Ruben Gabrielsen has put a sharp label on Fredrik Aursnes: he says he did not expect the midfielder to become the most underrated footballer in the world. The former teammates, who shared a dressing room at Molde, also came up in the same breath as Erling Haaland, whom Gabrielsen described as the best striker in the world.
That assessment is drawing attention now because Aursnes has returned to the Norway national team in February after consulting Haaland in recent months. For supporters trying to place him among the country’s leading names, Gabrielsen’s view offers a simple answer: Aursnes has long been seen by people who knew him well as far more than a quiet squad player.
Gabrielsen spoke to VG about how the two developed after their time together at Molde. He said it was already clear then that both had talent and were really good. He added that Haaland and Aursnes are very different, but share a great sense of humor, and that both occupy a lot of space on the pitch.
That is where the contrast becomes hard to ignore. Haaland was described by Gabrielsen as someone who cared only about scoring and grew furious if he did not, a forward built around the goal. Aursnes, by contrast, has spent much of his career in a role that does not always produce easy headlines, even as he moved from Norway in 2021 to Feyenoord and then, one year later, to Benfica.
Their paths began to split in the summer of 2018, when Haaland left for RB Salzburgo and later kept rising to Manchester City, while Aursnes stayed in Norway until 2021. Before that, though, they had spent about a year and a half together at Molde and, according to Gabrielsen, became close friends. He said Aursnes was one of Haaland’s main supports there, which helps explain why both names still travel together in talk about Noruega’s core players.
For Aursnes, the next question is not whether people at home know him. It is whether his return to the national team will finally make his reputation match the way former teammates describe him: not as a background figure, but as a player who fills more of the field than his profile suggests.
