England's 4 AM Mayhem, Trump's FIFA call & Why Norway's not JUST Haaland

0:02This is a global production. Is this the most brilliant England performance since the World Cup final of 66? Something that gets said a lot in football and in sports is like show personality, don't hide. And none of those England players were hiding. And because of how intelligent Bellingham is, he then makes the opposite run to the back post. I promise you that is the quality that is so underrated. If Balogun is the difference between Belgium and USA and scores the match winner, you know, then you can see Trump claiming victory. He starts off with a suspended red card. Next thing maybe is the referee.

0:37You know what I mean? Maybe next thing you have a bye all the way to the final.

0:49Hello and welcome to the Sports Agents. Yeah, it was a crazy game. We had to fight. So how's your voice, Nedim? What did you say, Gabby? I'm doing all right. I am doing all right. It was quite a night, but I didn't have to do any shouting because it was middle of the night. That was from the sublime to the ridiculous, that post-match interview, wasn't it? And even Kelly Summers, who was interviewing him, kind of had a giggle in her voice because I felt like he needed water. We should probably explain. if you didn't stay up last night, the post-match interview with Harry Kane, which has now gone viral and is probably the subject of a kind of, it'll be number one in the charts of somebody who'll mix it with something.

1:27But that was the post-match atmosphere. We were on the WhatsApp group for the sports agents. There were various comments flying in and out during that. But did you stay up for the whole, like did you stay up or go to bed at all? How did the evening pan out for you? Listen, the first question you should ask is, have I slept? Have you slept? Yes, I have. Thank you very much for checking in. Thank you. but I stayed up to watch the Norway-Brazil game which in fairness was really good to get me excited for the next game and then I was like I can't really sleep through this my kids were trying to stay up one by one one down, another one down, another one down so there were quite a few firemen's left to get them into bed and then before I knew it after watching Joe Hart look miserable miserable when Kelly says you know the game's been delayed by an hour I was like okay let me figure this out But yeah, I stayed up.

2:17I stayed up to watch it. I watched it with the radio comms on. And it was really, really interesting to be talking about something where they don't expect people to be able to have the images as well. And you could hear some of the anxieties. You could hear the crowd really well. It was really atmospheric. And yeah, I think I really enjoyed the experience, to be honest, Gabby. Well, I popped an alarm on, for one. And I thought I'm going to get a couple of hours sleep after Norway had conquered Brazil. I'm going to go to sleep. I'm going to get up and get straight into the game. so I wasn't going to be able to watch The Builder but I thought, no, I'm doing a match tonight, you see, Nadim.

2:48As well as this, I've got tonight so I thought, I've got to pace myself. I got up, I went downstairs, Ruben had got up. I said, Rubes, it's delayed. So we both went back to bed and everybody and then Kenny went back to sleep. We all went to sleep, got up again and obviously it was happening because they said an hour but you're thinking it could be two, you don't know. But then as my children, I couldn't give Ruben a fireman's lift ever, I don't think since he was about eight but didn't make it up. didn't make it up then they were like they just slept through alarms so it's kenny and i on our own which was um was a lovely actually very lovely very very nerve-wracking experience and as the birds started to tweet and the lights started coming through the windows you know the cracks in the curtain and stuff it did feel like you wanted to go outside and see who else was out there because it's a lovely little pub where we're living at the moment and they were having friends and family lock-in last night and i was kind of listening out to see if the friends and family were making their way home at five o 'clock in the morning um it was special it was kind of where were you did you stay up type moment wasn't it 100 and obviously not everyone can stay up not everyone should have stayed up but the fact that you almost stayed up puts you in this sort of like group of people who felt that who felt that emotion at silly o 'clock you know time all of a sudden didn't matter when it was like 11 minutes put on the on the board with england three two up and down to 10 players you know but what a game by the way should we talk about that should we talk about the incidents from that it was a game i mean a lot of hyperboles come out this morning but i want to know from you if it is hyperbolic you know is this a game for the ages is this the most brilliant england performance since the world cup final of 66 oh well i'm gonna say that um i wasn't really around in 66 so my comparison yeah if we're gonna talk about like genuine recency bias then i think i'm gonna be leaning towards this game but i think there was obviously a lot of talk about the conditions from the fans at the stadium being mostly mexican to the sort of the polluted air to the altitude you know all these things were going to be factors and i was interested to see how they were going to start the game and start the game in a manner to which they understood that they can't they can't do too much but they've got to be able to show mexico that there's something there and i thought gordon and a few others were very much on the front foot making runs that many people probably wouldn't have anticipated they'll be doing and listening to the radio again, it was good to hear from the, at halftime, the assistant manager talking about how they were happy, they were going to be happy with 0-0 after that first break.

