Norway were regulars at international tournaments in the 1990s and even reached No2 in the Fifa world rankings, but now they struggle against San Marino

In the 1990s the Norwegian national team was one of the most respected sides in world football. Known for their physicality and ruthlessness, they even beat Brazil at the 1998 World Cup and Spain at Euro 2000. Since that time, however, the nation has been chasing the tales of a bygone era.

4 September 2016 will by no means go down as a marquee date in Norwegian football history. What was once known as a feared and intimidating arena, the Ullevaal Stadion in Oslo, was, for 90 minutes, turned into a German playground. The world champions toyed with the Norwegians. It finished 3-0, but it should have been much more. One must respect the football genius of this Germany team, but their sheer dominance felt like another emphatic nail in the coffin of Norwegian football.

In the famous story Peer Gynt, written by Norwegian author Henrik Ibsen, one of the more famed lines from the title character goes “no one becomes a prophet in his own land”. The line, quoted from Luke 4:24 in the Bible, sums up the current situation surrounding the Norwegian national team. Because there are no leaders, there are no chiefs, and there are no prophets.

After the team failed to qualify for Euro 2016, the Norwegian Football Association (NFF) released a statement saying that they believe in current manager Per-Mathias Hogmo, who has been in the job since 2013. NFF president Terje Svendsen was even quoted as saying there are no minimum expectations for the manager in the World Cup qualifiers.

Norway’s first three matches in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers have not offered much hope of improvement. The aforementioned defeat to Germany was followed by a 1-0 defeat against Azerbaijan, a team ranked 133 in the world. Perhaps the most worrying thing is that losses to the likes of Azerbaijan are no longer surprising. The fans still hurt, but they expect it nowadays.

Norway’s 4-1 victory over San Marino was hardly a convincing return to form. San Marino came to Oslo and scored their first away goal in a World Cup qualifier for 15 years. The win was secured with three late goals but Norway sit below Germany, Azerbaijan and Northern Ireland in the Group C table and will struggle to qualify.

San Marino (@soccersanmarino) WE FUCKING SCORED AN AWAY GOAL. STEFANELLI YOU FUCKING LEGEND!

The last time Norway qualified for a tournament was Euro 2000 in the Netherlands and Belgium. They defeated Spain through a great looping header by former Tottenham frontman Steffen Iversen, drew with Slovenia and lost to Yugoslavia. The end result was that the Norwegians went home early.

The once famed Viking nation, known for conquering enemies, have not been seen on foreign soil for the last eight tournaments. Stating that there are no minimum expectations has since been as the closest thing to blasphemy towards the Norwegian people, who are eager to once again break bread with the world’s elite. After all, Norway was once among them.

Fifa launched their world rankings in 1993. During October of that year, they climbed to second in the world, behind a Brazil side that featured Romário, Bebeto and Dunga. A defence built around familiar names such as Rune Bratseth, Ronny Johnsen and Henning Berg laid the foundation for a midfield filled with hard-working, combative and technical players such as Erik Mykland and Øyvind Leonhardsen to Ståle Solbakken and Kjetil Rekdal. To top it off, the attack featured wonderful players and individualists such as Jan Aage Fjortoft, Lars Bohinen and Tore Andre Flo.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tore Andre Flo dribbles past Roberto Carlos during Norway’s victory over Brazil at the World Cup in 1998. Photograph: Ben Radford/Allsport

Norway were a team you had to reckon with, perhaps not always among the world’s elite, but a team that regularly frustrated and upset bigger nations. Today, Norway rank at No70, just behind Trinidad & Tobago and just in front of Benin.

The issue has perhaps not been a lack of talent, though many will consider the recent era as being very boring; it speaks volumes that a generation featuring the likes of John Carew, John Arne Riise, Brede Hangeland and Morten Gamst Pedersen never made a tournament. Some will say the team suffered from bad luck, and sometimes they did. They would have gone to Euro 2008 but for two goalkeeping howlers from Thomas Myhre in their crucial qualifier against Turkey.

This run of absenteeism from major tournaments has created a feeling of inferiority. Norway have gone from believing they could beat anyone to now expecting defeat when faced with the biggest of countries. The Germany game underlined this growing sentiment.

There is a lack of leadership from the federation, the manager and the team. The lack of cohesion is another factor. Norway faced Hungary in the playoff for Euro 2016, a tie most Norwegians believed they would win, but they found themselves outwitted by the Hungarians. After losing 1-0 at home, Per-Mathias Hogmo set his team up without a recognised striker for the return leg in Hungary. He also selected Martin Odegaard, who was 17 at the time, in what was the biggest game in recent Norwegian football history. Bold moves that would have been hailed as ingenious had they succeeded.

International football: 10 talking points from the World Cup qualifiers Read more

They didn’t and Hogmo’s leadership has been under intense scrutiny ever since. Norwegians have also found themselves wondering how a manager who seemingly is unable to lead Norway to a tournament is reported to earn more money than colleagues such as Erik Hamrén (former Sweden manager), Chris Coleman (current Wales manager) and Adam Nawalka (current Poland manager).

Hogmo was installed as Norway’s manager in 2013 and, despite seeming innovative at first, the plan has not worked out. He had managed several of Norway’s youth teams, the women’s side, and clubs such as Rosenborg and Tromso. He seemed to have an understanding of how he wanted to the team to play but it has not worked. Norwegians have been left frustrated by his decision making and style of play but, most of all, oddly, his rhetoric. His use of terms such as “performance culture”, “block movement” and “educational dimension” have been highlighted as bizarre examples.

