Norwegian Eliteserien Physical Standouts 2025

Norway has had a long standing reputation of producing physical specimens. Your mind immediately jumps to power forwards such as Erling Haaland and Alexander Sorloth, who blend strength with pace, or tireless midfield runners like Sander Berge.

But with emerging young players such as Antonio Nusa, Oscar Bobb, and Andres Schjelderup – more known for their speed, acceleration, and agility – it poses the question of how the top flight in domestic Norwegian football is helping shape this new generation.

The Eliteserien is played between April and November and with half the surfaces now artificial, gone are the days of long balls pumped forwards and big centre halves like Henning Berg. Modern football comprises different styles and tactics, ultimately needing sheer physicals as much for high pressing systems as being first to ground duels.

We now look into some of the top performers in the league, using Hudl Physical Data available on the Wyscout platform, with an additional focus on a few players who have particularly thrived.

The Marathon Men

When looking at total distance covered, the rankings are dominated by midfielders. Although Robin Dzabic tops the charts, Halvorsen for Sarpsborg and Ulrik Yttergard Jenssen for Tromsø stand out given they have played a more significant amount of minutes.

There is a real mix of players in this list, both experienced and young. Teams that typically press the most and post the lowest PPDA numbers - which stands for passes per defensive action - are not necessarily represented by dominant players.

Three individuals in the top six play for sides who allow some of the highest PPDA (Tromsø, HamKam, Stromsgodset). So, in terms of total distance covered, it is not necessarily about pressing, but more to do with overall coverage on the ground. Sides that soak up the ball more and are on the back foot having to defend do have to put in a shift and it seems like the midfield engines are the proper workhorses of this division.

However, there is one young player who is turning out for a side towards the top of the Eliteserien, Viking, and is bucking that trend.

Jakob Segadal Hansen

Viking signed the talented dynamic midfielder from local club Vidar and he made a couple of fleeting appearances in the Eliteserien last season. He was not expected to be such a regular starter in 2025 but he’s played significant minutes on the field.

Playing mostly as an attacking midfield runner, you can see from footage on Wyscout that Hansen demonstrates a crazily high work rate to both track back and also progress the ball at pace. In the sequence below, he showcases his counter-pressing abilities winning the ball before using his great physical skills to quickly move to the edge of the opposition box.

High Speed Runners

In a league which is known for its physicality and for teams such as Bodo/Glimt and Molde who have developed a reputation on the European stage for pressing and high tempo, the next port of call is to measure high speed running distance.

In this category, which measures how far and how often players run between speeds of 15 and 20km/h, there is a diverse range of positions, from strikers to midfielders, to full backs and wingers. From a club perspective, a wide range is also seen, with players from top teams, as well as others in struggling sides.

Brann do rank the best in the Eliteserien for PPDA allowed (7.47) and are a big pressing team, so it’s no surprise to have one of their players rank highly in this list – especially given that he’s a vital energy and pressing tool in the middle of the park for the pride of Bergen.

Eggert Aron Gudmundsson

Gudmundsson, who is now an Icelandic international, was signed from Swedish club Elfsborg in February of this year for around £500k. Perhaps he was underused by Elfsborg but Brann recognised him as a potential key part of their plans playing in central midfield in an effective box-to-box type role.

The 21-year-old is only 1.75m tall but is known for his excellent physical abilities and can counter-press, but also produce several progressive runs which can open up the game. The clips below show him advancing the ball from midfield to the edge of the penalty box in just 5 seconds, demonstrating just why he is top of this current list.

Increasing the Intensity

The High Intensity metric, defined as distance covered above 20 km/h, also makes for interesting reading, with players from all areas of the pitch again populating the top rankings.

However, it is interesting to note the presence of more wide players here though, which makes sense as they are often running up and down the line.

Two right backs make the list, Peter Reinhardsen at Sarpsborg and Lars Vilsvik at Stromsgodset. Vilsvik is 36 years old and for him to be running so much and at such a high speed is very impressive. It highlights the physical demands and needs of this league. You can’t just play in this league like a retirement home. In order to compete you need energy, dynamism, and, ultimately, stacks of pace - whatever your age.

Sprinting ahead of the Pack

We conclude our look at the Eliteserien with the players who rack up the most distance covered at the highest speeds. In the list below we see the ranking for sprint count and distance per 90 minutes, which is calculated by runs clocked at over 25km/h.

As expected, most of the players listed here are either forwards or wide players. HamKam striker Julian Gonstad deserves plenty of credit here and is comfortably clear, albeit from a smaller sample size of minutes. He has now moved to 2nd tier side Raufoss on loan for the rest of the season.

Three players who are prominent on the list are Moses Mawa, Eggert Gudmundsson (again), and Jacob Romsaas. In the case of Mawa, who is another HamKam striker, it is clear the tactical direction of that team demands that one of their forwards runs quickly to try and break the offside trap, highlighting the need for unfancied teams who don’t have much of the ball to carry a speedster in their pocket.

But the player we choose to focus on is Romsaas, who was so impressive for Tromsø in various attacking roles that promoted Belgian side Charleroi paid £1.5m for him this summer.

Jacob Napoleon Romsaas

Tromso acquired Romsaas in early 2023 from lower league Skeid for around £300k and they have made over £1.2m profit on him by selling him to Charleroi.

He impressed with 15 goals and nine assists in 69 Tromsø games and one of his biggest strengths is his versatility, being able to play nearly every attacking role. Watching footage of him on Wyscout, his pace, acceleration and dynamics are plain to see and make him a perfect player for any team in transition.

And he’s already producing for Charleroi in an attacking midfield role, as the sequence below shows. Turning over the ball from just outside his own penalty into a devastating defence splitting chance leading to a major opportunity.

The Norwegian Eliteserien certainly lives up to its tag as being a physical league and through Hudl’s Physical Data, married with Wyscout video, you can gain vital insights that inform opposition scouting, player development, and - as the example of Romsaas shows - recruitment.

The increasing physical demands and the intensity at which the game is played means that athlete capabilities are sought after traits and explain why many scouts turn to the Eliteserien when finding talent that can handle the rigours of a new league.

Learn more about how Hudl Physical Data can optimize your recruitment process here.

If you want to find out more about how to use Hudl Wyscout for your scouting, recruitment, and talent evaluation workflows, click here.

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