5:15So I was like, okay, so that was interesting and then you enter that second part of the half, or I don't want to say the Q word, you enter the post-hydration break time and England, they push on and the dynamism that they show is what many people didn't expect and to be doing it, say, against the Mexico side who probably aren't used to teams setting up in that manner is huge. And I've got to say, from an ex-pro's perspective, the first goal, the Bellingham header, there's a reason why I was saying before the tournament that Bellingham should play. And I think he's understanding of how Harry Kane works means the two of them work really well in tandem.

5:51And it was something which happened for that goal. Obviously, Declan Rice makes a great run down the right-hand side. Saka puts a great ball into the box. But if you were to look at Kane and Bellingham as Saka is drifting towards the right-hand side, they're watching each other's movement and Harry Kane takes a march just ahead of Bellingham makes a cut towards the back post and darts towards the near in that moment because of how intelligent Bellingham is he then makes the opposite run to the back post in the shadow of the Mexican defenders that level of in-game understanding and making sure you hit the right areas and the ball in from Saka I promise you that is the quality that goes like underrated it's so underrated and is that also a measure or a marker of what Tuchel has said from the very beginning that this team is going to get better and better.

6:35The more time they spend together, the more they understand each other. Do you think we're seeing that? Possibly, possibly. Like, I'd be worried if they spent more time together and they got worse. You know what I mean? But what I would say is I think that's a level of, like, understanding from the two players that sort of sets them apart from others. I think, as I say, it's a great ball into the box from Saka with his weaker right foot. But you still need players to hit the areas and to time the runs. Like, that run timed in from Bellingham is as good as it comes. but again after that goal and that moment's like oh my gosh England have the lead I need to give credit to Elliot Anderson because he starts that second goal basically from kickoff he's the one who takes a step forward to try and win the ball back it's the easiest thing in the world Gabby to like score a goal and say okay we're done here we're away from home everything's fine but that level of aggression again it surprised the Mexicans and then Bellingham again Kane Bellingham they have their moment and you know at this point I'm thinking is this going to be the most underwhelming win that's ever been seen because England are just far better than Mexico no of course not of course not of course not and yeah so for the for them Mexico to score on it to be two and a half time it's a it's a really good first half performance but you still have the question marks because you know at some point Mexico are going to throw everything at them so it's to just summarize the first half I loved it from a pure footballing perspective the storylines the narratives the approach is i thought it was brilliant and then to go down to 10 men when you're in an environment like that it's not just the hostility but as you pointed to it's going to get harder and harder physically because of the conditions and the altitude so the 10 men left and the nine outfield players left on the pitch are going to have to work that bit harder yeah for sure and the fact that like the kwanzaa red card was in the 54th minute i think in terms of drawing up a plan to make things as comfortable for yourself as possible it's definitely not there but to be fair gabby as we know with uh this world cup now maybe kwanzaa will play in the next game who knows well we might get into that but we just need to make sure that donald trump feels as aggrieved about that red card as he did about baligan's red card yeah you know i mean when is when is a red a red well it depends who the president is but um just postpone it suspend it just suspend the suspension to acknowledge that like acknowledge that there was something that happened you're not going to rescind it you're going to acknowledge it but just just put it to the side we've got a game coming up yeah so anyway that comes in our whatsapp group was shambles but anyway let's move on from that yeah so going down to 10 was interesting again and i think in some ways the nature of this game itself i you as you probably saw in the group chat i still fancied england the reason i fancied england was just because for this game itself they had really strong defensive roots and foundation already established it wasn't a game where they had like 60 70 possession in fact at halftime i think they had 37 so that's very unlike this england team throughout this tournament and you would say generally so them losing a player like um i think one of the misconceptions that i believe exists within football discussions is that losing a player means that everything has to change it's infinitely harder but what you do is you give them the spare player further up the field in terms of like in their defense but you still have all the right people in the right areas and I think for the way that Gordon was running forward and the way Kane could win some of his duels which is what led to that penalty incident you always know that you've got a chance so for England it didn't really have to change their approach too much because I was again I was hugely impressed by the players because something that gets said a lot in football and in sports is like show personality don't hide and none of those England players were hiding and also to give Jordan Pickford credit he made some great saves but he loved kicking that ball altitude.

