Former Premier League striker Jan Age Fjortoft has revealed an on-pitch taunt he offered an international team-mate during one of his early games in England.
After playing for Hodd, HamKam and Lillestrom in Norway, Fjortoft moved to Rapid Wien in 1989. He scored 85 goals in four seasons in Austria, earning a Player of the Year award in his first campaign.
Swindon came calling when they achieved promotion to the Premier League, with Fjortoft costing £500,000, but the move isn’t quite as random as it first seemed.
Ex-Premier League striker Jan Age Fjortoft reveals on-pitch taunt
“I stayed in Vienna for a couple of years too long, really,” Fjortoft exclusively tells FourFourTwo. “A pal helped me to put together a video of my goals, and I sent it to 30 people I knew in football.
“One of them was David Hay, who is a legend at Celtic and was my coach in Lillestrom. He became assistant to John Gorman, who’d taken over at Swindon, and John signed me. To go from a small village to play in England, the home of football, was a dream come true.
“I knew loads about the Premier League, which was in its second season. I still get goosebumps when I think of flying into Heathrow and being picked up to drive over to Swindon.”
Despite ending the campaign with 12 goals for a relegated side, Fjortoft initially struggled at County Ground. It took the striker until January before he hit the back of the net for the first time, but once he did it gave him the confidence to keep scoring.
“In the first game of the season, we lost 3-1 to Sheffield United and I got a knock,” Fjortoft adds. “I didn’t want to tell the gaffer because I was so desperate to play in the Premier League and, as a striker, you just hope you can score that first goal somehow.
“I carried on playing but wasn’t 100 per cent, and then I began to ask myself if I could do it in the Premier League. After 10 or 11 matches I was out of the team, and rightly so.
“I arranged for Lillestrom to re-sign me on loan in the New Year, but then Keith Scott was cup-tied for our FA Cup tie against Ipswich. I started the replay and finally scored, then I did it again in the next game, against Spurs.
“Their goalkeeper, Erik Thorstvedt, was my room-mate for Norway, so when he got injured during the match and was stretchered off, I ran over to him saying, ‘You’re a coward, because you know I’m going to score!’ – and I actually did.
“The local newspaper wrote an article under the headline, ‘Please don’t go, Jan’, so I didn’t. I think only Southampton’s Matt Le Tissier scored more goals than me in the second half of that season.”
