The Genius of the Day: Jan Gunnar Solli

Jan Gunnar Solli is a 33-year-old right back, right winger, and sometimes defensive midfielder as well, who was born 33 years ago (April 19) in Arendal, Norway.

We aren’t going to speak about an amateur, because this man has collected 40 caps (the last one in 2010) and 1 goal for Norwegian National Team, and has played, usually as a regular starter, for all the biggest clubs of his Country: from 2000 to 2003 he had played for Odd Grenland (54 matches and 0 goal), from 2003 to 2006 for Rosenborg BK from Trondheim (85 matches and 3 goals), the best Norwegian club in the last 20 years, and from 2007 to 2010, he had spent other 4 seasons (97 games and 8 goals) at SK Brann from Bergen, one of the most supported clubs in the Country.

In 2011 he decided to make a new experience, so flew across the pond and played two seasons (55 matches and 3 goals) for New York Red Bulls, enlarging the settlement of Scandinavian footballers in MLS, because the levels of American and Nordic Championships are quite similar, and, moreover, at that time the team from ”The Big Apple” was managed by the Swedish Hans Backe.

In February 2013 he came back to his homeland, and played a full season (21 games and 2 goals) for Valerenga IF from Oslo, but at the beginning of the current (Scandinavian) Season he emigrated again, but this time he travelled fewer kilometres, moving to Hammarby IF from Stockholm, that, despite being one of the most popular clubs in Swedish football, has played in Superettan (second tier) for five seasons.

Moreover, in Norway, Jan Gunnar is a quite known DJ too, nicknamed as DJ Solli, and he has performed before very famous artists, such as Calvin Harris and David Guetta.

As you probably have already figured, (DJ) Solli is quite popular in his Country, but we can’t say the same at international level, in which he’s considered no more than a decent right back/winger, or he’s unknown at all.
That could have changed, because few days ago Jan Gunnar got his 15 minutes of celebrity that, according to Andy Warhol, everybody gets in his life: during the final minutes of Hammarby IF – Degerfors IF, the home team being 5-0 up, the ball was in the air and Solli decided to hide it under his jersey, with no hand touch, and to hold it there for few moments before dropping it.
Unlike us, the referee didn’t enjoy that, and not only whistled a foul against Hammarby IF, but showed him a yellow card as well (you can find the video at the beginning of the post) !
The Norwegian immediately apologized with both the referee and the opponents, who complained with him because they, being 5-0 down, probably had thought that Solli was mocking them !

Finally we are pleased to point out that the game was played in front of 29.307 spectators (Tele2 Arena, the new stadium, that opened last year, that Hammarby IF shares with Djurgardens IF, has a capacity of 33.000), a very high number for Superettan, a competition, not including Bajen (Solli’s team nickname), that usually averages 2/3.000 spectators per game: anyway it must be said that the first home game of the Season in certain Countries, such as Sweden, is particularly important and usually registers much higher attendandances than during the rest of the season.
That is especially true for Hammarby IF, for which this game is a kind of rite, and is usually preceded by traditional a pre-match march, attendend by a lot of people: we hope that during the Season the attendance won’t drop too much !

In the following video you can find the pre-match atmosphere and choreo: