Words Andrew Lawn
Erik Thorsvedt is a Norwegian trailblazer. The first of his countrymen to win the FA Cup and the first to play in the Premier League (incidentally also becoming the Premier League’s first substitute at the same time).
An illustrious playing career earned him almost 100 caps between the sticks for his country including appearing at 1994 World Cup. Domestically, Erik’s career took in two spells at hometown club Viking and Borussia Mönchengladbach, but it was his eight-year spell at Tottenham Hotspurs that brought him the most success – and drama.
“I joined Spurs in 1988, the year Wimbledon’s Crazy Gang won the FA Cup. Even by English football standards at the time that Tottenham team was a crazy bunch and Gazza was not remotely close to being the worst”, Erik begins.
“Terry Venables was our manager at the time. He was very much a player’s manager, not a strict disciplinarian. We could always raise our game for cup games and we showed we had the talent to win those and do well on special occasions, but I think we probably could have done with a bit more disciplining between games in order to be consistent throughout an entire season which is required to win a league. I had been to Germany before Spurs, so I could see the difference. The contrast was immense. In Germany you had to weigh what you ate and what you drank every day; everything was tracked. Also in Germany, if you didn't perform during training for a week, you might not play on Saturday - that wouldn't happen in England. Training there was more about ticking over, it wasn’t really about improving. But the thing was that the English players had so much natural, born talent and their mentality was incredible. They were so relaxed before matches, but then after the warm-up, it was like a light switch. I remember literally seeing people banging their heads against the wall to fire themselves up. In Norwegian dressing rooms before a match it was always so quiet. Nobody wasted any energy, but it was like everybody was like nervous and staring at their shoes. In England, they were relaxed and then boom.”
We couldn’t leave it there. A crazy bunch, in which Gazza was a central figure, but not the worst? Please Erik, go on…
“I remember we played an away game; I think it was at Sheffield United and I broke my nose. It would not stop bleeding. We were on the bus to come back and on the table in front me of me I had all these bloody tissues. Steve Sedgley came walking up the aisle, grabbed them, stuffed them all in his mouth and ate them. He’s a nice guy Sedge, him and Gazza were great mates.
“There was another time when Sedge was sitting in his car and he looked in the rear view mirror and saw Gazza coming out of the changing rooms with a rifle. Sedge knew he was in trouble and tried to race out of the car park as Gazza shot his back windows out. There’s also the famous story of Gazza bringing an ostrich to training.
“It was a wonderful time and great to be a part of it. I was pretty shocked when I first came, but you adapt. It was a lot of fun. But I think there does have to be a line, when it comes to some kind of respect for other people and others property and things like that, you know? It’s really difficult to say what is and isn’t acceptable, or where the line is, so I think within a team, I think you need to set down some rules. For example, we had this fan who used to hang around at the training ground and one time there was a minivan which used to take all our kit to away games sitting in the car park. Gazza put something up on the roof. He then said to this guy ‘John, we have a game tomorrow and I don’t want to break my leg, can you jump up there and get it?’ Of course, John then climbs up onto the roof of this van and Gazza jumps straight behind the wheel, full gas out of the training ground and around a roundabout. John is up there clinging to the roof. He could have killed him. It was pretty funny at the time though.
“I think at Spurs, it almost seemed to me that the club used to be a bit afraid of the players and that if you were too strict, the dressing room would turn against them.”
As Erik alludes to, the team spirit at Spurs, much as it had at Wimbledon before them, may have hindered them over a full league season, but it made them a formidable opponent in the cup. The 1990-91 season was a case in point. Spurs started well and lost only once before December, starting the mont 3rd in the First Division. A disastrous run of 3 wins in their final 21 games followed though and they finished the season bogged down in 10th. However, as their league form disintegrated, Spurs romped through the FA Cup’s early rounds with victories over Blackpool (1-0), Oxford United (4-2), Portsmouth (2-1) and Notts County (2-1) before drawing fierce local rivals Arsenal in the semi-final. Two goals from Gary Linekar added to Paul Gascoigne’s early opener, helped Spurs vanquish the Gunners 3-1 and set-up a memorable final against Nottingham Forest that featured a number of incidents that have entered English football folklore, including Gazza injuring himself with a wild lunge at Gary Charles and a thunderous Stuart Pearce free-kick.
What was it like to be involved and become the first Norwegian to win the FA Cup?
“During the final, I felt like everything was going against us. They scored from the free-kick that Gazza injured himself conceding, then we had a goal ruled out for offside and Gary Linekar missed a penalty - everything was really going against us. We hung in there and equalised just after half-time, before winning it in extra-time.
