Patience and caution preached before Kolstad’s debut

Therefore, an idea was born – if the national team is so successful and delivers good performances, why should that success not be replicated at club level? Sure, Elverum Handball have consistently been in the Machineseeker EHF Champions League in the past few seasons, yet they failed to make waves and register a participation in the TruckScout24 EHF FINAL4.

Enter Kolstad Handball – a new "super-team" – built exactly under these premises, with Norwegian stars and a single non-Norwegian player, Iceland’s right wing Sigvaldi Guðjónsson.

There is a huge amount of experience and talent for Kolstad in every position on the court, starting from the goalkeeper, Torbjørn Bergerud, going through wing Magnus Gullerud and backs Magnus Abelvik Rød and Gøran Johannessen and finishing off with superstar Sander Sagosen, who made the All-star Team in the last three editions of the EHF EURO and was the competition's top goal scorer in 2020, with 65 goals.

For the coaching position, Christian Berge was selected, who has returned to manage a club on a day-to-day basis for the first time since 2014, when he was appointed Norway’s coach, a position he held for eight years.

It feels like the Norway national team moved on to become a club side, a feeling which was definitely underlined by many in the last year, since Kolstad went public with their plan. Now, after they sealed their maiden title in the domestic league, they are ready to make waves in the top European competition.

“It might look easy, it might sound easy, but it is definitely a big challenge for everyone here. It is nice to be back at a club and be managing on a daily basis, but this is not a walk in the park for me, neither for the players,” says Berge before Kolstad will make their debut in the Machineseeker EHF Champions League.

“Just look at the opponents we will be facing, there are teams who made the FINAL4 last season, like Kielce and PSG, there is also Kiel, or other strong sides like Szeged and Aalborg. And this is just our first season in the Champions League.”

Berge is right, experience plays a huge part in a competition like the Machineseeker EHF Champions League and there is no easy path or right answer when things throw off. Especially with a team which has plenty of experienced players in the first seven, but lacks that crucial experience in the depth of the squad.

Other than the aforementioned players, there is little that Kolstad bring to the table, with Vetle Eck Aga, Bergerud and Gullerud having already played in the past season, but the big guns – Sagosen, Rød and Johannessen have just come this summer and need to fit in immediately.

Clearly, it is a nice challenge to have and it is made easier by the fact that these stalwarts have played together for roughly a decade for the national team, know each other inside out, have the chemistry from the national team, but have been only playing together for a few months each year.

“We are a new team, basically, but having many Norwegian players definitely helps, because the chemistry will be better as the season progresses. Yet this is only our first season in the Champions League, we saw some improvements this summer, but there is a long, long way to go before we play the way we want to,” adds Berge.

Last season, under Berge’s supervision, Kolstad secured a domestic double, winning the final against Elverum in four matches, with none of the three wins needed to secure the trophy being by more than four goals. However, with the new additions, Kolstad look like a team to be reckoned with.

The plan is a long-term one, from humble beginnings – the team was founded 50 years ago, but only got the muscle in the past few years – to riches, but Berge preaches caution and is adamant that the success will not come overnight, with big plans needing time to come to fruition.

“Yes, the ambitions are big, but we need to build brick by brick, it is difficult to sign some players and then go on and challenge for trophies in Europe. Therefore, we do not need to burn some stages, we just need to be patient and develop on our own pace. We would like to be there, in the FINAL4, in a few years, but it is definitely a work in progress,” concludes the 50-year-old coach.

Photo credit: Jozo Cabraja/kolektiff,