With many thanks to Espen Baardsen and the author of the article - Robert Papier

Espen The Story (well my story anyway)

The year is 1986, I have been living in California for 1 1/2 years and it is tryouts for LMSC (Lafayette and Moroga Soccer Club) U10 travelling team. This is the youngest team the club runs and it was decided by the club that as I had an FA Prelim Coaching badge and a California Soccer Association Coaching Badge I should coach them.

One of the most difficult things when setting up a young team is finding a volunteer who is prepared to go in goal, most kids aren't interested. One of the attendees at the try out, a tall skinny 8 year old (Espen was a year younger than the rest of the team who were 9) put his hand up and volunteered. Good decision by him!

We chose the players for the squad and started our season in District 4 of the California North Soccer Association. Now to be honest the team was not very good, I think that we lost our first 10 games. However the tall 8 year old was proving to be a sensation in goal and now came my first challenge, keeping him there. You see Espen was what you would describe as a hyper active kind of kid who liked to be in the thick of the action and not stuck in one place. His parents were convinced that he would never stick it out. Funnily enough what worked in my favour was that the team wasn't very good and this meant that at least Espen was constantly involved in the game and therefore interested.

My main tactic in persuading Espen to stay in goal was to invest time in him , we used to give him individual sessions during the team training sessions and even arrange extra training for him. It was during this period that I first became aware of Espen's greatest strength, and that was absolute determination to succeed. What was Espen like in goal at that time? Well to start with he was extremely athletic. By the time he was 9 years old he could stand in the centre of the goal and reach the foot of the post from a standing jump. He was very brave and also possessed an instinctive positioning sense that enabled him to make hard saves look easy by not having to dive to much, always the sign of a good keeper.

Over time the team became more and more successful winning their league and many tournaments, of course having a top class keeper was very instrumental in this success. Espen was turning into a really useful keeper, though this was not really down to my coaching as by the time he was 10 he new far more about playing in goal than I did. My challenge then was finding other people who could coach him, a task that was really completed by Espen's mother . All you have to do is meet her once to understand where Espen gets his determination from. Both Espen's parents, Per and Tot, supported Espen whole-heartedly when he was young but Tot was just amazing. She would happily do round trips of 60 - 80 miles to ensure that Espen received the best coaching possible. Espen's acknowledgement in his final ICONS posting of the work that she put in is completely appropriate, she was absolutely incredible in her support and dedication to helping Espen succeed.

One last thing that I should mention about LMSC was the club tradition of giving each age group team a name. As the coach of the Under 10s I chose the name of LMSC Hotspur and even got all the boys Tottenham Hotspur badges and pins.

Fast forward to spring 1992 and I have been back in London for 3 years. I am still very much in touch with Espen and his family and following Espen's progress with interest. By this time Espen was 14 and representing the state (about equivalent in the UK to representing your county) California North. I had been back to California on holiday in 1991 and the Baardsens and I had talked about the possibility of Espen coming over to spend the summer with me and train at a professional club, hopefully Spurs.

Initially I contacted John Moncur, who was Spurs' Youth Development Officer. The fact that Espen was American was just too difficult and he really didn't want to know or help. All was not lost though as Tot with her customary determination had a back up plan. Through her contacts in Norway (both Espen's parents were born in Norway and Tot had been a talented athlete) she managed to get hold of Erik Thorstvedt who she contacted and asked if he could help. She passed his details to me and I phoned Erik who gave me the phone number of Pat Holland, the Youth Coach who I contacted.

Initially Pat was a little sceptical as he explained that my idea of Espen training with the schoolboy teams was a non starter as they did not train in the summer. That meant that the youngest team available for Espen to train with was the first year apprentices who were at least 16 and some 17 and Pat doubted if this was a good idea because of the difference in physical development between that age and a 14 year old. What eventually persuaded him was the fact that although only 14 Espen was already 6ft tall and physically strong.

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