10:12He knows that's going 10 % further. I've never seen so much joy at somebody whacking the ball forward like him. But yeah, the penalty comes, Kane makes it 3-1. And for the way that England were defensively, because people have asked questions about them in defence, but I think each game is different. But the players that they have out there, I thought Konza was excellent, thought Gehi was excellent. I thought the vast majority of the back line was excellent. Stones does a job, comes on and does a job. Listen to who was saying does a job though, John Stones, does a job. Yeah, but Dan Byrne comes on and does the job.

10:39Does a job, yeah. incredible absolutely incredible it was it was it was heroic defending yeah and it was incredibly nerve-wrackingly entertaining in a perverse kind of way yeah sick it was absolute sicko type stuff and then you know obviously Jimenez scores his penalty and you know there were a few arguments about how it's soft and then Darren Kan to be fair he came from the top rope and said but how about the Modric penalty yeah in England's first game against Croatia it's like okay no worries no always we'll carry on yeah um but the defending i'll be honest as a former player and as a former defender are games like that where there's real joy to be had in looking around and seeing everybody around you is committed to trying to achieve the same objective doing everything you can to get your head onto a ball to be making tackles to be defensively solid and to go to battle with your peers and for that england team the way that they had to do it is probably more galvanized than in a game where they probably have 70 possession they must the belief they have in each other must have just cemented and solidified last night in a way, as you say, that if they cruised to a 3-0 win, they would, and hadn't been tested in that way, they'd have thought, great, we're in this World Cup.

11:47But they're in this World Cup in a different way now and maybe feared in a different way. But Bellingham said that he felt previous England teams might have crumbled under that pressure. And the thing that really I took away from last night was the personification, the almost tangible spirit that was coming through that group? Because you hear the talk, you know, we've got great team spirit. We're really together in this and we're all playing for each other. And the manager uses that language a lot, but you saw it last night. You really saw it and felt it. And to see, you know, I mean, Jordan Henderson gets his yellow on the sidelines and then goes and trips up and breaks his wrist.

12:24It's like the whole night was just, it was chaos, wasn't it? Yeah, I'll be honest. Jordan Henderson is a friend of mine and I didn't know anything about him falling over because some get booked so I didn't know anything about it falling over and then I watched the video back this morning and he's not doing a great job for all those older fellas like Jordan man I hope you're okay I hope this tournament's not done for you it was the oxygen I saw the oxygen and I could see these teammates around him thinking that looks quite serious and obviously Harry's going well Jordan's had a little fall well sorry Jordan's had a little fall he's had a little fall even that's making the old boys in his set up not look good but you're right though the togetherness that they showed was massive.

13:06Because again, we can have a discussion around whether they deserved it or they didn't. But one thing that they did was they earned it. Everybody had to be pulling in the same direction. And that's exactly what they were doing from say Harry Kane's, Bellingham's, the runs forward from Gordon, the runs forward to support, like getting you throwing your body on the line, say Pickford coming out. Like everybody at the end of that game knew they'd have been in a match. And I think that is how many of us perceived the game would be. And for some, the question mark would be, would England be able to fight through that?

13:34Because we've seen adversity in the past and other teams crumble. But for this England side, it was their day. And to sum it up for me, I thought Jude Bellingham was brilliant. That's not a unique thought. And I think he's been great throughout this tournament. But just before the final whistle, there was a ball which he maybe could have intercepted, but he couldn't move to get there. I think when somebody gives their absolute all and you can see it, and you look around you and see that other people are doing the same. And that's from your stars, by the way. I think that very much sets the tone.