“After the match I didn't really know what to do. Before the game I was so set on winning that thing that when the final whistle went, I didn’t really know what to do. Do you run around like a headless chicken, or do you sit down and cry? I sort of did a pathetic thing in the middle. After the game, we went to the hospital to see Gazza because we would never have made it without him. He was tremendous, he really carried us there.
“I remember the game took place on 18th May, because the 17th of May is our national day and its massive; there are children’s parades, and street parties and things so the FA Cup final didn’t register back home for a few days. At the time, I didn't really reflect that much on what an achievement winning it was. I think as players – as humans – we are always taught to look ahead; ‘what’s the next thing?’ I have sort of come to peace with myself now and reflected and I do feel some pride. Looking back, playing at the World Cup for my country and winning the FA Cup; they are the main two things from me. I also played in the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, so that maybe third.”
Erik’s appearance at the 1994 World Cup was ultimately a disappointing one as Norway headed to the United States as World Number 2 and in confident mood. In baking hot conditions, Egil Olsen’s side beat Mexico 1-0 to start with a win, but it went downhill from there.
“We honestly believed that we could win the World Cup. The competition for places was incredible, so in training everybody was really, really going for it. The intensity was sky high the whole time. We were ranked number two in the world at the time but then we lost our second game 1-0 Italy who had 10 men for 70 minutes. That was a big blow to our confidence, and we didn't really recover. In our final game we played out a 0-0 draw against Ireland, which would have been enough if Italy or Mexico had won the other game as three of the four advanced, but they drew 1-1 and we were eliminated”.
1994 was also the first World Cup to feature the new backpass rule which had been introduced by FIFA two years earlier following a very defensive Italia 90. As a goalkeeper at the time, Erik was part of the generation who had to completely change the way they played the game, almost overnight.
“The first match I played with the new backpass rule was an international game against The Netherlands and I was so confused. At one point, someone threw the ball to me and I was like ‘can I pick this up?’ It was a big thing at the time. I remember someone suggesting that it would lead to a ‘keeper breaking his leg because we didn’t know what we were doing. I was pretty good with my feet because I used to play outfield a lot when I was a kid, plus in Germany every single training session included 25 minutes of rondos - it was the basis of everything they did and they were so good at it. So, it wasn’t as hard for me to adapt as it was some others. Not because I thought I would be ok, I was one of the few goalkeepers who actually said at the time that I thought it was a good thing because the old rule was ridiculous; give it to a defender, get it back, pick it up, over and over, back and forth. The game has really evolved and improved since its introduction.”
Another reason for Erik’s ability to adapt to the changing environment goalkeepers now found themselves in was the education he received from first watching and then working with his idol, Erik Johannessen who wore the gloves for Erik’s local team Viking.
“I was lucky because the first football match I ever attended was also Johannessen’s first match as a Viking goalie. He was just 18 years old when he made his debut and he was taking over from quite a legendary Norwegian national team goalkeeper in Sverre Andersen and ended up playing 245 games. At that time, Viking won everything, including winning the league, four years on the trot. I thought this is great. Back then, the team used to get changed for the game in the clubhouse which was outside the stadium and through these gates, so after the match they would have to walk along with everyone. I remember being in the crowd of people heading out of the stadium and Erik was walking in front of me, so I snuck up on him and just touched his back. I think I was 10 or 11 years old and it was a big moment for me. I knew then that I wanted to be a goalkeeper.
“He was such a charismatic figure shouting at the defence so loud you could hear him from the stands and sort of clowning around, rolling on the floor. That element of fun and of playing for the crowd stayed with me all the way through my career. For example, I was in Germany for a couple of years and at the time, it was pretty common that the goalies would through their gloves to the fans after the match. I adopted that and started doing it too, but only when we won, so it could be six months between having to buy new gloves. When I moved to Spurs, I kept doing it. There was this one game at White Hart Lane, where we’re 1-0 up in injury time and the referee whistles. I went behind the goal and throw my gloves in, celebrating with the fans. I remember they were very eager, a bit more excited than usual pointing and shouting and stuff, so I turn around and the referee hasn't whistled for full-time, just a free-kick for them and they’re now on the attack… So, there I am standing in the goal with no gloves. It was just a couple of minutes but imagine conceding a goal like that while I was busy behind the goal celebrating a win. I’d have had to leave.
“That sense of fun only came from Johannessen; it was actively discouraged even. I remember I was in trials for the junior national teams and they spoke to the goalies about how they should be reliable, steady goalkeepers - not like Erik - and I was thinking ‘they're wrong’. You might only see the showmanship but underneath that, is a really good goalie. One season I think he only conceded 10 goals, over the whole season. You need to be technically good, but there is more to goalkeeping than doing everything by the book. You have to try and dominate the opposition. That might mean leaping up after a tackle and screaming “don’t touch me” at a striker and using your personality to physically dominate. Mentally you have to be tough too. As a goalie you will make mistakes, but Erik - as the very best ones today do – didn’t care. He just went for the next one. I learned so much from him and the strange thing with Erik is that we have become friends since, so my idol became my friend.”
