RECENTLY-APPOINTED Technical Director of the Trinidad and Tobago women’s football team, Norwegian-born Even Pellerud, is eager for the challenge of uplifting the sport in the twin-island republic.
“It was very exciting to be on the field with the young girls,” he said. “The first goal today was to observe them play scrimmage and to see how they reacted to my demand of (playing with) more speed on the ball and more intensity off the ball, (moving) quicker to close down space of the other team.”
Pellerud took up his new task here in TT a fortnight ago. When asked about his stay thus far, he replied, “coming to a new country is always a bit difficult because you have to learn a lot (about) people that you don’t know.
“You have to find your way around hotels, football fields and offices,” he said. “Now it’s down to business, and that job is the same everywhere.
“It may be a different quality of fields (and) different age groups,” continued Pellerud. “It could be men, it could be women. But it’s all about getting teams and working on fitness, skills (and) tactical details. And it’s the same with all teams.”
He stated that he was briefed about the other national women’s teams by the local-based coaches.
“We talked about players based in Trinidad and Tobago (and) players that are not based here, scouting process, identification process and we started to prepare a plan for camps for this year, for all teams,” said Pellerud. “Because I need to work on staff, on coaches and there (are) a lot of things that have to be done. I will see what I need to see before I make any decision.”
When asked about the difference between coaching here and abroad, he replied, “it’s difference everywhere but the main difference between Canada and here is that the size of the country is different.
“It was really hard in Canada to monitor and see players, so I had to base my selection on what was there from before,” Pellerud continued. “In Trinidad and Tobago, it’s much easier to get to know what talent you have. So I expect that to be much easier.
“And also, it will be easier for me to have access to the players because (they are) close to Port-of-Spain so they can come to practices more often,” he ended.
According to his profile on the Wikipedia website, Pellerud played for several clubs, including Valerenga, from 1974–1979, and Kongsvinger IL, from 1983–1986.
He was the coach for Norway women’s team from 1989 to 1996, and led them to the silver medal at the very first World Championships in 1991; to world champions at the second, in 1995; and to bronze medals at the 1996 Summer Olympics.
In 1997 he had an unsuccessful stint as coach of Lillestrom SK, together with Per Brogeland.
He was the coach for the Canada women’s team from 1999 to 2008. In 2003 he led the Canadian team to fourth place in the World Championships.
He led the Canadian team to the 2008 Summer Olympics, where they finished eight. He announced his retirement at the end of his contract with Canada in December.