Norwegian Coach Solbakken Marks Remarkable Anniversary: Survived Seven Minutes of Clinical Death

Immediate CPR was administered by club doctor Frank Odgaard on the pitch, and paramedics managed to revive Solbakken en route to the hospital.

After spending 30 hours in a coma, doctors discovered he had an undiagnosed congenital heart defect. This incident forced him to retire from professional football at the age of 33. Following his retirement, he found remarkable success as a manager, including clinching eight league titles with Copenhagen.

Today, Solbakken has shared his reflections on the ordeal during his appearance on the NRK podcast “Drivkreft”.

He underwent the implantation of a defibrillator and had to engage in various tests to assess his physical limits.

Peder Langeland Myhre, senior physician and professor at the University of Oslo’s Department of Cardiology, describes the process as follows:

“Pacing” refers to stimulating the heart using electrical impulses from a pacemaker or ICD”. Solbakken candidly recounts his experience following his heart’s cessation during the medical evaluations.

“I saw a kind of light blue tunnel. It was a beautiful shade of light blue. When I came to, I thought, ‘Oh no, I could have stayed there a bit longer,’” Solbakken shares.

He inquired with doctors about the possible reason behind the vision of the light blue tunnel. The response he received indicated that “the brain was likely still functioning.”

Now, at 58, Solbakken is set to steer Norway in the country’s first international finals in 26 years.

“There is still a considerable journey ahead. Now it’s drawing closer. It has been a long time since we qualified back in November, and since then, we’ve only played a couple of friendly international matches,” he remarked.

Norway will compete against Iraq, Senegal, and France at the World Cup. Solbakken’s next task is to select an expanded squad of up to 55 players, which will ultimately be reduced to 26 for the tournament.