14:00He's young and he's incredibly well-prepared. for this but that was an energy sapping performance as you just pointed to there they've got to get back to their base camp today they've got a few days before they then journey again how how will they handle this next few days do you think i think um when i think about like this england national team whether it's men's women and so on is that they have enough resources to be able to have the best people in play to have plans for what should happen next and it won't be reactive you know they would have been thinking about this for months in advance if not years this is the potential route these are the places we'll be going to after this game we're going to do this we're going to do that and it's not going to be stuff that's done on the fly so I think there's an emotional come down that will be there alongside the physical one but he might not feel that yet until the adrenaline sort of wears off because this is like I think Jude Bellingham said himself this is definitely the best night of my England career obviously he's had a few nice nights for Real Madrid so he's not said too much there but from his England career as the third youngest player and the history maker you know it's huge but there is fatigue that's going to be in there there is this level of like you've got to be careful about over celebrating this moment because there is another time you said it yourself before like before we started speaking it feels like england have won something but they're just into the next round so i think tukor and those around them the experienced players like harry kane was saying before that after the our congo game you know enjoy this moment and so on and so forth i think for this game we say yes enjoy it but now the work is not done and we're very very close to achieving something that they generally believe that should be able to do yeah and um it was a night where or it's a 24 hours you've talked about Balogun where Donald Trump really kind of stepped into this World Cup he's been remarkably low-key and inconspicuous and uh and and and Harry Kane will be thrilled to know that um he called him out on his true social Harry Kane is a great player Okay, so what is funny when all the story was breaking out and it came some of it because Donald Trump had put something on true social about FIFA Overturning the decision.

16:03I was like, well, he's a hundred percent involved in the decision because the president himself I don't think there's ever been a moment in his life where he hasn't sought credit for something He's not got his fingertips on you know So whereas most people like to have the corruption in the background It's great. Isn't this an incredible thing? So it's concerning the suspension of the suspension to allow somebody to play but the card still kind of exists for some reason that is quite alarming and I think um as a positive the only credit I'm prepared to give him in this instance is that he's been far less visible than he was at the club world cup a year ago but that's not to say that that will not change in the next couple of weeks I feel like that little shot across the bow that little intervention is a creep and and he he will then realize yeah how oh everybody listened to that because the world loves soccer right I'm in and if USA win and they are through to the next round then we have a whole different level I think of yeah sure yeah hey listen it starts off with a suspended red suspended red card next thing maybe is the referee you know what I mean maybe next thing you have you have a buy all the way to the final but I think what I've struggled with with this um Balogun red card situation is the way that people speak about it as if the card was rescinded like I genuinely believe because of what's happened you don't need to talk about whether Do you think it was a red card or not?

17:21Because we need to look at the sanction itself and how it has been suspended and what that means. And, you know, they didn't say that they're overturning it. So that means they're acknowledged that it was potentially a red card or probably a red card. So how does that mean that... So it just means that he's allowed to play then. Ah, you know, he did this, but he's fine. You know, somebody spoke to us. So yeah, we want you. You're entertaining, so you should play. Belgium are obviously appealing. I mean, good luck with that, Belgium. but if Balogun is the difference between Belgium and USA and is and scores the match winner you know then you can see Trump claiming victory a personal I mean it would be his win right oh gosh do you know um there's so much to this Gabby and I just I wonder if the president knows that Balogun could have played for England and was playing for England beforehand because you know to do to get him cleared on independence yeah listen maybe he's as American as America comes now because the president has intervened and helped him out you know yeah well a quick reminder you can catch up on previous episodes on youtube global player or wherever you get your podcast we'd love you to subscribe or follow and leave us a review uh coming up after surviving the siege of the azteca there's no let up for england's defense a norwegian guy called erling inga harland born in leeds is up next uh we're going to be joined he's not up on the podcast sadly he's a bit busy today but we are joined by norwegian football writer and broadcaster lars civetson

18:49Lars, thank you for coming on the podcast. I know it's very early for you in Dallas, but you must be waking up with the biggest, broadest smile. To quote Erling Haaland, he said this morning, I heard the quote, he said that he didn't necessarily believe that Norway could overcome the giants of Brazil. Then he said something like, maybe I was wrong and maybe there are things that even I can believe can come true. does it feel like that like a dream come true yeah no it is it is nuts uh i i was extremely confident before the ivory coast game like deep down being a stoic norwegian i wasn't very loud about this but they running up to the ivory coast game i did think deep down that this will be fine i did not think that yesterday um and i i was i'd already made my peace with yeah you know we've we've gotten to uh we've won a knockout game we're facing brazil and they're very muggy conditions we'll probably lose, but this is okay.

