– The world you have built up, it will be shattered.
Leander Øy explains how it felt when he too realized he had an eating disorder.
The Sarpsborg 08 goalkeeper has fought a tough match at home while also fighting for a place in the first eleven.
What the 19-year-old will talk about is personal. It’s really something that no one other than those closest to you has anything to do with.
Nevertheless, the goalkeeper talent chooses to sit down with TV 2 to tell.
Leander Øy is fully back and in very good shape. Here from training with Sarpsborg 08 in Marbella. Photo: Thomas Evensen / TV 2
The reason is that he knows he is not alone in having had problems combining top sport and his relationship with food.
– I have seen it myself up close with others who have experienced this and it is not nice. Football becomes very unimportant, says the 19-year-old.
It was also much of the reason why the teenager chose to share their story with the readers of Sarpsborg 08’s own websites.
The girlfriend shouted a warning
In 2021, Leander Øy was a goalkeeper talent who fought to take the step – he wanted to go up and forward. Preferably as quickly as possible.
One spring day the same year, the girlfriend began to react to how Leander looked.
– Like any other couple, we take pictures together. We took a picture in November, then we took a picture in May or June the following year.
– It was not the same person who stood next to her, says Leander Øy.
A hale and hearty boy had been reduced to something he shouldn’t be. The girlfriend came to grips with the situation long before Leander Øy himself realized that he had a problem.
– She saw that I hadn’t eaten properly for a while. She basically just confronted me about it and I eventually realized she was right.
CHALLENGE: Leander Øy chooses to share his story because he knows he is not alone in having struggled with the combination of top sport and food intake. Photo: Thomas Evensen / TV 2
Going from an everyday life where you think everything is fine – where you do everything you can to take the last necessary step to reach the goal of a permanent place on the team – to realizing that you have a problem is no easy matter .
– It starts with denial. You think that everything is as it should be, says Leander Øy.
– It starts with others pointing it out. When one is inside the vicious circle, as I call it – things that make sense in your head do not make sense to those around.
NARRATOR: Leander Øy tells his story because he believes it is important that people learn that life as a footballer contains more facets than joy and irritation over victory and defeat. Photo: Thomas Evensen / TV 2
– When I look back on it, it doesn’t make sense to me either, says the goalkeeper.
Huge support
Øy cannot thank her boyfriend, family and Sarpsborg 08’s support staff enough for getting out of a very negative spiral.
– It is important to have good people around you if you are to get out of such challenges. Those around me have been fantastic, says Øy.
– It’s like balancing on a knife edge – having to push yourself and not making it worse again, says an open-hearted 19-year-old.
– You have to get into good routines, and you have to dare to challenge yourself.
The art of asking for help
Leander Øy believes that many who are struggling see the threshold for asking for help as prohibitive. The 19-year-old himself describes a long process from when he was made aware of the eating disorder until he himself accepted that he was not healthy.
GOOD SUPPORT: Leander Øy says he has received an exclusively good response from his teammates after he chose to tell his story Photo: Christoffer Andersen
Yes, for the person concerned, the person who is struggling, it is extremely shameful. Fortunately, I had a girlfriend who asked for help for me, says the shot stopper from Årdal.
The 19-year-old describes life as a footballer as a life where you should be happy, and that the challenges you are exposed to are things you should tackle with ease.
This is not always the case.
– You see training, sleeping, eating as so elementary that it should be done, says Øy to TV 2.
Will be weighed and measured
The goalkeeper is part of a performance group that works hard to constantly improve.
The players are weighed, measured and told what they should eat.
Now Leander Øy can finally look at these measurements with a positive eye.
– Now I have settled down with it. I know that this is for my own good, says the goalkeeper.
HAPPY BOY: Leander Øy in action for Sarpsborg 08. Photo: Christoffer Andersen
– We don’t weigh ourselves for no reason, it’s to check fluid loss after training, so that we can recover and be ready for the next session.
Joachim Soltvedt has allowed himself to be greatly impressed by the way his teammate has dealt with the problems.
– I am very proud that he dares to come forward with it. It’s not like everyone on the team knew that.
It is very strong to do by someone who is only 19 years old, says the eight-year-older teammate.
