A familiar face and new role as Norway aim high

When Christian Berge decided to leave his job as Norway's men's national team coach in early 2022, he left big boots to fill.

Berge had finally brought success to the Norwegian men's team – European Championship bronze (2020), two World Championship silvers (2017, 2019) and their first Olympic Games spot (Tokyo 2020, held in 2021) – who had never won any medals previously on the international stage.

But those boots were well known by his replacement – former assistant Jonas Wille, who took up the reins in April 2022.

Before taking the role, Wille had served with Berge since September 2021 and was well known and admired for his club work in Scandinavia and with the younger-age Norwegian teams.

Now, he is in Krakow, Poland, and just hours away from making his competitive international coaching debut with one of the powerhouses of world handball.

Knowledge already gained

"I'm feeling great actually," said Wille to ihf.info. "I'm looking forward to this, which has been building up since June, and finally we're here."

In addition to his national team experience, Wille has deep expertise of club handball with teams in Denmark, Norway and Sweden – something that he believes will help him in his new role.

"I know them quite well because I coached some of the players in the club and some of them in the youth national team, under 21," explained Wille, whose side will take on North Macedonia, Argentina and the Netherlands in the preliminary group stage.

"As you know, I was the assistant coach with Christian, so I know the players quite well; every single one plays at a high level in his club.

"We know their mentality quite well, so we're quite confident that they have the mentality to be strong in a competition. I don't feel that I'm coming into this new team because I feel I know them quite well.

"It's a group where we should be able to beat them all, but they are still good teams. So we have to be good in order to beat them; we have to be ready from the start."

Transition made easy

And Wille feels like his work as an assistant has helped make the transition easier.

"It was a big advantage for me to be an assistant first, because now as a national team coach, you have so little time with the players. But I have the knowledge on what they did and what they didn't do before I came in – I have an opinion on what I should prioritise," he explained.

"I have a better starting point to see what we should take further from what Christian has done and what we should add to the play."

The break from the Berge era is not complete, though, with many of the coaching team remaining the same, Wille citing that continuation as something which can only reap dividends.

"It is a really good staff, so there's no point in changing it. Of course, it's natural with a new assistant as the old one is the new coach," joked the 46-year-old Wille about making a move up.

"What I have been doing is to try to keep the basic system - if you can call it that - and just try to improve different points that we need to develop in the basic system.

"Of course Christian and I are friends and we talk to each other. I haven't got any concrete advice from him, but we talked a lot when we were working together so we quite agree on how to take this team further."

One player who has the ability to take that team further is the global superstar Sander Sagosen, and Wille revealed what he talked to the left back about his role in the team going forward.

"I have spoken one-on-one with some of the players and stressed some concrete points so that we get more players to take responsibility," explained Wille. 

"I also talked to Sander Sagosen; he also has a responsibility because he's such a good player to find this balance between being the goalscorer and being the playmaker, that kind of a leader."

'It's a balance' 

And Sagosen is in total agreement with his coach.

"It's a balance, an important balance, because if you are just a playmaker, if it's me or somebody else, then the defence will ignore you because they know you're not dangerous for the goal," said the THW Kiel player.

"If you're just a shooter, they (opposition) will just kill the first situation and then you will know you're not passing.

"It's always the mix; reading the situation. I think that's one of my strengths as a player too. To know when I should go hard, when I should go a little bit softer, when I should pass and when I should shoot.

"We have a nice mixed play about this type of stuff now. We come to different situations. We have a lot of different players now who can get into this mix. Me and all the guys are really just looking forward now to getting this thing started."

Olympic Games not in thoughts…yet

So, as Wille and his squad think about North Macedonia today, do they also have a thought about the qualification place available for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at Poland/Sweden 2023 (the winners qualify directly) or places 2-7, who move into the Olympic Qualification Tournament?

Or maybe they are just thinking about reaching the world championship podium again?

"We are actually not talking too much about the goals, because we are only focusing on how to get better," said Wille.

"Hopefully, if we show our full potential, we can fight for medals. We're trying not to focus too much on the goals."

But Olympic qualification would be nice, right?

"Of course," concluded a smiling Wille.