Former Red – Magnus Eikrem:
It’s just over eight months since Magnus Eikrem followed Ole Solskjaer, Rich Hartis and former United coach, Mark Dempsey to Molde FK. His time at United was rarely straightforward with peaks and troughs but he left with no regrets and moved back home to Norway to start a new project.
Magnus was handed the number 7 shirt by Ole and immediately it became clear that the team was to be built around him. To date he’s thrived on the responsibility and he is at the centre of a charge for the title. Molde have never won the Norwegian Premier League but in their centenary season they’re 8 points clear with nine games left to play.
With a first ever title for Molde, Ole and Magnus in sight, we decided to catch up with him and reminisce about his time at United whilst daring to dream about the future. Magnus, ever the professional politely pointed out he didn’t want to think too far ahead and would rather work hard on the pitch than speculate about what could happen. Nevertheless, here’s Magnus on…
…joining United:
“It’s never easy as a 16 year old to move away from your home and leave your family behind. However many people experience that same situation in life and of course with me, Paul McGuinness and Ole helped me a lot on and off the pitch.”
…life at United:
“The older players at United are brilliant. They give you advice all the time and encourage you to work harder every day. They’ve won so much but you can still see the effort they put into training every day, I couldn’t pick out any players specifically, I think every one of them helped me out. The hardest thing about United is that there are so many good players from all over the world. It’s hard to get in to United’s first team, people say it’s easier to win the lottery!!”
…captaining the Reserves:
“I am a bit of a moaner! But I tried to lead through what I did on the pitch; not necessarily shouting or something like that.”
…leaving United:
“It had come into my mind. I was in the squad a few times but never felt I was going come on. Already at Scunthorpe (in the League Cup) I had a feeling that I had to move on. A few clubs were interested in taking me on loan but I turned them all down because I was training with the first team a lot and nothing is better than that. It was tricky near the end, I didn’t know where my future lay and I think my performances suffered a bit because of that. Of course, it’s hard to leave. You’ve got everything there: players, facilities etc, but often players who do move on from Man United will still have good careers elsewhere. The thing that I miss the most is training with Paul Scholes and seeing the things he could do. You can’t believe it…”
…the Norwegian Premier League:
“I think it was a good step up for me. I had to play first team football and play in front of big crowds. I love it here and hopefully we (Molde) can achieve some big things here.”
…differences between Molde and Manchester:
“It’s mostly the same to be honest, but in training with the reserves we couldn’t do any tactics or set pieces because we often didn’t have enough of the same players; but the next day in a game, there would be 7 first team players playing!”
…staying in touch:
“I speak to Joshua King of course as we play in the same national team…. and Ben Amos – he was going to visit Molde for a holiday, but he wasn’t able to find the time! I’ll go back to Manchester and watch a few games in December though!! In terms of playing, I miss Corry Evans running around and playing the ball to me, I’ll have to get Molde to buy him!!”
…the current United youngsters and Mats Dæhli specifically:
“Many of them impressed me, everyday a different player would do something out of the world. It’s so hard to pick anyone out specifically. Mats is a brilliant player, I have trained with him a few times and he even trained with Molde on his holiday. I don’t want to lump any added weight on his shoulders but I think everyone who watches him can see what talent he has.”
…diabetes and football:
“Of course it stopped my development at the time. I didn’t play much football for 6 months but now it doesn’t stop me at all, it’s no problem. Many people at United helped me a lot with it and the break I got for 2 months to get on with it… well, that was vital.”
…goals for the future:
“My goals for the future are to help Molde to win something; will it be this year, next year or the year after? I don’t know, but we work hard every day to get better. In football you can never tell, things can happen so quickly. Of course I would at one point love to play in England again but at the moment I love playing in Molde. Believe me, I’ve still got plenty to learn!”