From the 4th division to AC Milan in two years – NRK Sport – Sports news, results and broadcast schedule

October 26, 2018: After limited playing time for loan club Aalesund, Jens Petter Hauge begins his fifth and final match for Aalesund 2 against Sykkylven in the fourth division.

October 1, 2020: Jens Petter Hauge is officially ready for the big club AC Milan, after a couple of days of meeting activity and medical check-up.

Bodø / Glimt coach Kjetil Knutsen laughs when NRK reads these two dates. He himself has not thought about it the the way.

How could this extreme jump happen so fast?

– Yes, that’s a good question. It’s a fascinating question, Knutsen says, before quickly adding a “but”:

Does not exist one answer. Hauge’s relatively short career has been a roller coaster ride.

Wrote the story

It’s easy to forget that Hauge distinguished himself on the elite series at sixteen in 2016, as it’s this season that he’s really made his way.

But even then it showed a lot of what lives in it. Hauge became the youngest scorer in All-Yellows history in the first division by a margin of 100 days.

The teenager escaped in as many as 20 games during what was the season that Bodø / Glimt relegated from the elite series to the 1st division.

– There is a reason he made his debut so early, and it was that he was an incredibly exciting talent with various extreme abilities. It may have come a little earlier, because there are also many things you have to deal with. Jens Petter has taken a slightly different path than many others, says Glimt’s trainer Knutsen.

In 2017, when Knutsen was assistant coach at Aasmund Bjørkan, Hauge set the first division on fire with 12 assists on goal and two goals in 28 games.

Still: it was after this that the difficult period began.

After promotion, Hauge was unlucky with injuries and illnesses, Knutsen notes. At the same time, he faced stiff competition from Amor Layouni and Philip Zinckernagel.

When summer came, Hauge wanted to go to Aalesund to try something new and have more playtime.

However, the loan period was a sports recession with, among other things, a different line-up than what Hauge was used to. In fact, it became so difficult that Hauge at times had to play for Aalesund’s second team far behind in the divisions.

Knutsen believes, however, that something very important happened between the bench wear and tear and games in the fourth division.

– It was then that he decided and recognized that it is himself that matters. He grew up in that half a year in Ålesund. That six months I think was very important to him, says Knutsen.

– It was hard

Remi Natvik is currently the coach of the Arna-Bjørnar women’s team, but in 2018 he was the coach of the Aalesund second team.

Natvik tells of a player who at the time was missing “the last little thing” to get a place on the Aalesund team.

– He was a very nice boy. He was also a great talent at the time. You may have lacked the confidence to try your luck at the next level right then and there. He was exactly the difference between getting it and not getting it, Natvik tells NRK.

In total, Hauge only managed 151 minutes for the first team in Aalesund. For the second team, there were five games with Natvik.

It is, to put it mildly, a challenging situation when he has made his debut, and has made it, at the top level two years earlier.

But adversity should serve as fuel more than anything else.

When Hauge met the press in Aspmyra regarding the selection of the national team this week, he was asked about the trip from the bench in Aalesund. He then noted that he has endured countless hours of training just to get to where he is today.

– It was tough. Many hours have been sacrificed. I see that there are people in the field here today, and I recognize myself in the situation I was in. I have to continue with that and not be satisfied even though I have been selected for the A national team, Hauge said.

The inflection point

Hauge has worked hard and cared about developing the skills he was already good at: technique, taking pressure off, challenging with speed in one-on-one situations.

It is these sessions over time that Hauge now pays off, according to himself.

Knutsen describes Hauge as a gamer with “extreme hunger”.

When all these hours were topped off with confidence and more physical training, the next level came quite naturally, according to Knutsen.

It started with more and more entries into the 2019 season before Hauge finally took possession of the wing when Amor Layouni was sold.

The season ended with an impressive series silver for Bodø / Glimt, and Hauge also played for Norway during the U-20 World Championship in the summer.

– I think a lot comes from realizing that: “I’m good, but I’m not where I want to be.” Then he has done a little more every day in training, and then we see the effect it gives, says U19 coach Pål Arne “Paco” Johansen to NRK.

Johansen points out the same thing as Knutsen: that is, extreme hunger.

– I think it starts with a pretty raw hunger. When you’ve been to the European Championship and the World Cup, and you take silver in the Elite Series, and you know you’ve participated, but you may not have been fully trapped in the team. It’ll probably give you some kind of self-confidence, but more hungry because you realize you’re so close, so it doesn’t take long before you can actually take it for granted, Johansen describes.

And that’s exactly what Hauge did.

San Siro-showet

14 goals and nine assists in 18 games is cold data for Hauge in the Eliteserien, but the impressive numbers don’t tell the whole story of how dominant the left wing has been.

Hauge has long attracted the attention of major clubs in Europe. In June, Bodø / Glimt accepted an offer from Cercle Brügge, but the lightning wing ended up continuing his career in yellow.

In tune with the big game, it became increasingly clear that the question was not Yes Hauge was going to move on, but when and to what club.

So after advancing in Europe, Bodø / Glimt landed what was a nightmare draw at AC Milan.

But it was the opposite for Hauge.

– you can say we were a little It was unlucky who threw Milan, but for Jens Petter it was absolutely perfect. They had seen all his struggles and there they saw it in context. Everyone who watches that game sees that he has what it takes to break through in Milan. They haven’t brought him to play in two years, they have brought him to play in the short term. They had seen it at games but confirmed it at the San Siro, Knutsen says.

Hauge himself modestly said that Milan liked what they saw both before and during the match at the San Siro.

The performance, at the same time that the transition window was coming to an end, really sped up the transition.

– Was it a perfect storm for Hauge?

– Yes, for his part it was an illusion. Not on our part, but on his, says Knutsen.