Kjetil Rekdal - Legendary Norwegian Footballer, Enemy Of Eirik Bakke

Kjetil Rekdal downs the mighty Brazil

by Chris Rock

There was quite a hot "discussion" between Aalesund manager and legendary former Norwegian international Kjetil Rekdal and Brann's former Leeds United clogger Eirik Bakke at the end of the Norwegian Tippeligaen match between Brann Bergen and Aalesund FK recently, which was played at the Brann Stadion in Bergen.

More of that, and a video of the altercation later on, but first a bit of background. Kjetil Rekdal is high up on my list of footballing heroes down the years (2nd only to the iconic Bohemians midfielder and club captain for many years - Kevin Hunt). Rekdal has had a fairly decent career both as a player and a manager. If you remember back to the 1998 World Cup in France, it was Rekdal who converted the last minute penalty in the group stages to beat Brazil (sending NRK's chief commentator Arne Scheie into raptures) and secure progression to the knockout phases for Norway.

That penalty and a winning goal in the 1994 finals match against Mexico makes Rekdal currently still the nation's highest scorer at World Cup finals - ahead of such luminaries as Arne Brustad, Tore André Flo, Dan Eggen and Havard Flo.

Rekdal had a pretty successful spell in Belgium with Lierse between 1990 and 1996 before taking a year in France with Stade Rennes in 1996. He then moved on to Hertha Berlin, where he had another 3 years of German League action totalling some 64 appearances.

However, in 2000 Rekdal decided to return to Norway and joined the Oslo-based Norwegian club side that I support, Vålerenga IF. He had a pretty good 4 year stint with the club at the Ullevaal Stadion - making 116 appearances, and scoring 21 goals in the process - not too bad from a defender/midfielder.

Contemporary Norwegian football - a brief history

In 2001 Rekdal took on the role of player-manager, taking over from Tom Nordlie (now Kongsvinger manager) who oversaw the club's relegation to the second division at the end of the 2000 season. Rekdal's first season in charge saw the club make an immediate return to the Premier Division; Vålerenga finished top of the First Division, losing only 3 games in a 30 game season.

The 2002 season saw the club finish in mid-table, but in 2003 Vålerenga nearly went down again, finishing 12th place out of 14. The club only stayed in the Premier thanks to a 5-3 aggregate relegation playoff win against Sandefjord.

2004 saw the club recover nicely, much better than anyone ever could have imagined. At this point in time Rosenborg (perennial winners of the national title) were going through a certain amount of turmoil. Vålerenga took advantage of this expertly, mounting a serious challenge for the title. For the first time in a decade or so it went down to the last weekend of the season.

Vålerenga beat Stabæk 3-0. However, they missed out on the league title as Rosenborg defeated Lyn, Vålerenga's bitter cross town rivals 4-1 - with the 4th goal being scored in second half injury time. This left Vålerenga and Rosenborg level on both points AND goal difference. Sadly though, Vålerenga had scored one fewer goal than Rosenborg during the entire campaign, leaving Rosenborg as league champions. I watched the whole thing unfold live on the internet via TV2's version of Sky Sports Soccer Saturday. Drama personified, and a gutting way to lose the title.

The 2005 season would unfold in a similar vein but, surprisingly, not with Rosenborg involved. Instead we saw the emergence of Start IK from Kristiansand on the south coast

of Norway, who had been promoted the previous season. The league lead swapped hands between the two on a regular, almost weekly, basis and once again it went down to the final day with both clubs on the same number of points but Start in possession of a slightly better goal difference.

In the end Start lost 3-1 to Fredrikstad (who had to win to avoid going down). Vålerenga managed a 2-2 draw at Odd Grenland meaning that the Oslo club with Rekdal at the helm won the title for the first time in 21 years - the end of Rosenborg's 13 year run winning the title.

2006 however didn't go to plan. 5 points collected in the first 7 games, alarming form which was arrested quickly, saw the club sitting in 6th at the half way point in the season. July was not a good month, culminating in a humiliating exit from the Champions League to Czech team Mlada Boleslaw. The final nail came when, after losing 5 out of 7 games between the end of July and middle of August 2006, Rekdal did the gracious thing and resigned.

The club finished 3rd and Rekdal left with his impressive reputation and respect from the fans intact. After this Rekdal took 1 year management stints with Lierse in Belgium and Kaiserslautern in Germany, neither of which suited him, so he returned to Norway in 2008 to take a job managing Premier Division side Aalesund FK where he remains today.

"Go and drink some more, drunkard"

Anyway that's the background story, onto this small "discussion" I alluded to at the start of this piece. It happened on June 25th 2009 when Brann met Aalesund in the Tippeligaen (the Norwegian Premier League).

The whole thing started as a result of an incident in the 39th minute of the game. Aalesund's Jamaican winger Demar Phillips was tripped in the area by a Brann defender, but referee Kristoffer Helgerud didn't think so, so didn't give the penalty. Cue Rekdal and the Aalesund bench going mental at the officials for not spotting it.

Come half-time, and as the teams are coming off, Eirik Bakke decides to tell Phillips very "strongly" that he thinks he's tried to con the referee by diving - despite being 40 yards away from the incident at the time. Second half comes and goes, with Brann winning the match 2-1. Bakke uses his post match interview to pontificate on of how he thought Phillips had cheated and that Rekdal should keep his views to himself (the irony) and stop whinging at officials.

However, Rekdal happens to be stood nearby waiting to go onto TV for an interview himself and he's been told by some journalists who have seen TV replays that it wasn't a dive at all and should have been a penalty.

What happens next is presented in glorious technicolour in the following video.

For those whose Norwegian isn't up to scratch - a quick summary...

Rekdal tells Bakke "You don’t need to accuse us of diving when we don’t dive”, then telling him to “Shut up and watch the TV”, “Shup up and sod off”, and then for the prize: "Ha deg vekk, du er en alkis. Gå og drikk litt mer nå," - which translates as “Go away, you’re a drunkard, go drink some more”.

That last one in particular seems to hit a nerve, and Bakke has to be physically restrained, rather nonsensically calling Rekdal a “fat pig” as a teammate escorts him down the tunnel. Interesting to note that after taking the trouble to break free of everyone and getting near to Rekdal, Bakke does absolutely nothing - must have been the stare of distain the Aalesund manager gives him...

Quite an entertaining way to end a game I think. And for the record, Rekdal later went into the Brann dressing room and apologised to the Brann team - not that Bakke seems to have taken this with the grace it was intended.

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Chris Rock is a contributor to Just-Football specialising in Norwegian football. He also runs the blog 'The Worcestershire Referee.'