Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
NORSE OF THE YEAR SHOW
A fjord fiesta is on the cards as Odegaard does battle with compatriot Haaland in the great title showdown... and Burnley star Berge says: There’s NORWAY I’ll miss it!
FOR Sander Berge, it was uncomfortable at first to watch his close pals Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard slug it out.
Now he says that it’s compulsive viewing.
Striker Haaland and his Manchester City team-mates play host to Odegaard and his Arsenal pals at the Etihad on Sunday in a potential Premier League title decider.
Berge has known Emirates skipper Odegaard since they first played for Norway’s youth team aged 15, and he has been friends with Haaland for the last five years.
He spends time with them away from football and says it was initially weird to watch them perform for two of the world’s biggest clubs.
But he is well used to it now and, like everyone else, can’t wait to watch their next showdown on Sunday. “It’s special for me because when I was growing up, who would you watch from Norway?” said the Burnley midfielder.
“Now two of my closest mates are two of the absolute biggest players with two of the best teams in the world. It’s been a little bit strange because there they are, going up against each other, fighting for their club teams, and then they are together with the national team.
“Now everybody’s a little bit more adjusted to it with Erling scoring all those goals for Manchester City and Martin scoring his goals and being captain of Arsenal.
“Everybody’s more used to it now and it’s just fun watching them.”
Berge, 26, sees Haaland every week and they hang out at each other’s houses.
He joked that the striker behaved like his younger brother after Haaland, aged just 19, had scored his first Champions League hattrick for Red Bull Salzburg in 2019 and excitedly insisted on showing him his match ball, even though he was being dope-tested.
“We clicked as mates right away and, when I was with Genk and he was at Salzburg, they beat us 6-2 in the Champions League and he’d scored a hat-trick,” he said.
“After that game I was in doping control but he brought the ball into me. I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, whatever, I need to do this’. It was hilarious and he’s never stopped. He’s like a younger brother to me. I go round to his house, he comes to mine, we meet up in the summer, we go to the internationals together.
“We enjoy each other’s company.” Berge has known Odegaard for the last 10 years and says it was
‘It’s been strange watching them go up against each other’
crazy seeing him join Spanish giants Real Madrid at just 16.
“With Martin being down south I can’t see him as often as I see Erling but I speak with him all the time,” he said.
“I’ve known him since I was 15 and we were in the same agegroup for the national team.
“That was the first time I played with him and then, half a year later, he was at Real Madrid.
“We’ve been close since then and we’ve come through to play for the national team for many years now.”
Berge, who played with Haaland and Odegaard in Norway’s defeat by Czechia and the draw against Slovakia during the international break, says the pair will park their friendship for 90 minutes on Sunday. But he says they will always be close, irrespective of what happens at the Etihad.
“They’re really good friends, like we all are together,” he said. “When they play against each other they just think it’s fun. Obviously they want to go out and win for their teams but they have the biggest amount of respect for each other.
“The whole thing is just so cool and it’s great for me to have them as friends and to play with them for Norway.”
Bookies make City the strong favourites for Sunday’s Etihad showdown at 17-20, with the Gunners, currently top of the league on goal difference, available at around the 3-1 mark.
City, defending champions, are 11-10 favourites to win the title again. Liverpool are 2-1 and Arsenal are the outsiders of three at 11-4.