Manchester United signs Mame Biram Diouf

A dozen of clubs have been interested in Molde's star striker, specially after this performance last week, and today Molde announces on their web page that they have agreed with Manchester United. The Senegalese will stay on loan in Molde until January.

Alex Ferguson gave this cryptic message from Kuala Lumpur: “We signed a young player yesterday from Norway, who we’ve been looking at for two years,”


This transfer reminds us about another Molde-Man Unt transfer, 13 years ago:

Ole Gunnar Solskjær was not much older than Diouf, when he signed for the English club.

16th of July: Results

Rosenborg - Karabakh 0-0
----------------Rune Almenning Jarstein--------------------
Mikael Lustig, Kris Stadsgaard, Alejandro Lago, Micke Dorsin
----------Alexander Tettey-- Anthony Annan---------------
Per Ciljan Skjelbred----Steffen Iversen-----Trond Olsen
------------------------Rade Prica---------------------------

Before the match Per Ciljan Skjelbred said that 7-0 would be a good result, but Rosenborg played one of the worst matches of the season. They had lots of possession, but was unable to score against the Albanian team.

Erik Hamren was not pleased with his teams performance.


Dinamo Minsk - Tromsø 0-0
---------------Marcus Sahlman------------------------------------
Tom Høgli---Tore Reginiussen--Douglas Sequeira,----Kevin Larsen
Lars Iver Strand --Ruben Y. Jenssen--Tommy Knarvik --Joel Lindpere
-------------Morten Moldskred---------- Sigurd Rushfeldt-----------

Dinamo Minsk started best, but Tromsø fought their way back into the match, and had a couple of chances to score, however 0-0 was a fair result for both teams.

Looking back: 5th round, the worst dives so far.

Norwegian football does not really have a history of diving, but inspired by Morten Gamst Pedersen a couple of teams started the season with some terrible acting

Adressa.no collected a few dives in this compilation:

Team: Start

The last years have been turbulent for the Kristiansand-team.
In 2005 they had a great comeback in tippeligaen and finished second, but two years later they were relegated again. In 2009 they are back in the top division, have surprised again and are currently at 4th place.



Much of the reason for this year's success must be the two players Mads Stokkelien and Christian Bolaños who has entertained the Start fans by scoring some beautiful goals:




IK Start has won the top division twice, in 1980 and 1978.

Norwegian teams in Europe

Stabæk played against the Albania team Tirana yesterday, the final result was 1-1, Daigo Kobayashi scored an important away goal, and Stabæk should now manage to go through to the next round of the Champions League Qualification.


Rosenborg plays Qarabagh tonight at Lerkendal.
Marek Sapara is not going to play, as Rosenborg hopes to sell him during the transfer window.
Likely starting 11:
----------------Rune Almenning Jarstein--------------------
Mikael Lustig, Kris Stadsgaard, Alejandro Lago, Micke Dorsin
----------Alexander Tettey-- Anthony Annan---------------
Per Ciljan Skjelbred-----------------------------Trond Olsen
---------------------Steffen Iversen-------------------------
------------------------Rade Prica---------------------------

18th round

Lyn 0-1 Bodø/Glimt
Lillestrøm 1-1 Aalesund
Odd Grenland 1-2 Start
Hunter Freeman scored a lucky goal from 40m

Strømsgodset 0-1 Rosenborg
Fredrikstad 1-2 Sandefjord
Molde 5-2 Brann
It took Mame Biram Diouf 9 minutes to score a perfect hat-trick. 17 minutes later he scored another goal. A perfect chip from Huseklepp and a goal by Björnson was not enough for Brann, and in the last minute of the match Pepe Pate Diouf scored to make the result 5-2

10th of July

• Rosenborg - Runavik 3-1. (Europa league first qualifying round)
  Impressive match by the underdog from the Faroe Islands, and a nice goal by Karoly Potemkin, but Rosenborg was by far the stronger team, and won comfortably 6-1 after two matches. (watch the high lights here)
• Odd Grenland - Fredrikstad 3-1 (The Norwegian Cup)
• Brann - Lyn 1-0. (The Norwegian Cup)
  This is not looking good for Lyn, bottom of the league and out of the cup, but at least they won't be kicked out of their stadium because of the financial problems, at least not yet.
• Kjetil Rekdal accepts the 10 000kr (£1000) fine and one match ban penalty after his verbal attack on Erik Bakke.
  It was after the Aalesund-Brann match earlier this year that Rekdal and Bakke had a verbal fight. Rekdal called Bakke an alcoholic, and clearly referred to the former Leeds player's drunk driving conviction from 2003.