You are now reading news’s interview column “På hjembane”. Here we meet well-known sports profiles and ask them a series of questions about big and small things. Today: Assistant coach at Brann and former national team player Erik Huseklepp (38). Current with: Series start with Fire. We start with five fixed questions: – Apart from football, what do you spend most of your time on? – It is the family. Two daughters and my fiancé. I spend most of my time on them, because football takes a lot of time. So I have a wonderful and patient fiancé at home who allows me to be on the move so much in this job here. So when I now have time off, we use that time together. – When was the last time you spent NOK 1,000 or more on a dinner? – We did that right before we left for a training camp in Spain. My fiance and I went out to eat at Brasília in Bergen, so it was probably a little over a thousand, yes. – What is the stupidest purchase you have made in the last year? – I’m not as good at answering such things. What could it be? I don’t really make that many stupid purchases. – What can really piss you off? – No, when things don’t go quite as they should. What really pisses me off is when someone says they are going to do one thing, but do something completely different. It’s things like that that really annoy me. I am very concerned about honesty and that you have to be sincere with people. Therefore, I am not happy that someone can stand and say something to my face, and then mean or do the complete opposite the next turn. – What is the most controversial opinion you have? – That football is not extremely important. In theory, it isn’t. Erik Huseklepp and Brann have started the season in a good way. Photo: Beate Oma Dahle / NTB – Erik Huseklepp, how are you? – I feel very well. – Why? – I really enjoy my job here as an assistant coach in Brann. A job that suits me perfectly and otherwise family life is good. Everything is good. – Why is it so good to be an assistant coach in Brann? – It is the club I have followed since I was six years old and played for over ten years. I’ve had a huge number of ups and downs with the club, and some downs of course. Fire is a part of me. When I got the opportunity to come in as an assistant coach, I never had any doubts. – What was really the highlight of your firefighting career? – No, it was without a doubt the series gold. That condition, that atmosphere inside the city of Bergen, i.e. the way people were. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a series gold anywhere else than in Bergen. Now I’m biased of course, but gathering 60,000-70,000 at the festival site to celebrate a gold … I have not seen anywhere else that you have gathered such large crowds. – Do you dream of being part of it again? – Yes, it would have been fantastic fun. It is clear that as long as I have this job, I have the opportunity to take part in it again. So it would have been absolutely fantastic to experience that. It probably won’t happen this year, that’s how humble we have to be after we were in the OBOS league last year. But you never know. – You say it won’t happen, but it could happen? – No, but you never know what time, but I think we can rule out it happening this year. But if it happens in the near future, during the next few years, we will have to see how the development turns out. But at least we have a lot of faith in what we are doing. Then we’ll see how far it takes us. Erik Huseklepp is enjoying his new life as a coach. Photo: Christoffer Andersen / NTB – You got to experience quite a few things outside of Brann in your playing career – many remember you from Bari, Portsmouth and Birmingham – what was the highlight of your trips abroad? – No, there were actually more. It was fantastically big to debut for Bari. First home game, coming in half an hour before the end, there were 60,000 in the stands and Inter were visiting. That feeling you get when you sit there, and the tension you get in your body just before you go inside. It is something I will never forget. Portsmouth, to pick a highlight, I guess it was when I scored three minutes into extra time against Blackpool, with a pretty good goal that won us that game. That’s probably the highlight there. It was otherwise a club I enjoyed very much. So it was stupid that it went so financially wrong for the club, otherwise I think I could have played for quite a few more years, if it hadn’t been so short. – Is there something you often think about in football, what could have been different if you had done this and that? – Yes, I think everyone does. If they say they don’t do it, well, when you’re in the game, you have to try to put it aside, but now that things have settled down and such, it’s clear that I’ve thought about things and had it been like that and like that, I would have scored on that chance. So it’s a bit like that, you always come across those thoughts. But, it’s not like it’s something bothersome to me. I’m very okay with that, that “what’s done is done” and you can’t do anything about it. Erik Huseklepp is optimistic on Brann’s behalf. Photo: Oddgeir Øystese / news – But you talked about that feeling when you came in against Inter there with 60,000, and how you felt. Is there something you try to recreate in other ways when you finish football? – I am still above average happy to play football. So even though I gave up, I didn’t quite make it. Then I started playing for Vadmyra in the fifth division last year, and I will probably play a few games there this year and. Simply because if I play there for 60,000 or in front of ten people at Vadmyrabanen, there is something about that game with the ball and the feeling when the ball goes into the goal. I don’t get tired of who I am. I still think it’s so much fun. – Can we usually experience something like what you experienced in Bari? – It depends on your love for football. For me, it’s a bit like that when I score a goal, it’s never quite the same, but it gives me enormous joy to score goals, contribute in matches and yes, succeed with dribbling, take a tunnel. Things like that still make me happy. There just aren’t as many people watching. – Did you also get some international matches? – Yes, 36! Erik Huseklepp loved playing for Norway. – 36 international matches and seven goals. What did it mean to you? – It meant an enormous amount. I took it step by step, so the first goal was to get into Brann. Then I was extremely focused that when I had entered Brann, I should not be full. Then the next goal was to get into the national team, and I managed that. And then the next goal for me was to get to a foreign club to play, so that was the way I built things up. It worked very well for me, and playing for the national team and representing my country was very important to me. – How? – It was extra big for me since I was a regular in the national team for several years, I wasn’t just in a squad. I was actually one of those who started match after match after match. I felt that. I wasn’t scared, but I just thought it was incredibly fun. And what my career has shown in a way is that I can play badly against a second division team if I play there, but it doesn’t matter that a few days later I could play very well against some of the world’s best players. It was a bit me, both for better and for worse. I remember the one year when I scored two goals against France. It wasn’t many weeks before I had helped lose against Fyllingsdalen in the cup for Brann. It’s a bit, yes, both a good and a bad quality. Erik Huseklepp wreaked havoc with Deportivo at Brann Stadion. Photo: Marit Hommedal / NTB – I especially remember when you played against Deportivo. Surely there are no Fire players who have ever been this good in a simple match? – Someone else has to assess that, but it is clear that I will never forget that match there. The only thing that was crazy there was that I couldn’t score. I had so many chances, dribbled and basically did everything in that game except score. But it’s clear that on a night like that, a European Cup night like that at Brann Stadion, where you meet a team that plays in a league as good as the Spanish one, you also manage to overrun them so completely… Those are evenings you really take care of on. It was an incredibly fun evening, and I hope you can get some European Cup experiences in Brann now in the years to come. Because there is something very special about it. – You appear to be an optimist Erik – are you? – Yes, I am. Probably a bit too much, because I’m an optimist until proven otherwise. So no matter how bad things look, I have faith until it doesn’t go any further. – So you look forward to life? – Yes I do.
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