Stream off the first two episodes Fan of Riise on TV 2 Play now.
– You get a shock. The first thing you see is a pack of sanitary napkins. I’m not used to that. Then I realized that “now I’m in a girl’s wardrobe, and not in a men’s wardrobe.” I had to look twice.
Straight up and down, in a simple chair, with his hands folded, John Arne Riise sits and talks about his new life as a coach for the Toppserie club Avaldsnes.
It’s a couple of hectic weeks until the start of the series. Riise says he is unsure of much, but absolutely sure of one thing; that he has come to the right place when he now takes the step over to the women’s side in Norwegian football.
– PUNISHMENT: One of the tricks John Arne Riise used to get his shoulders down at the start of the meeting with women’s football. Photo: TV 2
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– I notice that becoming a coach for a women’s team, doing it with my name … Then it automatically comes with a responsibility, without you necessarily wanting it. That responsibility is to lift women’s football and make it more visible. It happens automatically when I enter. People become curious about it and want to follow more. For better or worse, Riise says of her own role.
The 42-year-old, who himself has a daughter, says that in his new job he sees himself as much as an ambassador and father figure, as a football coach.
– I feel that responsibility, and yes, I say yes to that responsibility. I think women’s football deserves that recognition in terms of how much time is spent. I noticed it on a kickoff I was on. It was important that I was there. Women’s football uses my name and face to promote itself. It’s natural, and I think it’s fun. The girls deserve it, because they put in an insane amount of effort, says Riise.
– AMBASSADOR: John Arne Riise sees himself as a champion of women’s football. Photo: Jan Kåre Ness
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“Sinte-Riise”, which he describes himself as from the time in Flint, he has put behind him. Season two definitely shows a more sane version of himself. A Riise who acts at least as much as a mentor in difficult times where the team loses several games in a row.
– I feel that I do not get as angry as on the boys’ side. I feel I have to guide them to get better, both as people and as players. Then there is no point in standing and yelling. Then they learn nothing.
– These are young girls, with emotions. Then it’s important to put a hand around them and explain things to them, rather than me going and banging on the wardrobe. It also makes me fall in love with them very quickly. I notice that now. No one should fucke with my girls, without them hearing it from me, Riise says with a smile.
The former Liverpool star admits that he “can not quit his job”, and can be found on the training field – or in the hallways – from eight in the morning, until late at night.
– I have an insane pressure on me. So I feel that I have to think football 24/7, says Riise himself.
– HEAVY START: John Arne Riise quickly had to learn to deal with adversity at work in Avaldsnes. Photo: MARIUS SIMENSEN
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At first, he was unsure how best to attack the transition to women’s training. Riise has lived in boys’ wardrobes since childhood. But the girls’ wardrobe was a new experience. Not least in a very young Avaldsnes team, where several players have not even managed to be russ, and where the average age is under 20 years.
– The rule is that I knock and ask, if it is clear, before I come in. Going into the break and being pissed. You can not just shower in here, says Riise about the driving rules.
He is honest that he expects players to talk about him behind his back.
– I expect that I as a coach will be backbitten. It does not have to be negative. It can be positive, that. That they like what we do and what we train on. I like to have self-irony, to have a good mood. What they say about me behind my back, I do not know. And I probably will not know that either, because what happens in here, it will stay in here. But now I am here so often that they do not have time to say much anyway, says Riise and laughs.
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Asked questions to the players
Before the season, for fear that the past would affect how the players looked at him, he took a chat with several of them.
– I noticed early on that people held back. Whether they were starstruck or nervous, I do not know. They seemed very confined. But I’m social and meat a lot, so I got loosened up in it quickly. I like to start training with meat, Riise jokes.
– I asked them what they thought of me. Most people thought I was damn strict. I realized that their impression was going to be that. But most said it did not take long before they realized that the did not vote. That I am rather funny, social, meaty, easy to talk to, positive, childish.
Riise’s two captains agree.
– John Arne as a coach, he talks very a lot. He has very a lot of energy, says left-back Hanna Dahl (27).
– It spreads to us. He gives us energy in the way he is, agrees the club’s biggest profile on the field; striker Karina Sævik (26).
Exactly that energy Riise lost after the relegation with Flint last autumn.
– You do not get a tougher start as a coach than that, considering the adversity. I had never in my wildest imagination thought that we would move down. I was embarrassed in the period afterwards, and was not much out among people the first few weeks, says Riise about the time after he left his first coaching job.
– You start to doubt yourself. I thought it would be difficult to get any other clubs to bet. But then you have to think again; that all my career I have used adversity and that people do not believe in me, as a motivation to be the best. And then suddenly a message appeared, says Riise about the SMS from an unexpected place in Haugesund.
A number of people closed their eyes when Riise announced the transfer to women’s football on December 8 last year. Also for Riise himself, the transition has been a little shock, first and foremost off the field.
– PROFILE: National team player Karina Sævik is among John Arne Riise’s most important players in Avaldsnes. Photo: Jan Kåre Ness
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After the relegation with Flint, he sold the house in Tønsberg and moved away from the family he had around him. He and his ex-wife Louise Angelica divorced in April last year, but he continued to live near both his ex and son Colin (2).
– Colin, it’s an insane miss, and it makes you often think if it was the right choice to separate. Those thoughts come in. Now Colin was here last week for the first time, and visited me. I had him alone a few days before Louise came and picked him up. He loved being here, and Louise enjoyed herself here as well. You get some thoughts about «what is life? What is the future so private?». Some thoughts on the choices I have made lately. Could they have been wrong? says an outspoken Riise in the documentary.
Extra heavy was the combination of a break-up off the field, and relegation.
– I had gone through a break at home. To then move away from everything and everyone, to a place I do not know anyone, then I sacrifice being close to family and friends. Not being able to follow up the children and junior (Colin). You feel like you are living a different life than what your loved ones are doing. It’s heavy. But then everyone knows that my dream is to become a top-level coach. Then you have to make the best of it. But of course it’s heavy. Terribly heavy, Riise admits.
Five years after putting his football boots on the shelf for good, he still has not given up on the dream of one day returning to England and the Premier League.
– I am quite confident that during my career I will succeed in becoming a Premier League coach. Yes, it’s hairy, but if you do not have dreams, what’s the point?
Watch the first two episodes of Fan of Riise on TV 2 Play
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