Neither the captain of Norway’s national men’s football team, Martin Ødegaard, nor Norway’s football superstar Erling Braut Haaland will be playing in an exhibition match against Sweden in Oslo on Monday. That’s just the day before the entire team heads for the World Cup in North America, and head coach Ståle Solbakken thinks they need a break before two weeks of intensive training and their first World Cup match against Iraq in Boston.
Haaland was reportedly taking some time off at home with family before the World Cup action begins. Ødegaard, meanwhile, was hard at work over the weekend: He’s also the captain of the British football team Arsenal, and it faced off against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final on Saturday. It ended in a 1-1 tie that prompted a lengthy round of penalty kick competition that Paris Saint-Germain won 4-3.
Even though Ødegaard and Arsenal had won the Premier League in the UK, the loss in Paris was a major disappointment and not the best send-off for the trip to the US on Tuesday. After that comes two weeks of training in North Carolina before their first World Cup match on Wednesday June 17 at 6pm in Boston, midnight back home in Norway.
NewsinEnglish.no staff
