Several players on Norway’s national football squad were reporting on Tuesday that their troubled teammate Andreas Schjelderup had spoken at a team meeting Monday night. He addressed the criminal charges he faces and the awkward situation that’s put the entire team in just before important World Cup qualifiers.
State broadcaster NRK reported that Schjelderup, at the initiative of head coach Ståle Solbakken, spoke to his fellow players about the “serious mistake” he made in May of last year: forwarding a video he’d received on social media that portrayed sexual content involving minors under the age of 18. Schjelderup, who plays professionally for Benfica in Portugal, has since been indicted in Denmark, where he was living and playing at the time, and faces both fines and a suspended jail term. The now-21-year-old footballer has apologized repeatedly and expressed both shame and regrets.
“I think he did the right thing by acknowledging his mistake,” Patrick Berg, who plays professionally for Bodø/Glimt, told NRK. Several other teammates also praised Schjelderup for his honesty, his apologies and his attempts to set things right. Another teammate, Antonio Nusa, said he thinks the issue has now been “declared dead” and that “now we can concentrate on football.” The team faces an important match against Estonia on Thursday in Oslo and another against Italy in Milan on Sunday.
NewsinEnglish.no staff
