18,000km from home: Joe Bell reflects on whirlwind first pro season in Europe
The sun has set on Joe Bell’s first season in Norway but Phillip Rollo reports that the All Whites midfielder is still getting used to having just four hours of daylight.
All Whites midfielder Joe Bell is still getting his head around the fact it gets dark at 3:40pm during the winter months in Stavanger.
‘‘It’s insane. On the weekends you wake up at 11 and you’ve got about four hours of sunlight,’’ Bell said.
‘‘It’s obviously very different to New Zealand in that regard, but obviously summer is beautiful because you get sunlight for the whole day and you can stay out until 11pm at the beach and it’s still light. But right now it’s too cold to do anything anyway.’’
But as the sun set on his first season with Norwegian club Viking FK, the 21-year-old said he was delighted with the contribution he was able to make on the field, even if there was plenty of uncertainty off it.
Bell featured in all but one game for Viking during the Covid-19 disrupted 30-game Eliteserien season, scoring two goals.
He also played the full 90min in a Europa League defeat to Scottish Premier League club Aberdeen.
Viking finished the season in sixth place, but they were 37 points off champions Bodø/Glimt, who ran away with the title during a record-breaking year despite selling their star player, Jens Petter Hauge, to AC Milan.
Speaking to the Sunday StarTimes ahead of Viking’s final game against Bodø/Glimt, which they lost 3-0 on Monday, Bell said it had been an ‘‘interesting’’ first season in Europe.
The Eliteserien was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and most of the games were played behind closed doors. Bell said there was one occasion midway through the campaign when a team-mate tested positive for the virus, meaning the entire squad had to spend 10 days in quarantine.
‘‘It’s been an interesting year with all the Covid implications, but overall it’s been a really successful year for me,’’ he said.
‘‘ I’ve played the amount of games I wanted to play, which was a big reason for coming to Norway, and also in terms of just personal development, I’m really happy with the steps I’ve made across the year.
‘‘ It’s been a bit of a change coming from the college system in America and the first couple of months took some time adjusting to the pro life. It was a bit weird finishing training and then you’ve got free time. The previous years of my life that’s usually filled with studying.
‘‘ But overall it’s been a good year. We pushed for the Europa
League playoff spots but didn’t quite make it, but in regards to everything that happened I’m quite happy.’’
He was also gutted to miss out on a blockbuster clash with England at Wembley Stadium, with none of the All Whites’ four scheduled friendlies against
Bahrain, Oman, Belgium and England able to go ahead as Covid-19 played havoc with the international calendar.
‘‘ It definitely would’ve been nice to play England at Wembley. I had my fingers crossed for that one. It obviously didn’t work out but I know [coach] Danny [Hay]
has been working hard behind the scenes to set up games for next year leading into the Olympics, so I’m looking forward to that.’’
Bell resisted temptation to enter the Major League Soccer draft after four seasons with the University of Virginia to sign with Viking, after previously spending time with the club following the Under-20 World Cup in Poland.
Viking brought Bell into their environment with the view of signing him in June 2019, but the former Wellington Phoenix Football Academy product turned down their initial offer as he wanted to finish university and play in the NCAA Championship.
But their persistence paid off in the end. After flying assistant coach Morten Jensen over to the United States to watch Bell play in the national tournament, he gladly accepted their follow-up offer and signed a three-year contract in January.
Jensen has since been promoted to the role of co-coach with Bjarte Lunde Aarsheim for 2021.
‘‘The fact that they stuck with me over that six-month period when I wanted to wrap up one more season at college, that was really big. As a young player it’s nice knowing that you’re going into a club that really wants you, you’re not just another name on the roster and filling up numbers, which I felt the MLS situation could have been.
‘‘But that was a testament to the people inside the club, constantly staying in touch with me and that obviously gave me a chance to learn a lot about them and that played a huge part.’’
One of many consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic was the fact that Bell’s family were unable to travel to Norway to watch him play. However, he was fortunate that his girlfriend made the trip from the US and was there during the first lockdown, meaning he did not have to spend that difficult period alone.
Although Viking went down 0-2 to Aberdeen in their Europa
League second round clash, Bell was relatively happy with the way the Norwegian club played. They put up 18 shots to Aberdeen’s 20, but were let down by poor finishing.
‘‘It was disappointing we lost but from a personal standpoint it was quite interesting because I didn’t find the level of the team we played too different from the games we were playing week in, week out. The result didn’t go our way but I definitely felt we could’ve gone further. But it was a good experience as a young player.’’
Due to the difficulty of getting back into New Zealand, Bell has opted to stay in Stavanger during the off-season, giving him his first taste of the Norwegian winter. But he said he was already looking forward to his second season with Viking, where he hoped to continue to make a name for himself in Europe.
He was buoyed by Hauge’s mid-season move from Bodø/ Glimt to Serie A giants AC Milan, the multi-million dollar transfer opening his eyes.
‘‘Seeing players like that move on is one of the reasons to play in Norway. It’s in Europe and it’s a shop window. People do watch those games and it definitely puts value on the opportunity to play the bigger European clubs, and it’s definitely an inspiration. I think it’s the goal for many young players in this league.’’
And yes, Bell has let everyone on his team know that New Zealand kept Norwegian superstar Erling Haaland scoreless at the U20 World Cup. Haaland was recently crowned the winner of Fifa’s Golden Boy award, which recognised the most exciting young player on the planet, following his super prolific start to life with German club Borussia Dortmund. ‘‘ I’ve definitely mentioned it a couple of times in the locker room,’’ Bell said. ‘‘He’s all the talk over here.’’
‘‘Seeing players like that move on is one of the reasons to play in Norway. It’s in Europe and it’s a shop window. People do watch those games and it definitely puts value on the opportunity to play the bigger European clubs, and it’s definitely an inspiration.’’ Joe Bell