This is how the Football Association gathered 18 new national team...

18 Norwegian players are gathered at the airport hotel at Gardermoen. 13 of them have never played for the A national team before. On Tuesday, they go to Austria to win a football match for Norway.

Briefly about the case:

• The original Norwegian national team was quarantined on Saturday after infection in the Norwegian squad.
• As a result, they could not play the Nations League matches against Romania and Austria.
• Now the NFF has assembled a new team consisting of 18 players who will meet Austria in Vienna on Wednesday.
• With a victory with all figures other than 1-0, the “emergency national team” will secure the Norwegian group victory. It could give Norway a World Cup playoff.
• Austria-Norway will be shown on TV 2 on Wednesday at 20.45.

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It is a little over 11 on Monday morning. Leif Gunnar Smerud has just been announced as substitute national team manager for the next 60 hours. Lars Lagerbäck has been quarantined at home in Sweden.

The interim national team manager looks down at the laptop and reads the names that shine on him on the screen:

“Anders Kristiansen”.

«Daniel Granli».

Veton Berisha.

– I sit and look at an Excel sheet with many green boxes. It was not a given that it would be like that, he says a little humorously.

For Smerud’s spreadsheets have more than 18 green names. There are also Tokmac Nguen, Thomas Rogne, Jo Inge Berget and a number of other Norwegian players that the Norwegian Football Association tried to contact from early Sunday morning to late Sunday night.

Some were injured. Some were not allowed by the club. Some declined for other reasons. But in the end, Smerud was able to mark the eighteenth name green – and he had a full-fledged national team squad.

Travel refusals

It started to rain Friday morning. Then the national team management was informed that Omar Elabdellaoui had tested positive for covid-19.

It was to be the start of one of the most dramatic national team weekends of all time. At Gardermoen on Saturday, the luggage was loaded on the plane and the players were almost on their way to Romania. One hour before takeoff, the original Norwegian national team was denied departure. And so it was. Norwegian health authorities were not exactly vague in their message to the Football Association.

The consequence: The entire Norwegian national team squad is quarantined and with a common travel refusal.

The Romania match could be forgotten. In any case, they did not manage to test the new players within UEFA’s 48-hour deadline before departure. But it was a new match against Austria on Wednesday.

So: Who you gonna call?

Smerud’s difficult job

Leif Gunnar Smerud and his U21 team became NFFs Ghostbusters in what for many has felt more like science fiction than reality.

But really it was, and on Saturday night the phone came with the request:

“Can you imagine gathering a national team of Norwegian players abroad, who are not part of today’s national team, for the Austria match?”

Everything has happened so quickly, that the days have gone awry for Smerud even though what happened when. But the decision he needed at least a short time to think about.

– Then it was pretty quick to get my team in turn. Then there has been an administrative gang where everyone has done a great job, says Smerud.

By “team” means Smerud U21 national team team which has now for a short period of time risen in the ranks. Lars Lagerbäck has been little involved in the process.

The big ring round

Smerud set up a list of both known and unknown names for the average football-interested Norwegian. Now it was Smerud who scrolled down the contact list on the phone. Not to find ghosts, but potential Norwegian national team players.

On Sunday morning, the ring round started around Europe.

– It has been hectic activity to get hold of and bring in a squad, says Smerud.

For some of the players in the 18-man squad have been so out of place in the past that the NFF did not even have their phone numbers. Therefore, among other things, former national team players at age-specific levels were contacted in

Når hun endelig tar kontakt... For å spørre om nr til kompisen. pic.twitter.com/Iw0MzHJ6BS

— Jonas Grønner (@JonasGronner) November 15, 2020

– There are many small stories. It’s been a puzzle. Small things like picking up football shoes in countries with a lockdown and a curfew have presented challenges, says Smerud.

But the response from the unlikely Norwegian national team players was positive. “Everyone” wanted to step in and help, but not everyone made the pieces of the puzzle work.

– It has been very nice to notice how the players have responded in a hectic situation, says Smerud.

On Sunday night, he could watch a national team squad consisting of 18 players. 13 of them are potential debutants.

But getting the players on the phone has not been the only problem the NFF has had to solve.

Then there was this testing …

One thing was that players agreed to join and clubs agreed to release them. Another thing was to make the whole operation purely practical.

– There have been a lot of balls at the same time. Very many small and large obstacles, says Smerud.

Could the team meet in Austria? When did they have to be virus tested? What happens if one of the new national team players tests positive?

First, the NFF had to turn back to page 10 of the UEFA protocol.

It says:

“Sample collection and testing must take place before leaving the home country.”

The players had to be tested in Norway first. And no later than Monday. At the same time, the demanding corona situation in Austria makes it difficult to enter from 11 different nations.

Now the NFF needed a green light from the Norwegian health authorities to fly 17 foreign professionals home for one day, before they could fly on. They could breathe a sigh of relief when a thumb quickly came back up. Finally, 18 airline tickets could be booked.

At 11 pm on Sunday night, the puzzle was finished. In less than a day, the Austrian battle was saved.

Continued battle against the clock

One by one, they appeared in the arrival hall at Gardermoen on Monday to walk straight to the airport hotel – right in solitude before the test results are ready.

On Tuesday, the charter flight with the 18 players from Gardermoen will take off in the direction of Vienna. Then several of the players meet for the first time. 20.45 Wednesday night they will play against Austria.

There, Leif Gunnar Smerud and his 18 selected players can become Norway’s most unlikely football heroes in history.