For many years, Fredrikstad was an economic powerhouse in Norway. The city, located in the south of the Scandinavian country, stood out as a supplier of machinery for the naval industry and its shipyard was for decades the most important in northern Europe. The ensuing enthusiasm was reflected in his soccer team, the Fredrikstad FK, whose playful and colorful game was strongly praised by critics. “This is how you have to play,” Jørgen Juve, the Norwegian team's top scorer in history, once said. Between 1938 and 1961 the aristocrats conquered nine leagues, which led them to a few previous rounds of the European Cup in which they defeated Ajax. The professionalization of the sport, however, caught them off their feet. They did not manage to adapt and, as a consequence, they descended to Second in 1973. Later, nothing.
Since then, just Knut Torbjørn Eggen, son of the mythical Rosenborg coach Nis Arne Eggen, was able to bring some light to Fredrikstad. Under his mandate (2002-2006) the club rose from Third to First and, as a culmination, won the 11th Norwegian Cup in its history. That was in 2006. Since then – again -, nothing. In 2017 the club hit rock bottom returning to Third, where it has lasted for three years to get a new promotion. Fredrikstad will return in 2021 to the second echelon of Norwegian football, and the city, currently supported by its chemical plants and other light industries, is already infected by the consequent ambition of its history. “There has not even been time to celebrate it and they already say that next year we must be promoted to First”, reveals the canary Maikel Nieves, one of the heroes who have brought the FFK to the place that, by history, belongs to it.
“It's important for people to realize that, even if I don't play that much, I'm still helping the team a lot”
Maikel Nieves, Fredrikstad player
Born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Maikel Nieves emigrated to Norway in 2014 to play for Nybergsund. And, except for the year he competed in the Swedish First Division, His sports career has since been reduced to the country of the Vikings, where he has already achieved two promotions. The first with the Kongsvinger shirt, with which he also reached a Cup final, his best football memory: “Playing in front of 40,000 people and greeting the King of Norway was incredible”. Maikel, in Fredrikstad since January 2019, is as Norwegian as he is Canarian. So much so that his partner, Martine, is Norwegian, and Noah, his son, was born in Norway. Maiki speaks the local language and only his tan, unusual in Scandinavia, gives him away as a foreigner. “I see myself living here and returning to the Canary Islands just on vacation. Norwegians say I'm crazy, but the quality of life is very good. Now that we have been promoted and I have another year on my contract, I cannot ask for anything more, “says the Spanish footballer from Fredrikstad.
Staying at the gates of promotion in 2019 was complicated, but 2020, according to Maikel Nieves himself, “It has been a magical year”. Fredrikstad made 13/13 in the regular phase of the championship and winning two of the first three games of the final play-off allowed the team to confirm their promotion three days in advance. “We were hoping that our pursuer would win to be able to move up on the field. He won and we also, 6-0. And it was a party because 600 people can now enter the field and all our families were there. In the dressing room we went crazy. We had a shopping cart full of beers waiting and we got into the pool that we have to recover. I messed with the GPS and now it doesn't work, “says Nieves, who, like the entire squad, had two days off after the celebration:” Imagine how we ended the night. “
Despite not having been a fixture in the eleven, Maikel Nieves has become one of the most effective footballers in the Norwegian Third Division this season. “It is important for people to realize that, even if I don't play as much, I continue to help the team a lot,” he values. author of eight goals and five assists in 15 games. “When I go to take the child to kindergarten they play the team's music. It is a very soccer city. They all wear Fredikstrad t-shirts or flags and want to talk to me. As I am dark, I stand out from my classmates, who are almost all Norwegian”, chancea the canary, who has already started the countdown to his temporary return to Las Palmas. “It was not difficult for me to adapt to Norway, but I love the sun and I miss the beach”, sentence Maiki, one of the heroes of Fredikstad.