Youth revolution in Norway

Youth football month on Just Football continues now with a trip to Scandinavia to look at a nation whose faith in youth is beginning to pay dividends. Another first cap, we welcome Vegard Rostad Rinne.

Norwegian football has undergone somewhat of a youth revolution in recent years, having fallen quite badly in standard since the start of the millennium. Let’s look at the factors behind this and the consequences it has for Norway as a footballing nation.

In the late 1990s/early 2000s, Rosenborg and the Norwegian national team were pillars of Norwegian sport, both achieving tremendous success for a traditional minnow like Norway. The national team went from being a comfortable team to beat for anyone with any quality, to being a team that beat Brazil at the World Cup in 1998.

At club level the change was equally massive. Norwegian clubs were used to being beaten by anyone but clubs from the smallest nations, but towards the end of the century in 1997, Rosenborg reached an historic quarter-final in the Champions League. In addition to this, there were Norwegian players everywhere. Manchester United won their famous treble with three Norwegian players in their squad. The export of players was just enormous.

But then the decline set in. Why is that?

The powerhouses that led the climb, Nils Arne Eggen, and Egil “Drillo” Olsen, both retired from their posts. Eggen was the chain smoking, quilted jacket wearing, poetic Rosenborg coach; whos philosophy bases itself on the will to attack. The national team was lead by Egil Olsen, who many will remember from his spell at Wimbledon. The welly wearing communist worked wonders with his counter-attacking 4-5-1, and lifted the team to second place on the FIFA rankings for two months. But what happens when strong, charismatic leaders at the frontline retire?

Rosenborg’s demise was much due to a revolving door of coaches. Old man Eggen’s shadow was still hanging over the new coaches as they became progressively weaker by each season.  And by 2005 they were no longer the undisputed number one. That season saw the title slipping out of Rosenborg’s hands for the first time since 1991.

The national team continued down the same path after Olsen retired in 1998. Nils Johan Semb was the man chosen to take over from Olsen. Semb had previously worked as Olsen’s assistant, and it felt like the safe choice. As with Rosenborg, the success continued for a while. Semb lead the team to their first European Championship ever. But after Euro 2000 it was all downhill.

The league tightened, and the successes abroad were further apart. Rosenborg managed to qualify for the Champions League after Eggen left, but they no longer felt as competitive as they did during their best years. The low came in 2009, when Rosenborg were knocked out by the Azerbaijani side Qarabag Agdam. It was around the same time that the national team reached its lows. At the beginning of 2009, Norway was ranked in 54th by FIFA and the warning lights were starting to go off.

There’s a saying that one accident often follows another. This is also true of the hardships of football in Norway. The global financial crisis was also hitting the world at this time. To add to the problems, this was at the tail end of a decade where Norwegian clubs had spent more money than they had, often financed by rich backers. Clubs all over the country were struggling financially, and it culminated with the first ever bankruptcy of a professional club in Norway, when Lyn had to withdraw from the Adeccoligaen (Second tier) in early 2010.

Youth revolution

Ironically, this might be what saves the future of football in this country. Very few clubs now have the option to buy expensive players, and even those who do often choose not to. Some clubs had good youth systems in place before the end of the 90s. But the issue was that not many utilized them very well. Young players were pushed down because of mediocre foreigners on fat pay checks, and with less potential. It appears many club owners thought that this high of the golden age would never end.

Well it did, and Rosenborg once again were at the frontlines of a revolution. Quietly they had built up an organization to get the district’s young talents up into the limelight. Before 2008, Rosenborg didn’t have any players under the age of 16 signed to their club. They were all at smaller local clubs, but the club realized that they had to get the best training at a younger age, since the amount of local players were quickly diminishing. They knew how important this is to the club and their identity. They didn’t need to do this, as they were heads and shoulders above the rest financially, which again meant they could keep buying players that other clubs could not afford.

Vålerenga are another club, who has realized just how important this aspect of top level football is, and they have especially tried to integrate the immigrants of the east side of Oslo, where the heart of the club lies. And the success is evident. Players like Harmeet Singh, Mohammed Fellah, Adnan Haidar and Amin Nouri would not have got their chance were this the 1990s, when the club was plagued with racism.

Even though the club has always been one of the better in the youth aspect, that was more by default because of their huge catchment area. Now however, they have invested in making their coaches better, giving more training time to their most talented players, and the results have been quick since Martin Andresen took over the helm at the club in 2008.

At the other end of the spectrum, there are still clubs lagging behind. Brann in particular, one of the traditional big clubs, are struggling with an ageing squad, terrible finances and lack of young players ready for first team duty. With the club having lone control over the second biggest city in the country, it’s a wonder that they have not been able to supply more than one player from their own ranks in the last five years. But there could be good news:  Brann’s under-16 team became national champions this year. It looks like even they are now doing a better job.

The last factor is that the number of foreign players has been cut by the clubs. In 2008, at the peak, there were 8,5 foreign players at each clubs. In 2010, the numbers were down to 6,5 per club. This may not sound like much, but when you have two mediocre foreigners taking up squad place, it makes for 32 players for the whole league. Those 32 players are more often than not young, local players. And with a lot of expensive contracts expiring for foreign players, we can expect to see more places open up for young players of the future.

As has been said, the last golden era was lead by Eggen and Olsen. In what could herald a new era of similar strength is the return of the two icons: Eggen led Rosenborg to the title, while Olsen has Norway sitting on top of their group in the qualifying stages of Euro 2012. And though these two were not the biggest proponents of playing young players, it does sound a bit like destiny.

Vegard Rinne is a new contributor to Just Football specialising in Scandinavian football. Follow him on Twitter @therealvegard.

(photo via vortistic on Flickr)

Norway, Norwegian Football, Rosenborg, Vålerenga IF, Youth Football