Discovering Vetle Dragsnes, the little-known Charleroi full-back: “Now I want his 6 to become an 8”

Whether with Mazzù or under De Mil, Dragsnes is indisputable. “He’s a great guy.”smiles the current T1 of Sporting. Both in a locker room where the Norwegian takes on the role of a model teammate who doesn’t create waves and on the pitch where we know very well that he embodies foolproof reliability. The kind of player who will rarely get a 3 or a 9 in the ratings but always a 6.”I try to be stable in my performances without being satisfied with it and that’s why the arrival of Mardo was a good thing because he pushes mehe explains. I want to give more assists. I want more.”

His coach, a perfectionist as can be, shares this feeling. “He is always constant. And you need things like that when you’re a coach. Now I want his 6 to become an 8. Because if he reaches that level, he will manage to maintain it and be as consistent.”

Dragsnes reached these heights in his first meeting with the Zebras on September 16, 2023, on the ground of Club Bruges, where he delivered an assist for Guiagon then scored a superb goal. Three weeks later, the full-back repeated with a superb bicycle kick after the 11th minute of added time, which allowed his team to obtain an unexpected three points against RWDM. “I had never scored goals like that in Norway. It was fantastic and so crazy to start like that.”

The best proof to demonstrate that he had integrated directly when he left his country for the first time at the dawn of his 30th birthday. “I wanted this transfer abroad. I am very happy to have received this opportunity to live a new experience. It was one of my last chances to experience it.”

A first match in D1 at 25

Without easily falling into clichés, Dragsnes sticks to the image of the calm and decorous Scandinavian people generally imagine in their heads. The discovery of Belgium, a new country? “Life is almost the same as back home where life is good and everyone is very open-minded.” The Belgian winter cold which paralyzes the muscles and darkens the moods? “It’s much colder in Norway. Three years ago, it was -20. Except we don’t play from November to March.”

For just a few days, due to an ultra-short break in the Pro League, number 15 Carolo was able to experience these freezing temperatures again by returning to the country to relax with his family. And see how far we have come in a decade. There were doubts with small growing injuries which initially prevented him from breaking through at Lillestrom, his training club.

At that time, Dragsnes was not the full-back we know. It is in division 2 in Strommen where he flourishes in a center forward position or just behind the striker, “sometimes as a winger”. And then one day, while he was still vegetating in the antechamber under the colors of Ullensaker/Kisa at already 22 years old, Vegard Skogheim, his trainer, took him back a notch to compensate for an injury which struck his squad. He doesn’t know it yet, but this decision will turn his career upside down.

Which will end up bringing him back to his hometown, Lillestrom, after a detour to Mjondalen where he had his first match in D1 at the age of 25. “I was proud. It was like a kind of positive revenge, where I ended up showing them my qualities.” There, he comes close to the consecration of a life. With a Cup final in May 2023 against Brann where he and his teammates will lose 2-0.

“It’s a strange feeling because it’s the worst and best moment of my career. You feel all the emotions when you’re close to winning something in your career, you’re on the verge of qualifying for Europe and that ultimately, you miss out on that.” Then there will be rumors that he will be sent to the national team. “Some people told me about it. I don’t know if it was true.”

No matter, the second oldest player in the Hennuyers squad, after Defourny, wrote his story by proving that you should not give up. As a source of inspiration for his young teammates.