Life’s rosy at Rosenborg

Rosenborg have it all their own way in Norway. But for how long? Winning his first cap for Just Football, Charlie Anderson has more.

You may be aware of Rosenborg. They’re the club in Norway that people have actually heard of. The 2010 Tippeligaen championship, in which they lost not one of their thirty games, was RBK’s twenty-second league title. In the end-of-season Kniksen awards for Norwegian football’s best and brightest, five of the twelve players nominated play for the Trondheim club. They play in the biggest stadium¹, buy the best players and enjoy the occasional jaunt in the Champions League group stage. This is, in short, the arrogant, swaggering Goliath of Norwegian football. So why should there be any cause for concern?

Firstly, the dynamic of Norwegian football is starting to shift. Due to the kind of processes that generally shuffle lazily under the globalisation umbrella – such as the broadening of scouting networks and improvements in communications – the Trondheim hegemony is being challenged. Ole Solskjær’s new team Molde, for instance, have a diaspora of Senegalese players making a significant contribution – Baye Djiby Fall and Makhtar Thioune prominent among them.

This season’s runners-up Vålerenga, meanwhile, are looking to profit in a slightly different way. The Oslo side have brought several young Norwegian players into the first team, and are beginning to reap the rewards. Mohammed “Moa” Abdellaoue, Harmeet Singh and Mohammed Fellah have all made an impact on VIF’s first team of late.

The fact that there is now a huge potential market for these players abroad loosens Rosenborg’s stranglehold. They still cherry-pick from other Norwegian clubs – Anthony Annan arrived from IK Start in 2008, and Morten Moldskred from Tromsø in January – but they are no longer able to simply hoover up all the country’s talent and ensure domestic hegemony for a generation. Interest from overseas also means that clubs like Molde and Vålerenga are able turn huge profits on player sales – Manchester United signed Molde’s Mame Biram Diouf in 2009, while Hannover shelled out over a million Euros for Mohammed Abdellaoue in the summer. These player sales mean that, in the financial sphere at least, the playing field is levelling out.

Despite their success, Rosenborg also have problems on the pitch. The coach, Nils Arne Eggen, is a grizzled old veteran and a shameless ideologue. His philosophy revolves around a 4-3-3, but far from a Mourinho-inflected one. This is 4-3-3 inspired by Rinus Michels, Total Football tweaked for the modern age. And Eggen makes no compromise on his attacking intent, almost always playing three certified, paid-up strikers at the same time. Seeing the forward triumvirate of Morten Moldskred, Steffen Iversen and Rade Prica in full flow is certainly something to behold, particularly when they’re supported by Norway’s two brightest midfield prospects in Per Cilijan Skjelbred and Markus Henriksen.

It does however, have groaningly inevitable consequences at the other end, where long-suffering Ghanaian midfield tussler Anthony Annan does almost all of the donkey work.

The quality of Annan as a holding midfielder means that RBK rarely pay the price in league play, but in Europe it’s a different story. With the right tactics and mentality, Rosenborg could have teams from warmer climes dreading the trip to Trondheim, but in the recent Europa League match Atlético Madrid came away from Lerkendal with a comfortably easy victory.

Another Nordic side, FC Copenhagen, throw the Eggen problem into stark relief. Their tactical flexibility and ability to adapt to European football has taken them to the brink of knockout-stage qualification. Compare and contrast with Rosenborg who, having been knocked out of the Champions League by Copenhagen, now face likely elimination from their Europa League group after three losses from their first four games. In terms of personnel there is no significant gulf in quality, but tactically the two sides are oceans – decades – apart. It is somewhat telling, in short, that despite the unbeaten season and the seven-point gap by which Rosenborg won the title, Nils Arne Eggen was not among the Coach of the Year nominees.

Of course, none of this is intended to imply that Rosenborg are in the midst of some institutional turmoil, or poised on the edge of interminable decline. This is still the biggest club in Norway, and it’s still unthinkable for a domestic trophy not to end up in Trondheim. RBK still – for the foreseeable future at least – have the best infrastructure and the greatest overseas reputation. It is also to their advantage that Trondheim is essentially a one-team town – no other club comes close to competing with, let alone rivalling, the Rosenborg behemoth.

But there are signs that the tide is starting to turn. Aside from the process of financial equalising discussed above, there are promising signs for the best of the rest in the Tippeligaen. The title found its way to Vålerenga in 2005, Brann in 2007 and Stabæk in 2008. While only Vålerenga have been serious contenders since (in Scandinavia, inconsistency is the scourge of the also-rans) the variety of champions indicates that the thirteen-year streak of consecutive Rosenborg titles is unlikely to be repeated.

Certainly with Vålerenga looking menacing and Molde likely to bounce back from a horrible 2010, we could be set for a closely-contested title race next year. Even Stabæk could be set for a resurgence under Jan Jönsson, the man who won them promotion and a first-ever league title. Had Jönsson not, of course, already been anointed as Eggen’s successor at RBK. There’s an old saying: Plus ça change, plus championnats pour Rosenborg.

1 Aside from Vålerenga, who play at the national stadium in Oslo.

Charlie Anderson is a freelance Scandinavian football writer. Follow him on Twitter @LucianoSays.

(photo via Mr. B of the North on Flickr)

Norway, Norwegian Football, Rosenborg