19:45It's an absolutely remarkable achievement. And it's even more remarkable for the fact that we basically outplayed them in parts, I would say. I mean, we had so much possession in that game, which is a really odd thing to see a Norwegian team do. We had this golden generation in the 90s as well, you'll remember, but our success then was built entirely on a combination of physicality and tactical acumen. We had a coach at the time, Egil Olsen, who is a genius in his way, was a pioneer, is a legend to us. But he had a fundamental belief, and it was backed by some science, that most goals are scored after a very few number of passes.

20:20So he believed that if you have the ball for too long, you might as well hoof it like you're probably not going to create anything. You should just get rid of it. So watching us kind of play the ball as comfortably as we did and how comfortably our possession Brazil is bizarre. But this is something the coaching staff said after the game, that they actually worked on convincing the players that they are as good as Brazil. Because we are humble Norwegians, I think, but you have to believe that you can do these things. So it's actually Breda Hangeland, the former Fulham defender, is a part of the staff, the coaching staff now.

20:52And he said after the game, they'd really worked with convincing the players that they are as good as Brazil and that this is a 50-50 match for them. Lars, in regards to, say, Norway's position at this tournament, before the tournament started, lots of people talked about them as dark horses. But then when the tournament goes on itself, you see the sort of real reaction of, say, Erling Haaland, for example, after the second game saying, I don't care about the France game. We've made history. You know, we're in the knockouts. How are you finding it as peoples to both have a level of expectation from the outside, but you guys are still very much having your own sort of underdog reality from the inside?

21:25Yeah, that's a really good point. The thing I keep trying to tell people from the perspective of a Norwegian is that you guys need to understand we'd never won a knockout game in the World Cup before this, you know. our generation from the 90s who got to second in the FIFA rankings and beat England beat Italy beat the Dutch they didn't do well in tournaments we didn't do anything in 94 and we did have our glorious win against Brazil in 98 but then we lost in the first knockout round and we're bad really in the other games so we'd never gone to a tournament and really lived up to our billing so I understand that when people look at the Norwegian team on paper Martin Ödgård, Erling Haaland, Alex Soloth.

22:05There's some big players there. You're not shocked, maybe as a neutral, to see Norway beat Senegal, beat Ivory Coast. But for us, the idea of actually going to a tournament and really making an impact, we'd never done it before. And the players know that. The players know it very well. Three of them have got dads who played in 94. Stola Solbakken, the coach, was there in 98. So they're battling this kind of legacy, not just of having gone 28 years without qualifying, but also knowing that we'd never actually been able to achieve anything in a tournament before in our entire history. And that sort of thing weighs pretty heavy, which is why there was such extraordinary relief after both the Senegal and the Ivory Coast games.

22:43I understand why, just based on paper, you see us as dark horses, but it feels more of an underdog thing for us. Lars, I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but on the match I was doing, on the Ivory Coast game that I was doing with Wayne Rooney, I suggested that you could beat Brazil and then potentially face England in a quarterfinal and Wayne Rooney said he would row down the Mersey River because obviously we were talking about the rowing that happens at the end of your matches. So that was on a different WhatsApp group that I was involved with last night. Wayne's suggesting that I'm somehow also going to be in this boat.

23:19I think we're definitely going to make that happen. But I think there is this belief in this team and their connection with their fans that for me has been one of the glorious sights of this World Cup. Those Norwegian fans who have just brought so much joy, so much drama and theatre. But I think Bellingham also touched on this last night about the England fans and the connection with the players. There is definitely that with those Norwegian fans there. Yeah, I think that connection is very real. And I think that has been a thing really since we qualified as well. We had a big party at the town square in Oslo.

23:56A lot of people came out in the cold weather to celebrate with the team. The team all wears sort of gold-colored coats. I'm not sure that was a sartorial decision that was open for some questioning, but there was a sense of togetherness, and I think it matters a lot. I think the players have felt, again, these 28 years of not qualifying for anything, and also just becoming a nearly team. It's not that they just went 28 years without qualifying, but they kept failing at the last hurdle, like at the playoff games, at the crucial games. We had three decades almost. It's mad. It's a third of a century.

