“There is a quote that we like to use quite often around here,” Thomas Brantsaeter tells Sky Sports. “We say that saying the most important part of a football player is their feet is like saying the most important part of a chess player is their arms.”
Brantsaeter is the head of talent identification at Norway’s football federation, the man responsible for developing the next Erling Haaland, the next Martin Odegaard, the next Caroline Graham Hansen. That means focusing on the brain as well as the feet.
It has been a decade-long process – the same one that unearthed some of these top talents – and while Norway’s senior sides have some way to go, the production line continues. There is Oscar Bobb at Manchester City, Antonio Nusa in Leipzig.
On the men’s side, they have introduced a late developers team so that no young talent is missed for the wrong reasons. On the women’s side, additional funds are being put into injury prevention in recognition of widespread anterior cruciate ligament problems.
“Both projects are aimed, in different ways, to ensure that we give every talent in Norway the best chance,” says Brantsaeter. “There is a massive job being done by so many people here, educating more and better players than ever before in Norway.”
They have tripled the number of development coaches, regionalised the process to reflect the size of this sparsely-populated country. “If you flip Norway so the north became the south, you end up in Italy.” But now it is time to think outside of the box.
“We need to keep going, stay curious.” That means introducing virtual reality tools to the best 14-year-old boys and girls in Norway in the hope of accelerating their development. “That has never been done before, only with older players,” Brantsaeter explains.
At an age when there are particular concerns about managing the demands on bodies that are still maturing, virtual-reality technology offers the chance to accelerate the learning process by adding hours of useful training without increasing the physical load.
“This technology could be important. It has the potential for great impact but we have a healthy scepticism. It is not like we think this is the Holy Grail and now we are going to beat every other country in the world. But we are ready to step aboard this train,” says Brantsaeter.
The importance of scanning
Norway is a natural home for these ideas. Geir Jordet, a Norwegian psychology professor, was the first to popularise the idea of the importance of scanning – identifying that the best players in the world were better at checking their surroundings.
“Geir Jordet has had a huge impact on Norwegian football,” says Brantsaeter. “Thinking quickly, looking around – these are ideas that have been talked about for a long time. The giant step in recent years is the evidence to suggest scanning is important and how it is important.
“I remember Geir showed a video clip of Robin van Persie at Manchester United. It showed how every other player on the screen was looking at the ball except for Van Persie, who was looking at the space to move to be ready to attack the ball.
“I think Erling Haaland has many of the same characteristics. He knows when to look at the ball, when to look for space, and he used those split seconds to get into position to score. The best players use this information, they know when and when not to scan.”
How virtual reality is used
Norway’s best young talent, 60 boys and 60 girls, are using the Be Your Best Cognitive Assessment Tool. Players see various game-situations on a screen and are challenged to find solutions to the problem in real time, measured across five parameters.
“The first two measure scanning rates and timing,” explains Brantsaeter. “It then gives you a grade based on whether your timing is good or not. When the ball is being touched you should watch the ball, when it is not touched you are able to look away.”
The third test focuses on pattern recognition, the ability to quickly identify options – and recall them. “In that test, they stop the game and grey out the colours on the jerseys. Can you remember which were your team-mates and which were your opponents?”
The fourth test, working memory, is more challenging. “It is the same but this time you only see one player at a time so you cannot guess based on the body position of the players around them. Now it is solely down to whether you remember what you saw.”
The final test is called inhibition. “A sound vibrates the controller when you make a pass telling you that it is not available so you have to find another solution quickly. It tests your flexibility, how quickly you are able to scrap plan A and move on to plan B.”
Future for Norwegian football
Brantsaeter stresses that the intention is not to use this tool to aid the selection process – nobody is getting cut from the squad because of bad test scores here. The aim is to improve the existing talent. They are being tested across three different camps.
“It will also give us insights. We think we could learn more about our best players. Are they better at scanning? How do they compare? For example, are the late developers better because they are smaller and have to think quicker? Can we see progress?
“It will be interesting to see if it correlates across different positions on the pitch. With midfielders, the importance is obvious but it could spark debate around other positions. Strikers do not stand in one spot, they move around the pitch. What about goalkeepers?
“Are there blind spots we have when we analyse them that the tests can reveal? We are curious to see how the boys and girls compare because it is the same test. Girls mature earlier than boys, does that help in terms of game intelligence? We do not know yet.”
The applications of this are in their infancy. It is a viable option for short international get-togethers. “Players can use it in their hotel room to maximise their time during a camp.” An injured U23 player is using it to train until she can get back out on the grass.
The hope is that Norway can continue to develop elite players of the calibre of Haaland, Odegaard and Hansen. By embracing innovation, perhaps the next generation of Norwegian talent could be about to become that little bit smarter than the rest.
“It is an exciting time and with players like Nusa and Bobb coming up, I am optimistic,” says Brantsaeter. “We are a small country with limited resources but we are a proud football nation. We are trying to compete with the best – and we believe that we can.”