Nicklas Bendtner's move from Nottingham Forest to Rosenborg for an undisclosed fee has been widely regarded as a shock. Even the board of the Norwegian Champions did not initially believe that the transfer was possible.
"It was just a crazy idea. We just laughed at it and left it aside," Rosenborg manager Kåre Ingebrigtsen tells Norwegian national newspaper VG about the board's initial talks on signing the 29-year old Danish striker. After an hour the club nevertheless decided to give it a shot. "Some of us said: 'We should at least try. We cannot get anything else but a no,'", Ingebrigtsen reports.
After having struggled with getting time on the pitch for Nottingham Forest over the past weeks, Rosenborg became a more plausible alternative for Bendtner. On Monday what seemed a distant dream for the Norwegian club became reality.
Big talent
The transfer has been described as the most high-profile transfer of all time in Norwegian football. Even though Bendtner only managed to score two goals in 17 appearances after he joined Nottingham Forest in September 2016, he was once described as one of the most talented strikers in Europe. There were therefore few people who would have guessed that the striker would end up in the Norwegian league, ranked 25th in Europe by UEFA.
Having joined Arsenal as a 16-year old in 2004, Bendtner scored 14 goals in the 2008-2009 season.
The Dane's goal rate deteriorated after that, however, and he was eventually sent on loan to both Sunderland and Juventus. Ahead of the 2014-2015 season, he signed for German Bundesliga side Wolfsburg.
Wolfsburg failure
Germany proved to be a disappointing experience for Bendtner. In his first season, he only managed to score one goal in the German top flight.
In total he scored three times in 31 Bundesliga games before his contract was terminated in April 2016.
The Danish international's subsequent short spell at Forest Ground in England's second tier turned out to be another miserable affair, and the 29-year old now claims that he has found a club with the stability he has been missing since his Arsenal days.
"Now we just see what it can bring to experience it again. I will only promise one thing: I'm still hungry for football, still hungry to score goals," Bendtner wrote on his Instagram account.
With 29 goals in 74 international games for Denmark, Nicklas Bendtner clearly has the potential to be a prolific striker. It nevertheless remains to be seen whether Rosenborg and Norway is the place where the Dane will find back his old form and whether he is the man who can take the club to their first Champions League participation since 2007.
