are set to improve with Mats Knoester nearing a return<\/a>.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0_JS353867505.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Sivert Heltne Nilsen<\/p>\n
Nilsen told Record Sport: \u201cHaugesund offered me over three years of a contract here. They are ambitious and they really showed that they wanted me here and to be an important player for the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel I can get more out of myself if I have a bit more responsibility in the organisation.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaugesund are looking to rebuild and want to build a team that will get back into the Eliteserien.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt it was maybe a better option for me to start over and to try a new project with a long-term plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe club wants to get back to where it was before, with hard work and young, local and hungry players.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was why I was very eager to go there as well, because it was the start of a new project.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my career, it’s always had a little bit of success when I can come into a new project and grow together with the team. That’s how I am as a player. There could then be the possibility of a coaching role after that, if it suits all parties.\u201d<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1_nilsen.png\")
<\/p>\n
Sivert Heltne Nilsen has touched down in Norway(Image: Bergens Tidende)<\/p>\n
The 34-year-old also admitted that returning to Norway also made sense for family reasons.<\/p>\n
He explained: \u201cIt was also a good option for my family, with my wife qualifying to work as a doctor.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was hard for her to get a job in Aberdeen because she needed to pass language tests and other things.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest reason, however, was maybe in the long-term to play football.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s my biggest motivation to be able to play football for a long time because I love playing football and I’m very passionate about football.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nilsen was just under two seasons at Pittodrie. It was something of a rollercoaster but he admitted he loved life in the Granite City and will continue to be an Aberdeen fan.<\/p>\n
He claimed: \u201cI really feel like Aberdeen will be a part of my life even in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will follow the club very closely and I think that in itself means or tells me how special Aberdeen is as a club actually.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes up a big part of the city and the people in the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cI lived in Westhill where people were amazing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always felt love when I walked up the main stand from being on the bench, people smiled and waved.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just felt thankful for all the love I got from everyone all around.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never felt frustration from the fans or anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t all plain sailing for the likeable Norwegian. He was signed by Jimmy Thelin and then saw him sacked earlier this season. He also found himself in the firing line. Nilsen admitted there were times he was running on empty and he knew it.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could feel the whole spectrum with the good times and the bad times,\u201d the former Dons player admitted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually appreciated both times and I felt like it was a learning process for myself and also for the club in itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be a part of the bad times, you almost need to like the good times as well, and I actually did.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never had a problem with the passion or the frustration from anything.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was some tough criticism at time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know the period where I came from a long season in Norway.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just remember I was out of energy in the Christmas times there, but then the bad times started and you didn’t want to say to yourself that you were empty.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou wanted to keep fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Aberdeen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0_JS342597140.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Aberdeen skipper Graeme Shinnie and Sivert Heltne Nilsen<\/p>\n
Aberdeen lifted the Scottish Cup in Nilsen\u2019s time but the one frustration was that Aberdeen didn\u2019t get up there challenging at the top of the Premiership.<\/p>\n
He confirmed: \u201cWe had some good times in the start, but we wished we could do even better, I think, with the performances.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal was to challenge the best teams, but we did a little bit in the start and also for sure in the cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wished in my time that we could be even closer to the top teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, we won the Scottish Cup<\/a> but I would have liked to see us being stronger in the league.<\/p>\n\u201cThat is the one frustration from my time at the club because the people at the club and the supporters deserve success.”<\/p>\n
Aberdeen is still looking to secure its top-flight status but he is in no doubt Robinson will deliver that.<\/p>\n
He confidently claimed: \u201cIt has been a difficult season in the league but Stephen Robinson is a good manager.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was impressed with him. \u201cI am sure he will get the results the club needs and then they can build again next season.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Norwegian quit the Dons for a return to Norway last month and admits the offer he received…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[13717,218,13718,30724,29529,8058,101,23922,23923,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-532856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-aberdeen-fc","tag-football","tag-hibernian-fc","tag-jimmy-thelin","tag-scottish-cup","tag-scottish-premiership","tag-sports","tag-st-mirren-fc","tag-stephen-robinson","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n