Op-ed in Dagbladet, December 11, 2002
By Frank Benjamin Horn Hartvedt
“Egil Olsen is usually right in what he says, but that doesn’t mean I have the conscience to follow his advice.”
We have heard this statement many times from the Danish national team coach, Morten Olsen, and although the message is a harsh verdict from the former defensive stalwart, it seems as if these words have never really circulated. At least, I haven’t seen anyone take offense at the statement, even though certain people in Norwegian football should.
Know that Morten Olsen has respect for the little boy who, during recess, dances past his classmates with elegant dribbles, delighted by the joy of playing. He knows that this boy is one of the relatively few capable of handling a football in such a way. And he feels humility toward the boy who has managed his talents better than his neighbor. There is nothing pathetic about such a perspective, even though many see football as a fun leisure activity and nothing more.
Football is one of the highest forms of art. It should go without saying that masterful execution of this art is treated with awe. Terry Venables once said: “I never thought I would experience a player with a right foot as sensitive as a hand. Then I met Glenn Hoddle.” While many have the potential to become good technicians in, say, handball, relatively few manage to turn their foot into a hand. This achievement earns top status because of its difficulty. And that is why Morten Olsen shows humility and respect.
Egil Olsen did not do that when he introduced his “effective football” in the 1980s.
How could Egil Olsen have the conscience to promote his effective football when he himself supposedly was once among those few football artists with a hand for an instep? Let there be no doubt: take a look at training sessions and matches at Norwegian junior and senior elite levels, and notice the chorus of coaches on the sidelines every time a player performs actions that aren’t useful for scoring goals. Twenty years ago, so-called ineffective dribbling moves were applauded, and the applause came naturally from people who recognized art and respected the artist. Today, the artist is gagged, typically by men with diplomas and academic titles, who themselves never managed to juggle a ball twenty times with their instep. And that is just embarrassing.
Little is uglier than people who redefine art in order to give themselves a significant role on a stage they would otherwise never be qualified to set foot on. Betrayal is uglier, and Egil Olsen should be ashamed.
Morten Olsen likely sees that long diagonal balls across the pitch from Stig Inge Bjørnebye to towering target forwards can create dangerous goal-scoring opportunities, especially if there are long-distance runners who can run circles around those target forwards and collect balls falling from their heads in the opponent’s penalty area. Yet he refuses to subject his players, his artists, to such a new form of athletics. Perhaps because he was an artist himself.
Egil Olsen and his disciples are, if it means anything, people without honor – capable of conquering a territory that should belong to those who, in the years after the schoolyard, managed to turn their foot into a hand. Don’t get me wrong: this is not about raising young players to become egoists, but merely a plea to give the young football talent calm and the opportunity to display their art in an atmosphere with considerably more freedom of choice, which I am convinced will produce plenty of goals and, not least, beautiful entertainment in the long run. Let the artist be free from holding back for fear of reprisals from the coaching community. And stop with petty points about Norway’s supposedly lacking prerequisites for competing internationally.
Our neighbors have won both the European Championship and a World Cup bronze in the last ten years. Perhaps it takes a few years to produce a pair of Laudrup brothers, but we will take that time, out of respect for the young boy in the schoolyard. Do as Denmark: hire coaches with a conscience.
(Image: Facsimile from Dagbladet, 2003. The op-ed “Embarrassing Disempowerment of the Football Artist” by Frank Benjamin Horn Hartvedt. This article was a response to Egil Olsen’s rebuttal of “Egil Olsen Should Be Ashamed”)