Norway coach Solbakken died 25 years ago — today he'll be on the sidelines for the World Cup quarterfinal against England

Here's what it's all about

• Stale Solbakken will face England with Norway in the World Cup quarterfinals on Saturday.
• The Scandinavian team's coach suffered a heart attack more than 25 years ago and was clinically dead for several minutes.
• The team doctor at the time said of the incident: “It’s a miracle he’s still alive.”

Summary created with

March 13, 2001, Copenhagen. A day that actually begins quite normally for 33-year-old Stale Solbakken, as he explains in a new Netflix documentary tells the story. The professional soccer player drops off his oldest son at preschool and then drives to FC Copenhagen’s practice. Forty minutes after practice begins, he suddenly collapses. Heart attack.

His concerned teammates immediately alerted team doctor Frank Odgaard. An ambulance was also called. It arrived at the training facility eight minutes later. By that time, Solbakken had already been clinically dead for several minutes.

"... then they brought me back to life with an electric shock"

“As luck would have it, the team doctor was at the training facility that day. That didn’t happen very often back then,” recalls the 58-year-old. “So I received the necessary treatment before they used an electric shock to bring me back to life.”

His wife, Anniken, learns of the incident at home and rushes immediately to the hospital. At Rigshospitalet, she is presented with the cold, hard facts. “We hope he’ll wake up again. We hope his memory will return,” she recalls of her conversation with the doctors.

Solbakken was in a coma for 30 hours. Then he opened his eyes and was finally allowed to return home. He says it felt to him as if someone had turned off the light.

Pacemakers and Career Changes

It turns out that Solbakken was born with a heart defect. The Norwegian is fitted with a pacemaker, but this brings his career as a professional soccer player to an end. From now on, Solbakken will be on the sidelines instead.

Over the years, the former midfielder has become a successful coach. After stints with Copenhagen, Cologne, and Wolverhampton, Solbakken became head coach of the Norwegian national team in December 2020.

Under his leadership, the Scandinavians have qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 1998 and have immediately advanced to the quarterfinals. There, Haaland, Odegaard, and the rest of the team will face England on Saturday at 11:00 p.m. in Miami.