This is what the elbow looked like after the bike flipped over:

The upper arm is yellow and blue. The dressing covers the surgical wound in the elbow.

The signs of Ståle Solbakken’s ugly bike accident a few weeks ago are still visible.

On a narrow street, the coach of the national team arrived very quickly. Standing in front of him was a man Solbakken himself thought was riding a bicycle. But it turned out that it was still perfect.

– Then the choice was to run him over, or sacrifice myself. So I had to sacrifice myself.

Solbakken flew over the wheel and hit the asphalt. His elbow was crushed, and luckily he was wearing a helmet. With two arm fractures, he crawled out onto the asphalt.

As a general rule, Solbakken chose legs as a means of appearing. Preferably jogging.

When the Norwegian national team gathered at Thon Hotel Storo, Solbakken was often seen jogging around the local area.

He is no longer allowed by his doctor.

For 18 months, Solbakken has been suffering from knee pain. It just got worse and worse.

When Solbakken recently went to the doctor and thought he was going to be told about another knee operation, the doctor had even worse news.

– That’s why it was a bike, and it didn’t go well, Solbakken says in the final episode of TV 2 Fotballpunch.

after cardiac arrest And at the end of his career in 2001, running became an important part of Solbakken’s life.

For him, it became a way to restore his health. to regain his life.

After a short period of cardiac arrest, which included 30 hours in a coma and 16 days in the hospital, Solbakken had to test his body to the limit.

He made up his mind at once. The fear of another heart attack would not bother him for the rest of his life.

The form wasn’t great, but the basic form was there, from age in the top sport.

– At first, I was good at following the rules. I walked long uphill, my bike long and ran long distances. I desperately needed to get back on the field, and that was my goal.

The pacemaker’s heart rate monitor signals when it’s gone too far. When the heart rate exceeds 135 beats per minute, the counter beeps.

Pacemaker

A pacemaker is used when the heart is beating too slowly, or if it has stopped. It sends small electrical shocks to the heart and makes it beat. He watches the heart at all times and only initiates it when necessary.

In 2020, there were approx. 30,000 people in Norway have had pacemakers implanted.

source: Norwegian Health Informatics (NHI).

But Solbakhin is running out of patience.

– One day I felt that my body was glowing and that I was in great shape. I ran and ran. I did everything in my power, as much as my body could.

He ran until his body could take it no longer. The heart can take it, but not the body. He sat next to a golf course, near where he lived. There he vomited.

– It was a kind of feeling of freedom for me. I managed to push my body to the limit for a long time. The pacemaker did not respond to him. I didn’t tell anyone, but then I felt like I was about to get my body back, Solbakken says at Fotballpunch.

Only once after cardiac arrest did the pacemaker start kicking. While running in 2009, his chest exploded.

The pacemaker restored the heartbeat. After a short break, Solbakken ran.

Over the years, jogging has become very important Part of the life of the national team manager.

Now you can finish.

The doctor was able to tell Solbakken earlier this year that knee surgery would never make his knee good again, after 18 months of hell.

In his knee there was no cartilage and no cartilage.

– Now it will smell like prosthetics after a long time, says Solbakken.

Knee replacement is the last treatment option for cartilage damage in the knee.

For Solbakken, that means he has probably run for the last time.

– Maybe I’ll have to stop or limit my running so much…

He agrees that an artificial knee will have to be done at some point anyway, but for now he’s trying to delay it with strength sessions and other exercises.

The doctor has two messages. One is that he praised me for my very high pain threshold, and then said that unfortunately he had to disappoint me with a knee, because it had nothing to do with it, Solbakken says.

At the Olivale Stadium, the grass is starting to turn greenIt is the calm before the storm.

The national team manager’s thoughts are very different from two fractures in his left arm and bad knees.

There are more important things at stake for him.

Two fateful battles await. After one point in their first two European qualifiers, Norway will likely count on six points against Scotland and Cyprus.

In any case, if the European Commission’s dream for next summer is to continue.

Solbakken stated that championship was the big goal when he was appointed as the national team manager in December 2020.

But Solbakken was brought directly into the discussion about Qatar and the Corona epidemic.

Or it was not thrown into it. He got into it himself.

– Now I feel for the first time, in recent months, that I can focus solely on football.

He points out that head of football Liz Clavenice and general secretary Carl-Peter Lücken are now dealing with questions not related to how to lead the national team.

He stresses that it is not a criticism of those who were there before them, but rather that the Norwegian Football Association (NFF) was in a phase of turmoil when he took office, so it was only natural for him to step up. Not just for himself, but for the entire NFF.

– None of what is written in my work instructions, but I felt that the NFL was in turnaround mode in several leadership positions. Therefore, it was only natural that I was assigned a much larger role than I should have been.

– Do you regret it?

– No I do not. It’s not like I can’t face things or go to war for things I think are important. On Fotballpunch, Solbakken says there were periods when I might have become too political and confront things that were a little too far from my job.

Ståle Solbakken has never been the best On the football team in childhood. His comrades Kent Bergersen (assistant now in the national team, jor. NB) and Stig Osterode were the best.

– They were ahead of me, – says Solbakken.

At home in Grue they played together, but when Bergersen and Osterud were at U national team meetings, Solbakken was home and training.

He trained hard, but most importantly, he never gave up.

Solbakken was the only one to get national team caps for the trio who ran around Grue in their childhood.

For Solbakken, he is one of those who prove that hard work can defeat talent.

– I was 24 when I first played for Eliteserien, 26-27 when I made my debut in the national team and 30 when I came to the Premier League. I probably reached my peak as a footballer when I was 31-32 years old in Aalborg, then I was at my best.

“I’ve never been as good as I hoped to be,” he admits.

Two and a half years have passed Ståle Solbakken and childhood friend Kent Bergersen took charge of the Norway national team.

Together they took it upon themselves to lead Norway to the championship. The last time the national team took part in the tournament was in 2000, when Solbakkin himself was one of the players.

The first attempt was WC in 2022, but it failed.

The whole nation is now hoping that the childhood friends will take Norway together to the European Championships in Germany next summer.

– What has improved is the game against the firm. When we have to play through a low team. Evidenced by the number of opportunities we create. Our collective attacking play has improved.

Solbakken answers the question of what is not good enough, and whether Norway should be allowed to participate in a tournament with the best nations.

– What we can’t rule out, we have to be honest about, is that we’re very good at defending our area for long periods, but the longer the games go on and the more legs and heads get tired, the more people make too many individual mistakes.

He points out, in particular, the goal of Georgia, which secured a 1-1 draw during the national team’s previous meeting.

– There are ten to twelve minutes where some of our most experienced players do weird things, which should really get them on the spinal cord. This is the danger of playing zone defense, if one or two go down you have to compensate in another way.

It also highlights two examples where players made individual mistakes, and it cost dearly.

Miscalculation by Andreas Hansek Olsen vs Slovenia. And the involvement of Stefan Strandberg and Leo Skerry Ostegaard before the 1-1 goal against Georgia.

– This should not happen, we have to get rid of it, says Solbakken.

A big change from the first two group stage matches is the return of Erling Braut Haaland.

The treble-winner from Manchester City missed the first two games through injury, but now when it really matters, the ice arc is in.

The optimism is great, but the result of poor defeats against Scotland and Cyprus could mean another tournament without Norway.

But the only sure thing is that Ståle Solbakken will continue to lead the national team, even if there is no EC in Germany next summer.

On May 15, the message came that the national football association believes Solbakken is also the right man for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.

– I have papers for that now, Solbakken laughs.

Watch the Football Punch episode by clicking on the link below:

National team manager

tv 2 play