We caught up with the former Norwegian international still playing for the love of the game.
If you’ve spent much time online in the last couple of weeks, you may have seen the social media posts celebrating the 40th birthday of one of the Premier Leagues most endearing flair players from the 2000s, Blackburn Rovers hero Morten Gamst Pedersen.
And if you’ve been following the FotMob Twitter account, you probably already know that the man himself is currently showcasing those mercurial talents and scoring outrageous goals for Alta, a club in Norway’s third tier.
Situated approximately 400km above the Arctic Circle, Alta lies in Pedersen’s home county of Finnmark and he chose to join the team after leaving Eliteserien (Norway’s top division) side Tromsø in 2019.
But on this weekend in mid-September, we travelled the relatively short distance north from FotMob’s HQ in Bergen to watch Alta, and Pedersen, play against Florø SK. It was still a journey of over 200km, including a ferry ride, but close by Norwegian football standards.
The team’s own journey hadn’t gone entirely to plan, as Pedersen explains.
“When we came yesterday, all the luggage, it was gone. That’s why we wore Florø’s away kit. We had no kit, everything was gone. Nobody knows where it is.”
So why then, when his contemporaries are sat at home, or in the relative comfort of the television studio spouting opinions on the game, is Pedersen still doing it? And at a level where it takes two flights to get to an away game and you can’t even be sure that your kit is going to make it there with you?
“I love to play football, that’s the thing. I go to training everyday and I look forward to the games. I spend so much time on keeping my body healthy and well.
And I want to play football as long as I can because for me, I’ve been lucky and I’m still lucky to have my dream as my work, you know.”
Pedersen’s passion for the game is evident out on the pitch and he quietly dictates play from a position sat just in front of the Alta defence. Trying out one-touch pass after pass with the left foot that made him famous, he looks like he’s enjoying himself.
After one pass goes awry, someone from the crowd of approximately 150 partisan locals shouts out that he’s finished. Pedersen just keeps on smiling and responds shortly after, from the halfway line with a quickly taken free-kick that sails just over the bar. That would have been sweet.
But as the game wears on, Alta, more used to plying their trade indoors (wouldn’t you 400km north of the Arctic Circle?), begin to struggle with the increasingly heavy surface. And indeed, they go 1-0 down thanks to a defensive error.
Pedersen though, is relishing the chance to stretch his legs. And as the experienced pro, he knows his time will come.
“We don’t play too much on grass, I love to play on the grass. Of course it’s different, but for me I like it, I’ve played more on grass than artificial in my life.”
On 77 minutes, a Florø player lashes out and receives a second yellow card. The change in Alta’s tempo is almost instantaneous. You can see Pedersen’s calm authority spread amongst his teammates as he himself turns it up a notch.
Within a couple of minutes, Alta level when a cross swung in to the box is headed home by 16-year-old Peter Brekke. It’s his first professional goal but there’s no time for celebrations, there’s a game to win.
And win it they do.
In the 87th minute Alta overrun the home side down the flank and as the ball is pulled back across the area, the stage is set for our hero Morten to step forward and really put his laces through it. He does exactly that and the ball smashes home, top corner. Keeper no chance. It’s exactly what we came to see!
“That was good. I almost scored from the halfway line in the first half, I had a good shot just before that got blocked and then it was nice to get the third try…
You can’t give me too many chances you know, because sometimes, that can happen.”
We catch Pedersen as he leaves the pitch triumphant and he stops for a chat, inviting us in to the dressing room area out of the cold. We talk about the game and about Alta. His eyes light up when he mentions the 24-year age gap between the two goalscorers, and it’s that commitment to the club that shines through.
“Alta is a club that’s never been to the OBOS Ligaen (Norway’s second tier). I could be playing in the Eliteserien you know.
When I left Tromsø, I could have gone to some other clubs but then I thought, okay many people know what I can do, but my county is Finnmark.
And I’ve been lucky to come from there and play football and they have done so much for me, so I said I’d try to give something back for that place.”
The result left Alta sixth in the table with promotion perhaps beyond them, for this year at least. And individually, Pedersen moved to nine goals for the season – his previous eight all coming from free-kicks, penalties, or believe-it-or-not, direct from corners. He’s scored three of those.
So when you think of him next, or an old Blackburn Rovers clip comes up on television, remember that Pedersen is probably still out there, fighting for his community club, smiling away and scoring worldies.