Soccer, Erling Braut Haaland | Solbakken reveals unknown Haaland details
FC COPENHAGEN – MANCHESTER CITY AT 18.45:
COPENHAGEN (Nettavisen): Norway’s great super striker is on everyone’s lips after the start of the season with Manchester City. On Tuesday, he meets what could actually have been his former club.
As a 16-year-old, Jærbuen was on a round trip when he had to leave Bryne. In the end, he ended up with Molde and Ole Gunnar Solskjær, but he would like to end up at FC Copenhagen, after training with the club’s G19 team for a few days.
However, the Danish big club, which at the time had Ståle Solbakken as A-team coach, chose not to go for the Norwegian.
The national team manager, who is responsible for the budget at the club at the current time, tells Nettavisen that he was never recommended to go for Haaland.
– He was under the wing of the U19 coaches, at the same time as we had Carlo Holse (now Rosenborg), Jonas Wind and many other talented players, says the national team manager.
Never got on Solbakken’s table
He says FCK at the current time was in the starting phase of a revolution when it comes to the recruitment of young talent.
– I never got any sporting attitude to pick him up, and was not pressured or asked to. We probably had 20–30 such players drop by, says Solbakken.
The story of Haaland’s trial in Denmark has been known before, but Solbakken now reveals that it was one recruit coach who saw something he really liked about what is now the world’s hottest striker.
– It was one man who insisted that we pick him up, he says to Nettavisen.
The man Solbakken is targeting is Mikkel Hemmersam. The Dane, who has a background as a lawyer, was at that time placed in a steering group together with several other decision-makers in FCK’s age-related department.
Also read: The Arsenal legend after seeing Haaland: – I had been embarrassed
Hemmersam is now head of sport at the FC Nordsjælland academy and, according to Solbakken, must have signaled that they should try to sign Haaland – without the proposal going through and up to Solbakken.
– The football experts didn’t go all the way, but now Hemmersam is sports manager in Nordsjælland. The lawyer was good for ham, but the proposal never came to my table, says Solbakken.
Nettavisen has been in contact with Hemmersam, who was employed by FC Nordsjælland in January 2020. He states that he does not wish to comment on the matter.
Nettavisen met Hemmersam in 2021 to talk about Andreas Schjelderup. See the report her!
FCK boss to Nettavisen: – Ståle is teasing me
While Haaland is in the City half on Tuesday, it is Jacob Neestrup who will try to steal points in the Park. The fresh A-team coach for FCK has a long career at the club and was U17 coach when Haaland trained with the Copenhagen club in 2017.
The 33-year-old has by no means forgotten the striker’s visit when Nettavisen, during the Danes’ press conference in Parken, confronts him about the training stay five years ago.
– I was the U17 coach at the time. He was with us for five to seven days and trained with the U17 and U19 teams. Then he played an intramural match, and there you could see that he was a very, very skilled player, he tells Nettavisen.
Neestrup uses Haaland’s “case” to illustrate how complex talent development and talent identification are, while Solbakken says it all eventually became an internal joke after Haaland first chose Molde, where he really laid the foundations for the insane physique he has achieved.
He then went on to Salzburg and Borussia Dortmund, where he scored goals.
The Norwegian national team manager has to Danish BT previously stated that no one in FCK should feel guilty for Haaland slipping up, but Nettavisen points out above that it turned into an internal matter at the capital club.
– We joked about it on the bus in FCK; that no one owed money, he says.
Neestrup also acknowledges that Solbakken has let him hear it afterwards in a joking tone.
– I can say that Ståle Solbakken sometimes teased me that I owe a billion and a 50-lapp in the botkassa, but the situation remained as it was, concludes FCK’s new head coach to Nettavisen.