Leaked chats rock Norway’s team

The football team Norway was shocked after leaked messages from the squad were published in the book ‘The Battle of the National Team’. “It’s clear that we don’t want things like this to leak out,” said national team player Morten Thorsby. The book describes eight turbulent days in Norwegian national football.

Among other things, it is said that the group of men deliberately tried to deceive the health authorities during the pandemic. In November 2020, the Norway men’s national team was asked not to travel to Romania and Austria for Nations League matches due to player Omar Elabdellaoui’s positive case of corona. The team avoided the call due to the plan by the national team doctor, Asle B. Kjellsen, to use an ‘ethically questionable loophole’.

Additionally, the book uncovers leaked messages from the national team in the relevant period. Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard are two of the players who have seen private messages published. ‘NRK’ published an excerpt from the book: “When it became more clear that the national team could not travel to games far away, the mood of the group’s WhatsApp chat was bad.” “Haaland entered the chat. He shared a screenshot of the home page of ‘Dagbladet’, with the headlines: ‘It is not known if the players will be able to travel’, along with a picture of Prime Minister Erna Solberg. Odegaard responded directly with a message containing seven Santa Claus emojis.”

National team player Morten Thorsby harshly criticizes the fact that the chats were made public. “Obviously we don’t want things like this to be leaked. I understand that they are interested from the outside, but this is something that we must keep private, it is important that the private messages between us stay in the group .,” he said to ‘NRK’. Another international, Jörgen Strand Larsen, agreed. “We have discussed it and put it aside, we are only looking forward. We can all make mistakes, but these things should stay within the group.”