With several security guards present, it attracts attention in central Copenhagen as Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoer arrives in the popular Nyhavn with his “entourage” for a rare meeting with national team manager Staley Solbakken.
You may be the only one with more security guards than in Norway, Ståle Solbakken tells the Prime Minister with a big grin.
It only took two minutes and eighteen seconds for Solbakken and Gahr Store to meet the Prime Minister to pose the question the whole of European football is asking:
When will the clarification come, and where will Erling Braut Haaland (21) end up?
But the decision was clear on Tuesday: Erling Braut Haaland will play for Manchester City in the coming years.
The summit was held in Copenhagen last week between the man who rules Norway and the man who rules Norway.
The PM is clearly curious about the game that was about Erling Braut Haaland. In connection with the meeting with the former national team, the star was withheld from the media. The pressure around Braut Haaland is so intense that Ståle Solbakken has to laugh a little.
– It’s “Merano Circus” a hundred times. The Norwegian Prime Minister’s national team manager said he stands for something that perhaps no one else in Norway has championed before.
Regarding the North India summit in the Danish capital, the Prime Minister met Solbakken in the city where the national team manager still lives.
– Circus Happens Hundreds By Hundreds: It’s clear by Ståle Solbakken that Erling Braut Haaland (21) is into something completely unique.
Although Jonas Gahr Støre is used to a very private daily life with his guards and a lot of pressure, he is clearly intrigued by the game around Braut Haaland and football stars.
– On the other hand, it’s almost completely insane how much money and attention these little boys are getting. On the other hand, there is cross stress in having to take care of one’s health, body and shape. They will combine this with extremely massive interest. I hope he (Braut Haaland) makes good choices and is well taken care of, because he will last for a long time. Your leaders have the responsibility there, says the Norwegian Prime Minister, towards Solbakken.
Big progress has been made: The Prime Minister believes Ståle Solbakken and the national team have something big going. – Norway now has a very interesting raw material, he says in a conversation with Ståle Solbakken. Photo: Daniel Sanom Lawton
Storre’s cardiac arrest response impressed
The meeting between the man who controls the country Norway and the man who controls the national football team to Norway is a meeting between two men who have been respecting each other for several years.
I think it was very exciting to see Ståle’s lead. From being a player to becoming a coach, not least what he achieved here in Denmark and Copenhagen. The prime minister says he is an inspiration for what Norway can achieve abroad.
He was fascinated by Ståle Solbakken’s story and inspiration. On March 13, 2001, Solbakken went to the ground at FC Copenhagen with a cardiac arrest. For a full seven minutes, the 31-year-old Solbakken’s heart stopped.
His playing career has been postponed. Instead, Solbakken focused on training.
– Seeing someone end their career in such a dramatic fashion and then be able to adapt to become one of Europe’s leading coaches often leaves me with Ståle. Being able to bring this experience and skills to become a great supplier in another country is impressive. Becoming a prophet in another country isn’t easy, but Ståle has made it, says Geir Står.
Ståle Solbakken himself has never hidden that he is a Labor Party man. More recently, eleven days before the parliamentary elections last year, He attracted attention when Solbakken was on a live broadcast with TV 2 and it was clear that he wanted to change the government.
– Jonas had an incredible ability to stay with the goal of getting to the final job. I think he deserved to succeed. And then I like foreign policy: without having to deal with it, I think he was Norway’s biggest foreign politician for a very long time. Solbakken thinks he’s the one with the best overview and who easily explains difficult things to me.
Summit: Jonas Gahr Støre was in Copenhagen in connection with the North India Summit last week. Then he also had time to chat with Ståle Solbakken.
– Ståle took an important and right role
Because even though Ståle Solbakken claims he is very narrow-minded and that it is mostly about football and sports, there is a political interest below. In between the fierce matches in Football Europe, Solbakken likes to unwind by reading about politics.
– I’ve followed the history of the Associated Press and read a lot about the heroes of the post-war period and the building of the entire Norwegian society. It’s somehow the little free space I have, he explains himself.
Therefore, it was perhaps not entirely a coincidence that he was more political than the national team coach in his first year as the head coach of the Norwegian national team.
In the Qatar debate, Ståle Solbakken stood on the barricades. While many Norway supporters have spoken out in favor of boycotting the World Cup in Qatar, Solbakken has spoken out in favor of influencing through dialogue.
– I think Ståle was a good politician there. I think he and the Norway national team and the balance they found was a smart way of saying things. Everyone had it with them, and though it was symbolic, many took it well beyond the country’s borders, says Gere Stoer.
Also in the war between Russia and Ukraine, football in Europe took a clear position. The time when sports and politics did not mix is surely over.
I tend to say that football is a language that everyone speaks fluently. It has tremendous unifying power potential. You see Qatar plagued by big money, decisions, and decision-making processes that cannot stand the light of day. Everything related to sports and fun is exposed to these forces. Having a sports leader like Ståle with a moral and political compass is right and important, says Jonas Gahr Stoer.
Ståle Solbakken himself says he felt it was natural for him to take on the role.
“I think it was right and important for me to take this role, so you can probably ask organizational questions about whether I did it,” Solbakken says.
– Yes, what do you think later?
It’s a bygone era. He answers now as we look forward.
Leeds supporters: Jonas Gahr Store is himself interested in football, and in England, Leeds is his team. Here’s the PM in conversation with Joshua King of the national team during the Football School of the Year last year.
I think the national team can unite Norway
The meeting between Jonas Gahr Stoer and Stahl Solbach in the heart of Copenhagen is not actually the first meeting between the two. But only one of them immediately remembers the previous meeting.
– Here you have to help me, Ståle, says the Prime Minister.
– I met you alone once. Solbakken replies that he was in a hotel elevator when FCK was playing away against Beitar Jerusalem.
The settlement was made in 2008.
After some deliberation, Gar Stor remembers.
– He must have been at the King David Hotel! This may be true, yes. We’re the “Middle East team,” says Store.
It is true that the Prime Minister and the national team manager do not work closely together in everyday life, but it is still clear that they can learn from each other – and that the national team plays an important role in Norwegian society.
As a leader of the government, I probably don’t think the mood on the sidelines that Ståle shows is very easy to handle. But I think believing in winning, and still believing in it even when you have adversity, is worth learning from. Then I think we have a fairly common view of the community: the team is what matters. Geir Store says that even if you have the individual skills, it’s the team that delivers the results.
In June, a number of international matches came as Pearls on String for Norway and Ståle Solbakken. Sweden, Serbia and Slovenia are the opponents.
As a former football player, coach and fan, Ståle Solbakken knows what a national team can mean.
Relax with Politics: Ståle Solbakken has never hidden that he is a Labor man. The Norway manager is himself interested in politics and is happy to read exactly that. Photo: Daniel Sanom Lawton
– I think the most attractive thing for people in Norway is the national anthem at Ullevaal, says Ståle Solbakken.
He is concerned that the national team is a team that the Norwegian people want to associate with both on and off the field. Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store believes this could have ripple effects beyond football itself.
– The national team of things that can bring people together. There are a lot of things that can separate us, but the national team with its different backgrounds – and this also applies to the girls – reflects Norway as it is, and there is every reason to be cheerful, says Jonas Gahr Stoer.
Ståle Solbakken’s heart stopped for seven minutes: Life is fragile
“Infuriatingly humble internet trailblazer. Twitter buff. Beer nerd. Bacon scholar. Coffee practitioner.”
