For Liverpool fans of a certain vintage, Stig Inge Bjornebye is a name that rings more than a bell.
The Norwegian left-back was a mainstay in teams led by Graeme Souness, Roy Evans and Gerard Houllier from his arrival in 1992 to his exit eight years later. He was also part of Norway's golden generation, featuring at two World Cups. That first World Cup in 1994 saw him take on Jack Charlton's Ireland.
After that, the current Rosenborg BK sporting director played at Blackburn Rovers. That current sporting director role has seen him emphasise the importance of community work for young players.
Dockers Strike
And there are echoes to his time at Liverpool in the mid-1990s. Back in 1995, during the Dockers' Strike, Bjornebye was one of the foreign players who showed solidarity. At the time, Robbie Fowler showed his support by way of a T-shirt celebration. But why did Bjornebye take such an interest?
That's something that came up when he joined Jonathan Higgins and I for an in-depth career interview on Team 33.
You can listen to the full podcast right below, here, or on iTunes.
In the full interview he also discussed the following:
- How he joined Liverpool in late 1992
- Being managed by Souness, Evans and Houllier
- Playing against Ireland at USA 94 in a must-win last group game
- Beating Brazil at the 1998 World Cup
- What it was like playing behind a young Damien Duff at Blackburn
- His view on ex-Norway team-mate Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's current spell at Man United
Also this week, Joe Coffey, Conor Neville and Jonathan joined me to discuss the thorny issue of stadium naming rights. One tangent also took us into club logo re-branding. But we also then turned to the pros and cons of ref mics in soccer.
You can listen to that below:
Also for those of a Liverpool persuasion, we also recently interviewed Markus Babbel. You can check that out here.
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