The 14 clubs playing in Norway's so-called "elite series" last week registered 100 non-Norwegian players, out of a total of 319. That's 31.3 percent of the league.
Many of the foreign players come from neighbouring Sweden and Denmark, but others are coming from as far away as Brazil and Senegal.
Among them was a young man named Creedence Clearwater Couto, age 27, whose parents were big fans of the American rock group Creedence Clearwater Revival. Couto, from Brazil, played for the Belgian club Lierse last year and tried out last week for suburban Oslo club Stabaek.
"I'm here to show them what I can do," Couto told newspaper Aftenposten through his interpreter. "I hope Stabæk will give me a chance." He said he'd never played on artificial turf, like that at Stabæk's training field, though, and he found it challenging.
Couto admitted he didn't know much about Norwegian soccer or Norway itself, and he wasn't too keen on snow. But he knew at least one Norwegian name: "Tore Andre Flo," referring to the veteran Norwegian player.
"We can't make a decision based on one training, (and) he has soccer inside him," said Stabæk coach Jan Jönsson. "It would be fun if a man with a name like his could make us rock and roll."
It later was decided that Creedence Clearwater Couto wasn't good enough, though, and he was cut.
