Sivert Nilsen is giving up silverware in Sotra to try and get Aberdeen’s season back on track at Kilmarnock.
Scandinavian football is normally in shutdown but for Nilsen the festive schedule was one of the most competitive times of the year. He had spells in Norway and Sweden with the likes of Elfsborg and SK Brann but it was more about the local bragging rights between him and his friends.
Nilsen would return home to his local village, just outside of Bergen, for a full-scale match with his mates on Christmas Eve. They would follow it up with a competitive five-a-side tournament on Boxing Day. Nilsen and his team-mates won the tournament last year but won’t be defending their title this year because the Dons ace will be playing competitively and looking to pick up three points at Kilmarnock. The 33-year-old midfielder said: “We are training on Christmas Day but in Norway we celebrate on December 24th.
“IWhen I was home there was a Christmas tradition in my hometown where we get together and play football on Christmas. Not a team, just friends in a big mass gathering of all the guys I played with when I was 15 or 16.
“We would just get together and it would be pretty full-on as it’s a full pitch and everybody is there. On Boxing Day in Norway it’s normal to have an indoor tournament and I always played in that.
“That was the most important thing as you don’t think about your career when you play in that. You can get injured as you can go 100 percent because your friends make up the team and you play other groups of friends from the same town.
“Unfortunately this year I am not able to go as we won it last year and it’s a big thing in my hometown. I think my friends are upset I can’t be there and we have another player injured now. So they might not go this year because they are afraid they might not win it.”
It will be a trip to Ayrshire and the Killie artificial surface instead for Nilsen on Boxing Day It is nothing new for the Norwegian who was used to that in the Eliteserien, where several sides use artificial surfaces to battle against the wintry conditions. Nilsen is glad Scotland’s top-flight have voted to go back to grass surfaces as he reckons it will benefit the Premiership.
The midfielder said: “It’s nothing new to me as I’m used to playing on a lot of plastic pitches in Norway. It’s only five teams in Norway that still play on natural grass pitches. That’s too few.
“I’m sure more teams could have a normal pitch but I understand it for the northern teams. Bodo/Glimt and Tromso have to have astro or something because of the weather but the others, no. It can be a different game on a plastic pitch when it comes to having duels. I can understand why some clubs in Scotland want to get back to grass because it’s also important for the reputation of the league.”
Nilsen had already played a full season in Norway before he moved to Aberdeen but is adamant that he doesn’t need a break. Playing in Scandinavia and then switching to the European calendar is something he has experienced before and he likes it.
But the Dons ace isn’t happy with his side’s slump in form over the past few weeks. They have taken just three points from their last six games and lost last time out to Hibs. That is something the Norwegian wants to put right in Ayrshire.
Nilsen said: “When I went from Elsborg to Beveren in Belgium, I did the same. I played the whole season in Sweden and then went into the second half of the season in Belgium.
“It sounds a little strange but I never really took a holiday when we were off in pre-season in Norway. I never felt like I needed a holiday. I know what I am doing and I just want to play football for as long as I can. For me, no breaks are needed.”