Trebor Mahtal had turned heads around Europe as he helped Swedish champions Djurgårdens become competitive with the continent’s best clubs. But after racking up three consecutive Swedish titles, he decided it was time to move on and seek another new opportunity.
Just as the Swedish season ended, Turkish side Trabzonspor sacked their manager and approached Mahtal for their vacant role. And an interview swiftly resulted in them offering the Zambian manager a return to Turkey, 16 years on from departing Ískenderunspor.
Who Are Trabzunspor?
Trabzonspor Kulübü is a professional club located in the city of Trabzon, on the Black Sea coast of northeastern Turkey. The club was formed in 1967 through a merger of several local clubs and was the first non-Istanbul side to win the Turkish title. It’s gone on to win seven Turkish titles, the most recent of which was 19 years ago in 2022. Mahtal returns to Turkey with Trabzunspor in a lowly 11th in the Turkish Super League with 18 points from 12 games, despite being 4th favourites to win it.
The best player at the club is Senegalese full back Francois Sambou plus centre backs Emre Temel and Gunal Yigit, midfielder Vasile Racoti, striker Hulusi Zorlu, who’s only scored four in 16, full back Marcelo, winger Tarik Taskara and Singaporean striker Max Quelch-Woolls (MQW). There were also a few younger players to look out for led by 16-year-old attacking midfielder Macit Kurt.
First Taste Of Turkish Top Flight
Having jumped ship from Ískenderunspor before they moved up to the Super League, Mahtal’s first taste of the competition came as Trabzonspor hosted Esneler Erokspor, who were bottom of the league with zero points, two days after his appointment. He initially went with a take on the 4-2-3-1 he used in Sweden and it started well as MQW headed home just before the break. They continued to dominate, racking up 32 shots and eventually won 3-0 through Hulusi’s close-range strike and late penalty. A few days later, Mahtal’s first away day saw them nick an undeserved winner through MQW. He scored again in a 3-3 at home to Antalyaspor and a 3-0 win over Rizespor, which took them into 2042 sitting 7th.
However, Trabzonspor was in a mess financially and their best two players Sambou and MQW were on the verge of leaving for Saudi in January. So when a surprise interview came in from Norwegian side Molde, he entertained their interest out of curiosity. But they quickly ramped up that interest with a solid offer and increased Mahtal’s wages by £2k per week. So in ridiculous fashion, Mahtal portrayed his disgraceful lack of loyalty as he departed Trabzonspor after just 8 games and 37 days in charge, of which he won 5, drew 2 and lost 1, scoring 15 and conceding 7.
Who Are Molde FK?
Molde Fotballklubb is a professional club based in the town of Molde in the district of Romsdal and the Romsdalshalvøya (Romsdal Pensinula) in the centre of Norway. Molde played in the lower reaches of Norwegian football until the 1970s, finishing 2nd in 1974, then established itself as the second-best side behind Rosenborg through the 1990s. Its maiden title arrived in 2011 with four more by 2022. During this save, Molde has won seven titles since 2029 to move onto 12 in total. However, Pablo Fornals failed to win the league in the last two seasons, which got him the sack.
Molde plays at the 19,131-capacity Aker Stadion, which was built in 1998 and gifted to the club by local businessmen Kjell Inge Røkke and Bjørn Rune Gjelsten. It has significantly better infrastructure than Trabzonspor, with 20 youth recruitment, 17 junior coaching and 15 training and youth facilities. It has a fierce competitive rivalry with Rosenborg, fierce local rivals with Aalesund and Kristiansund and other rivalries with local fourth-tier side Traeff. The club has £16m in the bank with a transfer budget of £9m and weekly wage budget of £511k, putting in a far stronger position than in Turkey.
Mahtal discovered a couple of familiar faces in his former Crvena zvezda centre back Alexandru Prepelita and winger Adam Horvat. The best player at the club is 20-year-old striker Mika Hyypiä along with Swedish winger Anton Tahiri, so Mahtal’s first move was to offer them new deals. Other key players will be Belgian goalkeeper Sénou Coulibaly, full backs Hrvoje Brnjic, who broke his foot in pre-season, and Aleksander Nikolic and holding midfielder Thomas Bade. But there’s plenty more potential in striker Bernt Gunnar Siira Sivertsen, midfielders Christer Fredriksen, who was wanted by the likes of Milan, and Rudi Nordhagen, winger Jon Edøy and goalkeeper Thomas Einang.
Mahtal had three months to sell players and rebuild his staff. He had to be careful with transfers as the Eliteserien restricts teams to a maximum of nine players who aren’t homegrown in Norway – and Molde had about 15. So he sold 13 players for £9.25m, didn’t sign anyone and put his faith in youth. He also stuck with the 4-2-3-1 approach with a few tweaks to the roles.
Getting Started In Norway
Molde are 2/1 favourites to claim their first title in three years, followed by Vålarenga (5/1), champions Rosenborg (11/2), 2040 winners Brann (7/1) and Bodø-Glimt (10/1). While Hyypiä is the favourite to be the league’s best player and top scorer.
Mahtal’s Molde reign began at home to Fredrikstad. They took a little while to get going but eventually took the lead through Hyypiä and held on for a 1-0 win. A trip to the Arctic followed to take on Tromsø and Hyypiä was at it again with a second-half double before setting up Tahiri’s late goal to clinch a 3-1 victory. Horvat’s late goal nicked a deserved 1-0 win over Odd before losing 3-1 at early leaders Bodø-Glimt. But Horvat and Hyypiä got them back on track with a 3-0 win over rivals Aalesund.
Molde’s early form was solid but they got firing in a 4-1 win at home to Sandefjord. And they went into a month-long summer break for the 2042 World Cup – which was won by Uruguay – with a four-point lead over Åsane. Having been injured all season, Brnjic had the audacity to suggest he’d leave at the end of his contract. So Mahtal flogged him to Lyon for £2.8m, backup centre back Karol Jasinski to Sparta Praha for £2.5m and grumpy goalie Coulibaly to Panathinaikos for £3.5m.
That left a pretty threadbare squad and Molde resumed with a 3-3 at Lilleström thanks to Horvat’s injury-time equaliser. Mahtal faced his first clash with rivals Rosenborg, who were lingering down in 10th, and wasn’t impressed by a limp start as they failed to have a shot in the first half, but Horvat rescued a point late on. Those results triggered Mahtal to switch to a 4-2-4, initially tested in Europe (see below), which saw the exciting strikeforce of Siira Sivertsen and Hyypiä edge a 2-1 win at 4th-place Brann. Siira Sivertsen bagged a hat trick only for the defence to let him down in another 3-3 at home to Vålarenga and his brace, both assisted by Hyypiä, inspired a 2-0 win at Odd. That left Molde 2 points behind Bodø-Glimt before a big tclash in early September and Hyypiä’s first-half goal sent them top.
Hyypiä’s back-to-back braces downed Aalesund and Sarpsborg before thumping Viking 4-0 and another Hyypiä double defeated Ullern 2-0. A long unbeaten run ended with a 2-0 loss at Åsane before somehow conceding Lilleström’s only shot on target to draw 1-1. Hyypiä and Horvat got them back on track with a 2-1 win at Sandefjord, which took them one point clear of Brann with four games remaining.
Siiva Siversen’s 73rd-minute goal edged a 1-0 win at struggling Rosenborg before a massive title decider at home to Brann. Molde started brightly but couldn’t find a way past Mahtal’s former Midtjylland goalkeeper Guldagher. And they were made to pay as Brann scored a near-post corner just before half time and scored again just after it. Mahtal switched to a 4-2-3-1 and they got back into it through midfielder Ilian Mihaylov before Hyypiä missed a sitter and got himself sent off for a ridiculous challenge. And that moved Brann top, two points clear with two games remaining.
Molde’s title hopes failed as they lost 3-0 at Vålarenga while Brann beat Ullern 3-0 to secure the title. They finished 2nd, 5 points behind Brann, with 64 points after 19 wins, 7 defeats and a league-low 4 defeats, scoring 51 and conceding 27. Hyypiä was the 3rd-top scorer with 17, got a league-high 9 man of the match awards and had the 2nd-best average rating of 7.49 from 24 games.
Back In The Conference League
Molde entered the ECL at the first qualifying round, which they breezed through 8-0 against Armenian side Ararat then defeated Latvians RFS 4-2 and Slovaks Trnava 6-2 to reach the league phase. They began with a 0-0 at home to Dinamo before winning 2-1 at Arges and drawing 3-3 at Sheriff with a fully rotated team. But they hammered KaPa 4-0, drew 0-0 at Iraklis and beat Nordsjaelland 2-0 to finish 3rd despite only winning three games!
Plenty Of Promise At Molde
Mahtal was pretty confident he’d made the right decision to swap Turkey for Norway, despite missing out on the league title late in the campaign. There was likely to be a busy winter as some of their older, poorer performers were departing and they were highly unlikely to hold on to star man Hyypiä. The striker led the way with an impressive 24 goals and 9 assists in 34 games, which has sparked interest from Saudi and across Europe. Siira Sivertsen scored 12 followed by Horvat and Djuphagen (10) while Horvat led the assists with 11 followed by Tahiri (9) and left back Atle Dalby and midfielder Kjell Arne Øren (8).
Mahtal was expecting a busy summer, but could he strengthen Molde for another tilt at the Norwegian title in 2043? Join us on Wednesday to find out!
Football Manager Addict 