It is in many ways a sad day, the 71-year-old national team manager for Iceland Åge Hareide is not only stepping down as national team manager, he has decided that he is completely done as a coach.
He reveals this in a yet-to-be-published episode of the NRK podcast “Bakrommet”.
“I’ve made up my mind. That will be enough for me to stop now. I have a bad knee. I have to be top notch if I’m going to keep doing this,” Hareide says in the episode.
On a day like this, it must be allowed to call Åge Hareide a true legend. He has won the series in all the Scandinavian countries. He went to the top with Rosenborg in Norway, with Malmö in Sweden and with Brøndby in Denmark. He also took Malmö to the Champions League. He also won the cup with Molde when they played at level 2 in 1994.
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Åge Hareide has played for Molde, Hødd, Manchester City, Norwich and of course for Norway and led three national teams.
On Monday, the Icelandic Football Association reports that Hareide has decided to leave the national team and resigned on his own initiative.
Hareide was the national team manager for Norway between 2003 and 2008, without being able to take the national team to a championship. Hareide had far greater success with Denmark in the period 2016 to 2020.
He was one penalty shootout away from taking Denmark to the quarter-finals of the 2028 World Cup, and during his stay went a period of 34 games without a loss.
Norway’s national team manager Ståle Solbakken says to NRK he is not entirely sure it is over.
“He’s a master of comeback, so it’s not entirely certain we’ve seen the last of him”
