Haaland's coach overcame death to shine at the 2026 World Cup

In addition to football, the World Cup is marked by stories of overcoming, as is the case of Norway coach Stale Solbakken. On March 13, 2001, the former player suffered a cardiac arrest and his heart stopped beating for seven minutes.

At the time, Stale Solbakken was a Copenhagen player. The players were in training and had finished warming up, that's when the midfielder blacked out. The Norwegian was taken to hospital alive, but was unconscious.

The former player remained hospitalized, and regained consciousness 26 hours later. After what happened, Solbakken chose to end his career as a professional.

Commander of the Norwegian national team since 2021
After retiring, the Norwegian became a football coach and took charge of Norway in 2021. Stale achieved the historic feat of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup for the first time since 1998.

Solbakken has now become synonymous with hope for the Norwegians. The coach is responsible for leading the generation of most talented players in the country's history, including Erling Haaland, from Manchester City, and Martin Odegaard, from Arsenal.

Next confrontation
This Friday (26), Norway and France face each other in a direct confrontation to decide the position of each team in the group. In case of a tie, the leader will go to

French national team.

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Source: CNN