Johan Andersson can take Eidsvold Turn to the quarter-finals

The short version

• Johan Andersson (40), former Stabæk and Lillestrøm player, is now successful as a coach in Eidsvold Turn
• The Swede believes he could have played in the Eliteserien – now 40 years old – if he had been healthy
• Andersson was for several years without a club or job, but continued to train to make a comeback
• Works part-time in Eidsvold Turn, where he last led the team to promotion and can now take the 2nd division team to the quarter-finals of the cup

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– If I had been healthy, I would have played in the Eliteserien by now, declares the Swede, almost 41 years old, best known for his career in Stabæk and Lillestrøm.

He won series gold in Bærum and ruled the midfield at Åråsen – when he was not injured. He was a little too often.

Nevertheless, he refused to give up his career after his last elite league game in the summer nine years ago:

He turned 33, 34 and 35 without a club or job, but lived alone in Oslo and continued to train for himself to make a comeback. He estimates that it was 2019 before he realized that there was no longer any point.

– And actually, I never realized that. I was 10-20 percent short of recovery and tried every single day to solve it. At least 300 training sessions, says Andersson.

He is convinced that he would have received new player contracts in top football if things had gone well. But the dysfunctional hip made him practically disabled for football.

Instead, he took coaching training through the Swedish Football Association during an intensive half-year of commuting to Stockholm. Somewhat by chance, he got an assistant position at the Oslo club Frigg in the 3rd division, before Eidsvold Turn took a chance on him from the 2023 season.

A 60 percent position was the Swede’s first job since he was a Lillestrøm player eight years earlier.

What did he really fill his days with – apart from trying to become a footballer again?

– Training in the morning. It was mostly training and friends.

– You must have lived like a student?

– I am cheap in operation, if you say so. Then I have a football career behind me, where I have earned a bit.

– You had a couple of good employment contracts playing in Norway?

– Accurate. It has meant that I have not been stressed by it. I was on sick leave the first year, and when I was in Frigg, I had an appointment with Nav The state labor and welfare administration in Norway about job training. But there was a long period when I didn’t get anything from Nav.

– Where did you get the money from, then?

– No, it’s money saved and cheap operation, smiles Andersson, who owns the apartment where he lives at Majorstua in Oslo.

– How was your mood or condition at the time?

– I’m not one to stay very happy or very depressed. “Streit” is probably my mood. You could no longer feel the feeling of mastery by playing football, and you are a bit of an introvert, so maybe the people around me noticed something. But I tried to be as normal as possible. I was used to being injured, going into that bubble and just having full focus on getting well, he says.

That patience was hardly a bad quality for someone who trained in vain for a football comeback and took coaching training, only to return to covid-closed Fotball-Norge to wait for a job opportunity.

It came in Eidsvold Turn. Last year Andersson steered them to a strong promotion from the 3rd division and on Wednesday they play for a quarter-final ticket in the cup against Sandnes Ulf. In 35 matches in series and cup, Andersson has recorded only two losses.

Ahead of the fourth round match, he meets VG over a cup of coffee. On the next table sits NRK legend and football oracle Arne Scheie, who knows for sure that Eidsvold Turn has never been among the eight best teams in 122 years of the football NM.

Historic things have also happened in the past at Eidsvoll in May.

– 50-50, the Turn coach considers the possibility of beating an Obosliga team at home in the Myhrer stadium for the third cup game in a row.

Turns way to the 4th round in the cup

1st round: 2–0 over Fu/Vo (3rd division)

2nd round: 1–0 over Mjøndalen (Obosligaen)

3rd round: 2–1 over Åsane (Obosligaen)

4th round: Meets Sandnes Ulf (Obosligaen) on Wednesday evening

The player Johan Andersson was sure of the ball and unusually intelligent. The coach Johan Andersson wants his teams to appear in roughly the same way:

– It starts with the ball. Let the opponents work and feel frustration. It is with the ball that I want to have control, says the Swede, and highlights his former gold coach Jan Jönsson as a source of inspiration.

Otherwise, it’s international football – and the Norwegian 2nd division. Because even though he has ambitions, he envisions staying in Eidsvold Turn for a while longer to learn more.

– You try to get inspiration from the best. City are the best team in the world, and then Brighton have a free play that is absolutely enormous, which many try, but do not succeed. Arsenal, of course. Bologna have something with Thiago Motta and I read something about a team in Brazil. So I follow along, says Johan Andersson.

And then there was this comeback that he had been solitary training for for years, then. This weekend it happened. For the Eidsvold Turn coach, he saw the need to rotate the team a bit in order to be as well equipped and rested as possible for the cup match.

The solution was that Andersson put Andersson in the centre-back position. He has just enough got one match for Frigg in the 3rd division and contributed to Eidsvold Turn’s recruit team one notch further down. But in top football – of which Turn is a part – the actual comeback came with a starting place and 90 minutes in the away game against Grorud this weekend.

It ended this way:

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