenly took quite non-academic forms. Ever since Solbakken was hired in 2020, he has managed a balancing act that is so far closer to art than we have fully recognized. For our two fixed stars from Bryne and Drammen, they are also the most valuable assets, sportingly and commercially, of two of the world’s most powerful football clubs. THE BOSS AND THE STARS: Erling Braut Haaland, Ståle Solbakken and Martin Ødegaard smile during a national team training from this summer. Photo: Fredrik Varfjell / NTB And then the pressure to minimize the risk of damage and load is constant. Nevertheless, Norwegian diplomacy has won. Against all the pressure from heavily staffed club machinery that wants to protect the brand. And powerful managers who want to win football matches. Until now. Worst imaginable timing “I understand that people are confused”, says a usually polite Martin Ødegaard to TV 2. Too polite, actually. Because there is nothing to be surprised about. Everyone really understands that Ødegaard has to do what he does after the long injury layoff. And that it is this that is slowly but surely on its way to becoming the new normal. Because it has to be that way. Martin Ødegaard’s ankle injury against Austria at Ullevaal could not have come at a worse time. Because his magician had been strongly wanted in important matches both for Norway and a title-chasing Arsenal. But perhaps most of all because it actually happened in an international match. Ullevaal suddenly went from being a kind of romantic playground, where Ødegaard and Haaland could be smiling national heroes in private international matches against Armenia or the Faroe Islands, to symbolizing real danger. A minefield. With Ståle Solbakken as the reckless army commander who uncritically sends the special forces into risky combat. This perspective is by no means new. It just hasn’t been highlighted to any great extent until now. It will happen again. The match load on the world’s best footballers is about to go from intense to untenable. International matches in danger Then the number of international matches is the first thing the clubs will want to reduce. Until now, that has not happened. In addition, the income from endless qualifying tournaments and hybrids such as the National League is too important for the governing associations, whether it is Fifa, Uefa or the NFF. But at some point they have to give up. Uefa cannot continue to expand its own Champions League and at the same time maintain the number of semi-important international matches, which is what the National League offers the world at best. That this type of match still means something to the world’s best players should be enjoyed, as long as possible. But it is far from a given. In the long term, it is surprising whether it is possible to maintain national matches other than the World Cup and the continental championships, such as the EC, and the qualifying matches for these. We cannot actually expect anything more. Everything that can happen while chewing on a toothpick Don’t forget this, the next time Ståle Solbakken raises his voice against the media. Which is going to happen before anyone knows it. But also the next time Erling Braut Haaland enters the field in the Norwegian national team jersey for a match in the National League. Which is already happening this Thursday – and that even as captain. This time with an obligation to speak. SOMETHING TO CHEW ON: Ståle Solbakken picked his teeth between the posts at the press conference. Photo: Terje Bendiksby / NTB Until then, we will continue to wonder what really happened to Ståle Solbakken, when he lost the rhetorical control he has had at all press conferences since he was hired. This was also the third time in a short week that he attacked the media. First it was about gaming systems. Then there was the communication in connection with Osame Sahraoui choosing to play for Morocco and not Norway, a discussion that you really felt had ended in August. Before the gagging with VG, it all rounded off in the most exquisitely undignified way. Was it pressure? A result of prolonged frustrations? Or was it just failed rhetoric? But then an intensely toothpick-chewing Solbakken somehow got the last word in the argument, as national team managers would like to have, when he called VG’s man “very hairy”. Exactly the one Mr. Arntzen from VG chose not to return to the national team manager. Even he probably realized it would be hopeless. Published 13.11.2024, at 15.40 Updated 13.11.2024, at 15.41
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