Alex Craninx (Málaga, 1995) is a mixture of accents: both soccer and linguistic. He was born in Andalusia, but his parents are Belgian and he was international with the lower categories of the red devils. At 14 years old, he Real Madrid he threw the lasso for his quarry. He was burning stages and He came to enter the calls of the first white team led by Zidane. He left Valdebebas, where he coincided with Odegaard, who advised him to go to the Norwegian Mold. There he triumphed, winning two league titles as well as a cup, and for several months he shared a dressing room with Haaland.
Few like him have the right to speak about Norway national teamagainst which the spain of Louis of the Source. “Norwegian football is experiencing a unique moment thanks to the Super stars that they are dating, like Erling Haaland (City), Martin Odegaard (Arsenal), Fredrik Aursnes (Benfica), Marcus Pedersen (Feyenoord), Alexander Sorloth (Real Sociedad)… Every day there are more players taking a step abroad and letting themselves be seen”, says the goalkeeper, currently in Fuenlabrada de Primera RFEF.
Haaland, a star that the Mold raised
“I came back because I had been away for five years. I had a couple of injuries that cut my projection. I didn’t want to be further away from my family, as happened to me during the coronavirus, when I didn’t see them for a year. I am in the phase of rediscovering myself and playing again with confidence”, says the goalkeeper of 1.97, who managed to take ownership in Moldewith whom he played in the Europa League, and which was the springboard for which he is today “the best 9 in the world and this is proven by their numbers”.
“He already saw potential, although not as much as what he is showing. Everything changes quickly, but none of them have the desire to score. He was very tall and had many back injuries. They took great care of him, with an individual programme. The Mold was key to what it is today“, explains Craninx from the maturity of what he experienced. As a teenager he became part of Real Madrid, where he coincided with another of Norway’s strongholds, Martin Odegaard, one of the great bets for the future of the whites that failed to materialize.
Odegaard, the new leader of Arsenal
Now he is a leader and teaches the Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal who can win a Premier 19 years later. “Odegaard has found the ideal context for him. He is settled and confident. He is a calm and normal person, so I am glad that he is doing well. He is another footballer who has had to go from side to side until he can succeed”says Craninx about a player who ended up leaving Real Madrid, “the best club in the world, where only those touched by a wand play.”
In addition to magic, “it depends a bit on luck and being at the right time, the most important thing in football today”, reflects the goalkeeper, who decided to leave the Madrid discipline just one day before the start of the summer tour of the USA for which he had been summoned.
Haaland and Odegaard: the best generation
“I forced my departure to Sparta Rotterdam, on the advice of the people who advised me at that time. I had a two-year contract. I didn’t have the best adaptation and things didn’t work out,” he explains, with due distance and time, but with the pride of having convinced Zidane, both in Castilla and in the first teamfor which he called him up due to Keylor Navas’ injury.
“I was there for seven years. When I left, I thought: ‘what did I just do?’ If I have to give a piece of advice to a kid from the Real Madrid academy, it is to be patient. Because you don’t leave, they kick you out. It’s better to hold on. You will always have some way out and you will continue to train. You have to fight against the desire and anxiety of wanting to succeed “, she explains in a life lesson applicable to the “best generation that is building Norway”articulated through Haaland, Odegaard and other rising values that hope to raise the bar for a team that has qualified three times for a World Cup (1938, 1994 and 1998) and only once has he been in a Eurocup.
Spain 0 – 1 Norway in Euro 2000
It was in 2000, where the Flo, Carew, Eggen and company they beat the team led by Camacho with a solitary goal from Iversen. Another absence in the Malaga match, in addition to Haaland’s, is that of the striker Joshua King, author of the two goals in the two closest precedents for Norway against Spain. They went in qualifying for Euro 2021. The Nordics achieved a draw at home (1-1) and fell 2-1 in Spain.
In the phase for Germany 2024, both teams meet again with the aim of being the first two (direct place for the tournament) of a group in which they are also the Georgia of Kvaratskhelia (Naples), one of the fashionable men of European football, along with Scotland and Cyprus. “It will be close. Spain is in a change of cycle where everything is new and Norway has a generation with names top line by line. A very good group that has worked from the youth ranks, where efforts continue to be made to be on the European front line,” says Craninx, the Spaniard who triumphed in Nordic territory.