In 2014 he said: “Our players need to be ruthless. If we are to succeed at getting to the tournament [Euro 2016], and be able to win a medal in Russia [World Cup 2018], then we need to be much better than we have been. And we work towards that every single day.” He has now lost half of his 34 matches in charge and won only 29% of them. Needless to say, he has not succeeded.

The issues do not stop with the manager; the whole federation is in complete disarray. Former president Yngve Hallén quit his job following the issues at Fifa and Uefa, in which Hallén voiced his support for Michel Platini. However, most Norwegians are more likely to think of Hallén as the man who brought about the controversial exit of legendary manager Egil “Drillo” Olsen, the coach who in many ways constructed the swashbuckling side that captivated Norwegians in the 1990s. Olsen’s return to the Norwegian national team in 2009 was nowhere near as successful, yet the manner of his departure is still seen as something of a disgrace to a true Norwegian legend.

In September 2013, Hallén and NFF general secretary Kjetil Siem told Olsen that the board had elected to hire Per-Mathias as his successor, and that they wanted the new boss to take over with immediate effect. At the time, Olsen was preparing for the final two qualification matches for the 2014 World Cup, against Iceland and Slovenia. The whole thing turned into a huge mess and Olsen is yet to receive any compensation from the NFF.

Norway’s greatest ever manager was, in effect, seemingly thrown out despite having delivered the most memorable moments in the country’s recent football history. Despite Norwegians not being too fond of Olsen’s second run as manager, the treatment he received was deemed unworthy and it has put a huge dent in the NFF’s credibility.

The controversies surrounding the NFF have not stopped there. Norwegian magazine Josimar revealed earlier this year that Kjetil Siem, who now works closely with Fifa president Gianni Infantino, might have lobbied for Aleksander Ceferin to become the new Uefa president. Terje Svendsen, the current NFF president, has since supported Ceferin’s candidacy. Further revelations by Josimar suggest this could tie in with a promise Ceferin made to the Nordic countries that they will host the Euros in 2024 or 2028 should they back him as president. Ceferin and the NFF have since denied the story but it has left many wondering what is going on in Norwegian football. Controversy was rare during the old regime, in which the primary focus was on making Norway the best footballing nation it could be. Somewhere along the line that bubble burst.

The team is in disarray, the manager is under scrutiny and the association is not gaining any popularity but, despite all of this, there is hope for the Norwegians in the shape of what is coming. The next generation of players have already shown their potential at international level. The under-21s won a bronze medal at the 2013 Euros and several of these players have now taken the leap up to the national team. Omar Elabdellaoui (Olympiacos), Joshua King (Bournemouth) and Havard Nordtveit (West Ham) have all become mainstays in the senior squad.

The current Under-21s feature a certain Martin Odegaard of Real Madrid. There are doubts about him at senior international level but the belief in Norway is solid around the kid from Drammen. He represents the new generation, the future, and the belief that Norway again can bug the big boys. And he is not alone.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Martin Odegaard comes on for Cristiano Ronaldo during Real Madrid’s match against Getafe in May 2015. Photograph: Denis Doyle/Getty Images

Eighteen-year old Sander Berge was the subject of a bid from Everton in the summer, but his club elected not to sell. Ole Selnaes of Saint-Étienne is a classy midfielder who switches between the Under-21s and the senior team alongside former Cardiff City playmaker Mats Moller Daehli. Mohamed Elyounoussi of Basel and Kristoffer Ajer of Celtic are also names to look out for, and players who will no doubt be moving up to the main national team in a few years. These players carry the talent, the promise and the excitement that Norway is currently looking for.

Are they the answer? No, not by any stretch of the imagination, but they underline that, despite all the gloom and doom, there might be light at the end of the tunnel. The irony is that the majority of those promising players are not old enough to have seen Norway at the grandest stage. Odegaard was born in December 1998, meaning he was not even alive to see Kjetil Rekdal guide home the penalty that defeated Brazil at the World Cup in France. He will now be looking to create his own legacy with perhaps one of the most exciting group of players Norway have had in quite some time.

The shadows of the past still loom over Ullevaal Stadion. The pictures of Norway defeating the big teams around the world still grace our TV screens, reminding us of a bygone era – one that now seems a mere fantasy, something we might only have dreamt. It was a time when Egil Olsen’s men would, on a consistent basis, wow the Norwegian crowd, not necessarily through beautiful football, but through commitment and hard work.

What two interns learned from working at football clubs – in 1989-90 and 2014-15 Read more

Norway understands its limits, though it will not accept being sold short. The past 20 years have seen arch-rivals Denmark consistently making championships, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Sweden have also been a reckoned force. Even Iceland showed this summer that there are no more excuses for not making it to the big time.

Norway are fighting in out with Azerbaijan, Northern Ireland and the Czech Republic to finish behind Germany in their World Cup group and earn a place in the playoffs. It seems a herculean task to make it to Russia in 2018 and, with the current challenges in mind, not many Norwegians see it as a possibility. For now, they will have their memories and their dreams. When the next Euros come along, should they not qualify, it will have been 20 years since the last time. A fate most Norwegians are desperate to avoid.

• This article is from These Football Times

• Follow These Football Times and Jonas Giaever on Twitter