E135: Jan Age Fjortoft

Of the +125 pods we’ve done over the past 2 years or so, today’s conversation must rank as one of our all time favourites.It’s with Norway’s greatest export Jan Age Fjortoft, the former international, Bundesliga and Premier League footballer turned media star and strategic sports consultant.In 1992, Fjortoft was one of just 39 foreign players in the Premier League during a career that saw him score 249 goals in 548 professional games including 71 caps for Norway, for whom he played at the 1994 FIFA World Cup in America.This was before he embarked on a range of second careers working as a popular TV host, interviewer and analyst for German and Norwegian television, ESPN and SKY Germany. He has also managed the Norway national team, worked as an adviser to the Norwegian government and anti drug agency WADA and built his own strategic consultancy.So, we talk about loads of things, including the peculiar and often bizarre reality of playing in the Premier League, the Middlesborogh Galacticos, what it was like on the town with Fabrizio Ravanelli and we talk about the much derided genre of the post-match interview with players and managers.A big thank you to Adrian Bevington for putting us together. The pair have been mates since they met at Middlesbrough in the mid ‘90s.As ever, if you like the podcasts, you’d really like the weekly Unofficial Partner newsletter, which covers many other sports business themes in more depth. You can sign up to that via UnofficialPartner.com where you can also delve in to the back catalogue of conversations with people from every corner of sport.

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