On the subject of learning from example, Erik’s son Kristian is following in his father’s footsteps, albeit as an attacking midfielder, and is now a regular for the national side.
“There are a few players in the national squad at the moment who had professional footballers as parents; Kristian, Erling Haaland of course and there is Emil Bohinen (son of Lars Bohinen) and Thomas Rekdal (son of Kjetail Rekdal) coming through too. Who knows, maybe it is genetics?
“I think the advantage we have, is that we know how to put just enough pressure on the kids. I used to train Kristian’s team from he when he was five, until he was 12 and you see so many parents who you look at and wonder ‘is your kid here because they want to be here, or is it because their parent wants them to be here? Of course, they need to be pushed a little bit sometimes and sometimes you need to step back because in the end it has to come from themselves. If you push and push and push all the time they don't have the space to find out that they love it too.
“As a parent it is tough watching them because you know that the higher up in the system, you get, the bigger the fall. But I enjoy it too and for Kristian it's a massive bonus because he came from almost nowhere. Back in 2018, he was going to college in the US, because no professional teams wanted him and he didn’t have a contract, so he was going to New Hampshire, everything was settled. My old club Viking had just gone down a division and were rebuilding after lots of players left. I called and asked if Kristian could come and train with them for a few days? They didn’t know him as a player, so I told them ‘He scores goals and he gets yellow cards’. Thankfully, they agreed, he went over and earned himself a contract, and has really kicked on from there, winning Young Player of the Season before Genk came in and offered him the chance to go to Belgium. Now he has this big confidence as well as a big work rate, because he knows he is not a perfect football player, so he compensates.
“We have this saying in Norway about parents being ‘curling parents’. You know in curling they have the sweepers on the broom, who sweep away all the obstacles in front of the stone, smoothing it out. But you need those rough bits. Maybe you don’t play every week, or maybe you’re smaller or not as quick as everyone else. Well, I always said to Kristian, who was smaller than his friends when he was a child, it's better because you have to work harder. Yes, it's easy to say and when you're in the midst of it it is hard, really hard, but I think going through that process has helped. If you just smooth everything and lift kids up, telling them how great they are what happens when they get some problems, or a coach doesn't like them? Are they able to cope with that?”
Kristian, Erling, Emil and Thomas are just four members of what has the potential to be a Golden Generation for Norway, who will hope to end the men’s two-decade wait to qualify for a major tournament sooner rather than later. Erik’s answer for where this wave of talent comes from highlights again the Norwegian tendency to see both sides of a coin.
“I think the main thing is the amount of people who are actually playing football. I think it's something like 78% of 10-year-olds actually play in a club, which is an enormously high number. We can then get a bit concerned when the number drops of people get a bit older, but for me it's ridiculously good that 78% of children are playing. It's natural that some of them will think ‘football is not really for me’ later on. We should be very proud that such a large number of children, boys and girls, are playing football at a young age, and obviously the national teams benefit from that.
“There has been a big drive by the Norwegian Football Federation over the last 10 or 15 years to build new pitches and there are so many artificial pitches all over the country that anyone can just turn up and play on. I've spent so many holidays in Italy, Spain, Portugal, looking for football pitches with my kids because there's not that many. Here they are everywhere they are, and, and we're a pretty big country. So, that’s really good for football.
“We are having an ongoing debate in Norway now about whether it is good that we play on these artificial surfaces, because that's not how they do it abroad. Lots of our elite clubs are ripping up their grass pitches and putting down astro-turf, which is great when AS Roma come to play FK Bodø/Glimt and lose 6-1, but in the long run I'm not sure. One example is Martin Ødegaard. He has grown up on artificial surfaces and probably his best game was when Portugal U21s came to play Norway U21s in Ødegaard’s hometown. He was, two or three years younger than everyone else at the time, but he is spinning this way and that, he is the best player on the pitch and everyone there is like ‘wow this is a talent’. But then he goes to Spain and spends some time on loan, where he is now playing on grass, in the rain and the speed of the game is different; it was difficult for him, so that’s a big discussion right now.
“The other side of the debate is that since these pitches started being built 15 years ago, we are starting to see this very talented generation coming though, so maybe the opportunity to play football is more important than the surface that they are playing on? I think they've benefited from having all these pictures everywhere, because you can just go down, take a ball and just play. That said, I believe that we should try and stick with the grass where possible, so that they have the chance to adapt to that too. It’s a balance.”
Originally published in Issue 7; Norway.
