Sander Berge claims it was weird first seeing his close pals Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard slug it out. Now he says it’s just fun.
Haaland and Odegaard will clash at the Etihad on Sunday when Manchester City face Arsenal in a potential title decider. Berge has known Odegaard since they first played for Norway’s under-age teams at 15 and Haaland for the last five years.
He spends time with them away from football and says he initially had to get his head round the fact his friends are starring for two of the world’s biggest clubs. He is well used to it now and, like everyone else, can’t wait to see what happens on Sunday.
“It’s special for me because when I was growing up, who would you watch from Norway?” said the Burnley midfielder. “Now two of my closest mates are two of the absolute biggest players with two of the best teams in the world.
“It’s been a little bit strange because there they are, going up against each other, fighting for their club teams and then they are together with the national team.
“Now everybody’s a little bit more adjusted to it with Erling scoring all these goals for Manchester City and Martin scoring his goals and being captain of Arsenal. Everybody’s more used to it now and it’s just fun watching them from the side.”
Berge, 26, sees Haaland, who has 32 goals this season for City and Norway, despite missing almost two months through injury, every week and they hang out at each other’s house. He joked the striker was like his “younger brother” when he scored his first Champions League hat-trick for Red Bull Salzburg in 2019 at 19 and excitedly insisted on showing him his matchball, even though he was in doping.
“We clicked as mates right away and when I was with Genk and he was at Salzburg, they beat us 6-2 in the Champions League,” he said. “After that game I was in doping control, he’d scored a hat trick and he brought the ball into me. “I was like, ‘yeah, yeah, whatever, I need to do this’.
“I was like ‘what’s going on with this guy?’ and he’s like a younger brother to me. It was hilarious and he’s never stopped.”
Berge has known Odegaard, who has nine goals and seven assists for Arsenal, for the last 10 years and says it was crazy seeing him join Real Madrid at just 16.
“With Martin being down south, I can’t see him as often as Erling, but I speak with him all the time,” he said. “I’ve known since I was 15 and we were in the same age group for the national team.
“That was the first time I played with him and then half-a-year later, he was at Real Madrid. We’ve been close since then and we’ve come through to play for the national team for many years now.”
Berge played with Haaland and Odegaard in Norway’s defeat to Czechia and draw against Slovakia during the international break and says the pair will park their friendship for 90 minutes on Sunday.
But he says they will always be close what happens at the Etihad.
“They’re really good friends, like we all are together,” he said. “When they play against each other they just think it’s fun. Obviously they want to go out and win for their teams, but they have the biggest amount of respect for each other.
“The whole thing is just so cool and it’s great for me to have them as friends and to play with them for Norway.”