In the run-up to her 50th birthday, Ingrid Halseth made what would normally be considered an unusual request for somebody her age. She asked for a unicycle.
As a budding handball player in her youth before devoting more time to mastering alpine skiing – eventually a silver medallist at the downhill in Norway’s nationals – this actually felt a completely normal present.
‘She tried it twice and got it,’ Ingrid’s husband Arne says. ‘And Sverre picked it up easily. It’s not fair. She has the skills which Sverre has inherited. They’re not from me!’
The Sverre in question is the couple’s son, 18-year-old Sverre Nypan, the most expensive footballer ever sold from Norway last summer when Manchester City fended off most of Europe in paying £12.5million to take the midfielder from Rosenborg, the record 26-time champions of his homeland.
The club, whose stadium stands 500 metres from the family home in Trondheim, had Nypan training with their first team at 14 and gave him a professional debut following one year later. He used to watch the first team every week and ended up scoring 14 times in 62 Eliteserien games for them, becoming the linchpin as he racked up more than 4,000 minutes before he turned 18.
Nypan is making his first appearance on many English radars on loan at Middlesbrough this season but his rise has been the talk of Norway for some time, breaking through at the same age as Martin Odegaard did, and head coach Stake Solbakken gave him a senior international bow during last week’s friendly against New Zealand.
18-year-old Sverre Nypan, who is on loan at Middlesbrough, became the most expensive player ever sold from Norway when City paid £12.5million for him in the summer
Nypan made his senior international bow for Norway during last week’s friendly against New Zealand
Arne, a top executive at Sparebank 1 and a Rosenborg board member, flew to Oslo hours before kick-off and had to dart back up that night. ‘I had to run for the train straight after – next stop Gardermoen airport,’ he smiles.
Nypan has a commemorative pendant from the occasion and had to give a speech to his new team-mates. No nerves, he insists, from his new place in Yarm, eight miles south of Middlesbrough – home for a first year in England. Second in the Championship, Boro seem a good fit for his loan deal. Rob Edwards has only gradually introduced the teenager so far – just seven appearances and only two starts – but the rave reviews are in…