Nils Arne Eggen wants to enjoy his retirement away from RBK, and has now ended his formal engagement as seminar speaker.

STEPS DOWN: Eggen will now follow his own promise of stepping back. Illustration: Kjetil Strand

The legend coach has been playing a more active part than first expected, after moving from the bench up to the tribune seats after the 2002 season. In addition to give seminars on behalf of RBK he has, in several periods, worked as a consultant for the diverse coaches.

But now, the 65-year old thinks it's enough.

"I thought that I retired in 2002, but every now and again they phone me and ask me to step in. I think it is good for the club to not have to consider my views anymore," Nils Arne Eggen tells local Trondheim newspaper Adresseavisa.

Still, it won't be a total lack of Eggen in The Barracks (The RBK HQ) in the future. In this year's annual meeting, in February, he was voted into the Election Committee. Still, before the casting of the votes, he met strong resistance when stating that «Rosenborg has never been lead by the annual meeting.»

«Nils A. can live with being «booed at» on Rosenborg's annual meeting, and that merely a third of the meeting find him to be suitable for the election committee. The question is rather wether Rosenborg can live with members, the actual owners, that have not quite understood the factors of success that has made Rosenborg into the great club that it is. Nils A. has had his forty-five fantastic years in Rosenborg. But the experience on this annual meeting tells him that it is now wise for the club to make itself visually, formally and physically free of Nils A.,» Eggen tells in his column in the magazine I Trondheim.

Especially, he wants Rosenborg's members to show a greater degree of trust to the club's administration, lead by Nils Skutle and Rune Bratseth.

«In today's proffessional power center, the continuity is first and foremost carried on by the Directors Nils S. and Rune B. Both have through their skill and their special competences been decisive front figures in the Rosenborg success. In the combined knowledge and experience of these two gentlemen, combined with the new thoughts and ideas of the main coach Per-Mathias, much of Rosenborg's future lies,» Eggen writes, before ending in this way:

«My thoughts, Rosenborg has already been given, and the club still have them. Therefore: Let the new generation carry on.»