The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Molde is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Molde this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eirik Hestad is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The terracesThe press cannot get enough of Eirik Hestad
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The Molde Chronicle
5 Oct 2026
From our football correspondentUpbeat
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Jalal Abdullai, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.30
A mark of 8.30 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 28 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
24 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Franco Toloza commits to Molde for another 3 years.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Eirik Hestad falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Molde this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jalal Abdullai. 1‑0 against Aalesund, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
19 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Eirik Haugan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Molde the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 6 of the 24 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Molde this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Birk Risa falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at Molde will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Marked 5.26. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Valerenga are out and Molde go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Jalal Abdullai, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.60
A mark of 8.60 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Mats Møller Dæhli was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
23 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Eirik Hestad falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 21 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
There were 87 minutes on the clock and Stromsgodset had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Molde did not stop to explain themselves.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Molde is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Molde this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eirik Hestad is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Marked 8.89 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
11 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
José Martínez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad7 Sep 2026
10 new faces, and Molde are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Mads Kikkenborg knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Eirik Haugan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Molde the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Emil Breivik was one of the reasons people came, and $4.5M does not replace that by itself.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jalal Abdullai did not need any: 7.74, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Partizan paid $4.5M and Molde took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Molde this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Two goals and a mark of 8.92 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The 89th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Sondre Granaas decided nobody was going anywhere. Tromso had no time left to answer.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Trent Kone-Doherty did not need any: 8.48, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Add another name to the list: Partizan have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Emil Breivik. The answer from Molde has not changed — yet.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Vebjørn Hoff has agreed terms with Viking for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
José Martínez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Molde they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Eirik Haugan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The phone has started ringing about Kristian Eriksen again, and this time the name on the line is Bodo/Glimt. Molde are listening politely and promising nothing.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eirik Hestad is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.35 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
24 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Mats Møller Dæhli was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Martin Linnes and Molde agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Eirik Hestad falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.