Ruben Gabrielsen told a Norwegian publication he never expected his former teammates at Molde to end up where they are — Erling Haaland as the world’s top striker and Fredrik Aursnes as, in Gabrielsen’s words, the most underestimated footballer in the world — a tag that lands differently now that Aursnes has rejoined Norway’s national side this February after consulting Haaland in recent months.
Gabrielsen’s remark carries weight because of the timeline behind it: Aursnes was already representing Molde in 2016 when Haaland moved up to the first team in 2017, and the two spent about a year and a half close together at the club. Haaland left for RB Salzburg in the summer of 2018, then moved on to Manchester City; Aursnes stayed in Norway until 2021, joined Feyenoord that year and moved to Benfica a year later. Both men are now named among Norway’s leading players.
What Gabrielsen remembers most sharply is not just talent but contrast. He said you could see they were really good, yet they were very different: Haaland obsessed with scoring — and visibly furious when he didn’t — while Aursnes operated in a less flashy, more expansive way on the pitch. Gabrielsen also noted their shared personality traits — a big sense of humor and a habit of occupying a lot of space on the field — qualities that made fans excited and sometimes annoyed when the pair played together.
That mix explains the friction in Gabrielsen’s appraisal. On one hand he says "you could see" the talent was there; on the other he did not predict Haaland rising to be the best striker in the world or Aursnes emerging as the player who had been most overlooked. The observation exposes a common gap between early impressions and eventual careers: obvious ability does not always map to how the world will value a player later on.
The recent detail that Aursnes sought Haaland’s counsel before formally returning to the national team in February sharpens the story. It suggests more than friendship; it points to an ongoing football dialogue between two men whose paths diverged — one leaving Norway early, the other building a later route through domestic and Dutch football to Portugal. What they discussed has not been disclosed, but the timing implies Aursnes wanted Haaland’s perspective before re-entering the international spotlight.
The immediate consequence is simple and concrete: Aursnes is back in Norway’s squad and now carries Gabrielsen’s label into matches where perception matters as much as statistics. The more consequential question, and the one Gabrielsen’s comment leaves dangling, is whether this return will force a broader reassessment of Aursnes’s standing — whether he will confirm, on the pitch for club and country, that he was undervalued, or whether the tag of "most underestimated" will remain an opinion rather than a consensus.