24:35Holland said both after the Ivory Coast game and after this game that he thinks it'll change Norway. What does he mean by that? What is he pointing to? He wants us to learn from Brazil, which sounds nuts in the context of when he's saying it. But what he meant was that he wants, and he said this, I want the national team to be the biggest thing for a young player. I want the young kids who start playing football now to have playing for the national team as their ultimate dream. And the way that, you know, Brazilians and a number of South American cultures, the national team is more important to them than the club team.

25:08It just is. It's the biggest thing. And Haaland will know this, having had Brazilian teammates. And he admitted when I was young, I didn't really think about playing for Norway. Like, that wasn't my biggest thing. He said this. And I want this to change. I want kids who are watching this to see coming here and playing with me as the highest tier, as the biggest dream. I think that's a really wonderful sentiment and incredible thing to come up with immediately after that game. So I think Haaland's been brilliant at this tournament, not just for his goals himself, but for some of the stuff that you're speaking about there.

25:36Because the way that I see him, and I'm lucky enough to have watched him for Man City for a few years now, is that he has the spirit of a child footballer, but the understanding of an icon. so he knows what all these moments mean to you know to the fans but I think he understands that because that's what it means to him I remember how he spoke before the World Cup in 22 and how sad he was that he wasn't there but he's like I'm going to be watching all the games like that's the youthful amateur spirit of the guy and that determined that determination is one of the reasons why he's at this World Cup and every time he scores every time he has a big moment I think he understands the gravity of what it means for himself and the nation so it's been incredible I've got to warn you though, Lars When you said I quite fancy England That's not very Norwegian of you to say something like that I know And worse still, yesterday I was on a show before the game With Janager Fjoltoft And he was saying how he's really nervous And he's like, oh that's really good But then he finished by saying, but I think we beat Brazil These are dangerous times for the Norwegians, Lars I think you guys need to look at yourselves Before you get into trouble With all due love and respect for Janager He's always been a little bit like that He's always been a very confident man He sticks out a little bit in Norwegian society, and I don't think he'll mind me saying that.

26:52I think it's one other thing I want to bring, since you mentioned the difference of Haaland playing for City and playing for Norway. I thought it was remarkable how patient he was yesterday. Haaland is a good teammate. He's a positive guy around the dressing room. He's always been very well-liked in all the dressing rooms he's been a part of. But at City, he will sometimes show some frustration with the level of service. If he's not getting the passes he wants, he will say a few words and shrug a little bit. But he never does that for Norway at all. And I think it is because he realizes he's not playing for City now.

27:25He's not going to get five, six chances in a game. He's probably going to get one or two. And I think he completely accepts, even in these high-stress situations, that his teammates are maybe not at quite the same standards as they are at club level. He's going to have to be more patient. And he's really positive in his demeanor and his body language, even though he had to really wait for it. And I think that's a really big thing for him as a leader in the group. Obviously, there have been some spectacular goalkeeping performances across this tournament. Nyland, you can add into that now. And a keeper who isn't really playing as much club football as maybe he would have liked for Sevilla.

27:59And then you've got Bodo Glimp players in that team, the likes of Berger, who we all championed them as the underdogs through the Champions League this season, who've had some giant killings against bigger... Gabby, stop it, Gabby. Dude, don't talk about Bodo Glimp. Don't talk about Bodo Glimp. It's still too soon. It's still way too soon. But that in itself, I think, that must breed a kind of sense of, you know, oh, we shouldn't be underestimating ourselves. You know, if we have this togetherness, this spirit, if we can get the ball a couple of times to our star man in the game, in the right position, in the box, he will probably score.

