It would have to be a special day for Norwegians to complain about the Hong Kong weather, but Norway's assistant coach, Stig Inge Bjornebye, and his boss, Age Hareide, yesterday surveyed the skyline wondering whether the rain would ease enough to allow them to train on the waterlogged Siu Sai Wan pitch.
In their first official session in charge of the football dreams of their 4.5 million compatriots, both had different things on their minds. Hareide pointed towards the neighbouring high-rise apartments of the Island Resort complex with a smile on his face. 'In Norway, that's a town,' he laughed.
Bjornebye, the former Liverpool and Blackburn Rovers defender, was more serious, contemplating the first day of the rest of his life. 'It feels good. It's going to be exciting,' said the 34-year-old, who was forced by injuries to end his playing career prematurely last summer.
'We've not played a game yet, so it's been fairly easy. I started by doing all the administrative things in the office. Actually, I'd been looking forward to doing something different. I knew it was coming. It shouldn't be a shock.
'Realistically, throughout your career you should know it's coming. But it's a lot easier when you get on the training pitch and see them playing, to get a closer look and see which of them can be internationals. We're trying out our players to see what our team will be. It's up to them really.'
Ironically, after 10 years of the hustle and bustle of the English Premier League and 75 caps for the national team, Bjornebye's playing days ended on the training ground. Already battling a blocked artery in his foot that had needed two bypass operations, a blow to the face damaged the orbital floor of his eye badly enough to have him invalided out of the professional ranks.
'I stopped my career in a way I wasn't happy with. I missed the pressure and excitement of top-level professional sport. I had some other options in my life, but when this opportunity came I knew I was going to give it a go. I wasn't really preparing [to be a coach] for years and years.
