For almost 20 years he has commented on profiles such as Francesco Totti, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

From next week, however, there are somewhat more unknown football names waiting for the well-known Finnsnes man and the well-known commentator voice of Per-Jarle Heggelund.

Then Heggelund returns north to comment on local, northern Norwegian football in a traveling tour that will go over several hundred miles from Nordland to the far east in Finnmark and Norway.

– Driving around northern Norway with low shoulders and a half-year slip around the mouth is exactly what the doctor has ordered, says Per-Jarle Heggelund from a holiday weekend with the family at a cabin on the island of Åland outside Sweden.

Northern Norway tour

For 20 years he has lived on the outskirts of Stockholm.

Over the past year, Heggelund has commented on football on Direktesport, the sports portal for Nordlys and the rest of the Amedia group.

After a lot of matches in the French top league through the winter, it is now northern Norwegian local football that applies in the coming weeks.

For two weeks, Heggelund will travel around northern Norway and cover football matches from Lofoten in the south to Vadsø in the northeast. A distance of 1,186 kilometers, which will be extended to kilometers of various detours.

– We are very happy that Per-Jarle Heggelund has his international commentator level with him home and pushes us even more into the field, says streaming manager in Nordlys, Lars Eidissen.

– Together we have made a battle plan that I think can go home with viewers. We’ll meet so many nice people. We will meet waffle sellers, enthusiasts and legends around these fights, says Per-Jarle Heggelund.

Many reunions

The round trip starts short with the match between Krokelvdalen and TUIL / TIL 2020 3 in the women’s 3rd division on Monday afternoon.

– I am very happy that you get the opportunity to spend weeks in June to travel around and meet northern Norwegian football clubs, says Heggelund.

Per-Jarle Heggelund himself played football for Finnsnes and Bardu. In addition, he trained with Bossekop in Alta during his time as a student there.

– It will be fun to come back to some of the places where you have played for 100 years. There are some bus trips in northern Norway. It will be fun to meet old acquaintances and new acquaintances, says Heggelund.

– Fellowship

The commentator profile highlights three things he associates with northern Norwegian football:

Weather hard, camaraderie and mass flirtation.

– What will it be like to go from commenting on world stars in the Premier League, Serie A and Ligue 1 to commenting on northern Norwegian wide football?

– The commentary technique will be exactly the same. You make exactly the same preparations and are just as serious whether it is Lionel Messi or Hermod Kruttskank from Gibostad who plays, it has nothing to say. We take our job seriously and it has nothing to say about the level, says Heggelund:

– Football is football. It can be as much fun to comment on Juventus as it is to comment on Reine.

The first week of the tour includes the following matches on the program:

Monday 30 May: Krokelvdalen-TUIL / TIL 2020 3 (3rd division women)
Tuesday 31 May: Høken-Luna (5th division men)
Wednesday 1 June: Reine / Flakstad-Svolvær 1 (5th division, men)
Friday 3. June: Pioner-Bardu (6th Division, men)
Saturday 4 June: Storsteinnes-Øverbygd (5th division, men)

– In Bardu I had two of the best years I had in my own football life, with the best football coach ever in Rolf Hansen. We want to meet Rolf and old people from Bardu, says Heggelund expectantly about the Friday match this week.