28:32We've just got to make sure that, you know, we are serving him the best we can. But it isn't a sense of there's no Ronaldo, let's say, about this situation, obviously that where you've got somebody who is maybe strangling the kind of you know the creativity and the flow of a team it's not like that with Norway you've got a star man who understands where he is in this team yeah we have two very clear leaders of the group in Martin Nadergaard and Aling Holland and I love the fact that they're such different leaders because Martin Nadergaard is a really well-spoken guy really intelligent uh eloquent guy who's who's definitely drive standards but it's a calm sort of thoughtful conscientious style of leadership it was i was sometimes like playing the game of thinking like what would these guys be doing if they weren't professional athletes and with martin the other goal he'd be like the mayor of a small town or something like i reckon that is something having had a successful small architectural practice maybe yeah yeah yeah yeah and then yeah he'd be that kind of guy uh and he's and he is a really like i don't i know there's been some debate about this in the context of Arsenal but if you if you watch him on the pitch for Norway like he very clearly is the leader of that group in so many ways and then you have Erling who is more of someone who leads by example but he does do that and he does understand his status he understands the effect he has on the group he understands the effect his words and demeanor can have on younger players in the group less experienced players in the group a couple of months ago they miked him up they put a microphone on him for Norway training and put out some of the highlights on on the on the internet it should be easy to find and i thought that was fascinating because it's a combination of like during a rondo he told one of the the backup goalkeeper that he was passing like rodri you know and he was giving them like little compliments that he must know are really hit home when they're from him yeah but on the other hand when people weren't quite at it he was not he was nipping at the heels a little bit and said and there's oh come on you can do better than this come on so he is someone who in a very different way also drives standards so two very different types of leaders and i think the balance between the two is very good.

30:34I'm really glad you brought up Ojan Neerland, the goalkeeper, because he's got 75 caps now, I think it is, but he's been doubted forever. At no point has he had this sort of... He has had critics all the way, in large part because of his club career. He's spent a lot of time on various benches. He did have a solid almost two years of playing regularly for Sevilla in La Liga until he then lost his spot again this year. So he's not and playing regular football this year. He's currently without a club, so he's available out there. If you're a football club and you like what you saw from Ajan last night, you can sign him up.

31:11And for someone who has... If you had me on, if we were doing a Norway preview a couple of weeks ago and you asked me on this podcast, what are Norway strengths and weaknesses? I would have told you the goalkeeper is a weakness because that's how we felt. And there have been moments when it's looked like that. So it's an incredible redemption story for him. and for someone who has stuck asses and he has been training all year. He's known he's not going to play for his club team, but he's been training to get ready for the World Cup. It's an incredible vindication for him and for the coach who kept faith with him.

31:43All right, Lars, so we're looking at this at almost the end point with Norway being in the knockouts and being really competitive. But what's brought the change for football in Norway for all these years? Because it feels like something has happened for them to be so good, so talented and overall so young as well. Yeah, that's a really interesting point. Of these sort of big structural things, I mean, first of all, I think we should just acknowledge for a small country, a country of five million people, we are kind of at the mercy of what there'll be changes in terms of what kind of generation you have.

32:13I mean, you'll get lucky with some groups and have a couple of extraordinary players. It will just fluctuate naturally. there has been a program of building a lot of sort of five-a-side pitches with artificial surface around the country to make sure kids have spaces where they can train and play with the ball and practice even when the weather is horrific which it is a lot of the time in a lot of places like when i grew up in the winter we'd play on sort of gravel pitches where we're like very fine somewhere halfway between gravel and sand which there would be frozen patches on in the winter as well which was unpleasant and and this would be sort of the surfaces obviously for us to be good at football we just need for the able for the kids to put enough hours in practicing we need to give them good facilities and i think this drive to build uh artificial turf five-a-side pitches all over the country has had a tangible effect because we see the technical quality of the kids who are coming through now is just on a completely different level to what we saw 20 30 years ago so i think but just being able to put in the hours outdoors i mean i think that's an infrastructure project that's been very successful.

33:18Lars, thank you so much. It's going to be another fascinating watch, isn't it, on Saturday night. And I for one can't wait. I think it's I'm just so glad it is Norway and not Brazil, but not for the reasons that I think that Norway are any easier to overcome. I think it's just I think it's just a great match. And I know today realised that if England are going to go all the way, they've got to overcome Haaland, probably Messi, and then probably Mbappe. So why not? Why not, hey? Why not? Why not? Thank you so much, Nedom. Great catch up today. I hope you can catch up with your sleep at some point.

33:52No chance. Too late now, but it was worth it. Definitely worth it. Absolutely. And if you've got a question for us or you want to have your say on the podcast, remember you can get in touch via email, the sportsagents at global.com or messages on social media at the sports agents. And please, if you can subscribe, follow and leave a review. We will see you next time.