Mats Roselli Olsen – Out:

Göteborg (Dagbladet): The 32-year-old let Dagbladet into the apartment in Gothenburg and showed the way to the living room. From the living room window you have a clear view of the carousels at Liseberg, which are closed there in the November cold

His friend Alexander Westby is sitting on the sofa. They are both Norwegians who make a living from their sport in the Swedish city. While Mats Roselli Olsen is ten years behind him at Frölunda Hockey, Westby plays handball at Sävehof.

Over the past eight months, we’ve spent many hours together on this couch. In March, Roselli Olsen was hit on the head and elbowed in the chin. The result was a serious concussion.

– How often do you hang out?

– According to my wife, this happens often, she laughs and turns away.

The two became known online through the PlayStation game Fortnite, and became good friends when Westby left Elverum for Sävehof.

But the evenings were fewer on the “boulevard,” as Roselli Olsen herself noted, this year.

Shaken by death: take action

Eight months out

Eight months after the accident, there are no outward signs of trouble, but Roselli Olsen has yet to return to the ice for Frolunda. He trains hard while on the ice, but without physical contact.

-Playing non-contact hockey would be weird. It’s moving forward, but it’s slow. There is mostly hope attached to my return. I hope soon, maybe a month or two, but no one tells me, you never know, Rosselli Olsen sighs.

He describes the first period after the injury as difficult.

– it was dark. You have been restricted and unable to live life the way you normally would, which you would normally do with another injury. It was hard.

– For the first weeks he lay under the covers in the dark, and then we sat and talked, as his friend Westby describes.

Rasser: – Shame

“Alex was a therapist,” Rosselli Olsen joked.

A month after the injury, he returned to his home in Norway, which made headlines. “Mats Roselli Olsen has taken over the country,” he wrote. Swedish newspapers.

“Maybe the title was a bit exaggerated,” Rosselli laughs.

– I’m usually at home in the summer, but I usually go to the bathroom first, so it was longer this time, explains the hockey player.

– Incredibly boring

He came from Großrod in Oslo, just three hours from Gothenburg. This means he still has time to return home. On the other hand, this year’s summer vacation in Norway was severely affected by head injury.

-It wasn’t the most fun summer vacation. I’m quite sociable and used to make up a lot with friends and family, but I’ve had to say no to a lot. “Going for a walk was mostly all I could do,” he explains, “and then I went for a walk in Budo, but that was all I could do.”

Noon: – Especially

Slowly but surely, form improved throughout the fall.

– But it was very boring to be limited by injury. I hope I’m done with it now.

Pride

Roselli Olsen is hoping his return to the hockey field is getting closer.

During his ten years at Frölunda, he helped them become Swedish champions, winning the Hockey Champions League several times. Which gave him hero status in the club.

-I’m proud to have been at the club for a long time. When I came here, times were not good for the club, so I was part of a very positive period at the club.

Roselli Olsen says ten years at the club means he has had his ups and downs at the club.

– I have become very happy at the club, I have gained good relationships with many people here, and I think about how things will go more than I would have done if I had been at the club for a year or two and then move on, he points out.

He also thrived off the ice. The friendship with former national team footballer Haitham El Aissami, who then played for IFK Göteborg, has been discussed previously.

– There were many Norwegians here. Andrine Hegerberg was also here, who we knew a little bit, so we often had Norwegians in the team. It became the case then that we were often a group of Norwegians who came up with things together.

Eddie’s strings shot out

Swedish fig: – flute

Due to injury, Roselli Olsen was forced to sit out this spring’s World Championships, as Norway retained their place in the A-WC. In the fall, there were reports of massive financial problems at the Ice Hockey Federation, and the federation chose to shut down all national team activities for the remainder of the year.

Later, Tore Christiansen, a millionaire and investor in the Stavanger Oilers, bailed out the project with a financial guarantee. But Rosselli Olsen reveals that it all came down to the Swedes.

Disappointing message: – Very boring

– Here in Sweden, it’s embarrassing to think how this could happen. For a national team to go bankrupt, especially when we have been a nation for so long. That it should not be possible to manage a national team that competes with the best every year is strange. It worked, but it seemed like a rule that could have been done without, says the longtime national team player.

-What reactions did you get here in Sweden?

– There were some reactions, yes. They look at us as little brothers, I had to put up with some messages and there were a lot of questions about “what is going on here?”. I didn’t know, but I replied that I was not in charge of the finances. Then maybe it was okay,” he laughs.

The contract with Frölunda expires next summer. If there are more seasons to come, the 32-year-old is honest that he doesn’t know.

– As long as I’m not playing, it’s hard to say. I hope to play again, so we’ll see.

He’s from Oslo and played for Vålerenga before moving across the border to Sweden, and reveals he still follows his old club closely. In recent years, national team standouts such as Matthijs Olympe and Martin Roemark have returned to their home in Jordal.

Rating: Greatest hockey talents

-Is it appropriate to return to Valerenga?

– Yes, it was the idea that one day it would be like that. I think most people who have been to Vålerenga would like to go back there, and I think so too. But then things can happen that you can’t influence yourself, so we’ll see how things turn out, concludes the Oslo boy.