(The online newspaper): – There was smuggling back and forth for many days.
Raymond Kvisvik (48) smiles at Nettavisen when we meet him on a cold day in January.
We are sitting in a truck in Øytangen by Engelsviken, just under half an hour from Fredrikstad.
The cult hero of Brann in the mid-2000s has long since replaced football arenas, lace fittings and screw knobs with excavators and work helmets, and together with his brother he now runs “Greåker digging & transport”.
While on the football field he was known for his crazy passing foot and finesse, it is most reminiscent of a relentless centre-back when he makes short work of an outdo he will demolish in connection with a digging job when Nettavisen visits in the winter of 2023.
The contrast for the 48-year-old, who is one of the biggest bohemians in Norwegian football’s history, is great if you go back 20 years.
The midfielder had wreaked so much havoc for Brann together with Thorstein Helstad that Austrian Austria Wien wanted to bring the two in a “package deal”.
Helstad about the famous city tour: – Was told to switch on teletext
It was now or never for Kvisvik, who at the time was approaching 30 years old.
The Austria Wien offer was his only opportunity to realize his dream abroad. But he was dependent on Helstad.
The two had been smuggled into Brann Stadion at night. No one could find out that the city’s two big star players were about to leave the club at a time when Bergen was standing on its head as a result of the club’s success.
– We met there around midnight, and couldn’t turn on the lights, because the journalists came along, says Kvisvik to Nettavisen.
Watch video! This is Kvisvik’s new everyday life:
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Had to have a serious talk in the back room
The contract between both Brann and Austria Wien, as well as Kvisvik and Helstad’s own contracts, was finally negotiated.
The only thing missing was the signature of the two players.
Then Helstad suddenly got cold feet – at the last second.
– Raymond was very dependent on that transition to get out. In the end it turned out that “we’ll have to try”. I was more unsure whether it was the right step, but then I thought “okay, maybe it’s good to try a stay abroad”, smiles Helstad to Nettavisen.
Kvisvik says that he had to resort to unfamiliar means when Helstad began to have doubts.
– Then it was into a back room for Thorstein and me, and then I had to tell him that this was my chance. Thorstein was younger, and he would have had more chances. So I had to tell him that in a back room and be “covertly aggressive”, grins the cult hero.
– I had to say “now you must sign with me”. Then we finally agreed. If we call it high-level intimidation. I choose to call it a serious talk.
With a playing style and a personality that was not like everyone else, Kvisvik became a favorite both among his own and football fans in general.
Among other things, he was one of five artists in the eventually fabled boy band “The Players”, consisting of Morten Gamst Pedersen, Kristofer Hæstad, Freddy dos Santos and Øyvind Svenning, besides himself.
With a love of the good life apart from football, Kvisvik says that one year he packed a double waffle iron, biscuits and jam when Brann was going to a training camp at La Manga before the start of the season.
– It was so that we would have a good time in the evenings. I got a lot of “high fives” from the people I lived with, but I don’t know if the coaches were so happy about it, grins the cult hero.
Shouting wild story
The stories are also lined up when Nettavisen asks him to tell about his stay abroad in Austria Vienna.
After joining the Austrian club in 2002, he quickly figured out how to cheat the system in the Austrian capital as well.
He says that the players had to come in for a weigh-in before they went on Christmas break so that the coaching team could check that Kvisvik and his team-mates did not return from holiday with a few extra kilos in their luggage after the Christmas meal.
– We had one kilo to lose. Then there was a fine of 1,000 euros (around NOK 11,000) per kilo, says Kvisvik.
The solution? He went into the back room and “gulped down” a liter and a half of water to put on about a kilo and a half.
– Then I thought I was safe, but we also got a pulse belt home.
However, Kvisvik, who was not known for having the greatest racing capacity, returned to Austria and was able to show startlingly good results during the holiday.
There was only one problem; it was not he himself who had used the heart rate belt.
– I sat at the local “bar” in Greåker, but had a friend who ran, so he put on the heart rate belt. When I returned to Austria Vienna I had such good results that they began to wonder what had happened!
Despite antics and an unorthodox way of being off the pitch, Kvisvik also got several big matches under his belt during his time in Austria. In 2002, he met, among others, José Mourinho and Porto in the Europa League, after which the Greåker man was replaced after the break.
After three goal-scoring passes in the previous league match, Kvisvik was replaced to keep the width and cross in the hope of saving points against the Portuguese big team.
However, the former big star Deco played centrally in Porto’s midfield, and Kvisvik quickly set himself the goal of changing uniforms with the midfield elegance after the end of the match.
In order not to lose the suit to a teammate, Kvisvik rather stayed close to Deco at all times – and not out along the edge as was the plan.
– I was most central in the field until the referee blew. Then I had his suit torn to me as soon as the referee blew. It is a great memory, says Kvisvik about the event, which you can see in its entirety here:
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Kvisvik was one of the most prominent figures in the elite series in the mid-2000s at a time when Bergen city was boiling while Brann was fighting at the top of Norwegian football.
The 48-year-old says playing at Brann Stadion was an art in itself.
– Then the famous head comes in. If we didn’t lead at half-time, we were booed. That’s what I love about Brann and Bergen too. They told you when things were going bad, and then they carried you on a golden chair when things were going well. Then it was simple in my head; that it was better to be part of the ups and downs than the downs, Kvisvik grins.
However, it wasn’t just physical elite series gold that Kvisvik got to experience in Bergen. Liquid gold also came bearing if the club had done well, in a time when the players were no strangers to celebrating three points.
– When we won and went out on the town, trays upon trays were brought in. Back then, everything was often free, and all you had to do was go out and sit down.
If Kvisvik and his teammates were out on the town after a loss, however, the atmosphere was completely different.
– Then it wasn’t brought in tray after tray, I can guarantee you that. But then it’s a bit about whether you should go home and hide or dare to meet the fans. I mean it’s a duty, man we couldn’t just be out shining when things are going well.
Brann had a perfect start to this year’s Eliteserien season with 3–0 against Haugesund, and the red-clad team have looked very strong so far this season.
Kvisvik agrees with the experts who believe that Horneland’s crew will really bite in the comeback at the top level.
– I think Brann can bite, and often a newly promoted team can get a “boost”. I believe and hope that Brann is a top six team in 2023, concludes the cult hero.
2023-05-29 05:19:21
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