On Sunday afternoon, His Majesty King Harald of Norway was on a private visit to the United Kingdom. His Majesty was in the city of Manchester where he attended the Manchester United and Liverpool football match at Old Trafford. He was a guest of honour at Manchester United and their Norwegian coach, Ole Gunnar Solskjær. His Majesty visited the arena on the personal invitation of Ole Gunnar Solskjær. It was Manchester United who confirmed that the King would attend to the Norwegian newspaper VG on Friday of last week.
According to sources who have spoken to the English newspaper “Manchester Evening News”, the King was said to have stayed at an exclusive hotel (which Royal Central will not reveal for privacy reasons) during his visit. It is a five-star luxury hotel centrally located in the city. The actual football game ended in a draw on Sunday.
His Majesty should also have met both the Norwegian coach and both teams after the match. When Solskær got the job as permanent Manchester United manager, the King used the opportunity during a state visit to Chile to comment on it. His Majesty said then: “That is really impressive. I hope with all my heart that he succeeds”.
The King is very interested in sport and closely follows English football. Still, King Harald’s favourite British football team is reported to be Tottenham. During a London visit in 2005, King Harald commented on this. His Majesty then said: “I was here studying in the early ’60s. Then it was a football team that is currently in second place that was superbly the best. That is the team I support.” King Harald later confirmed that he referred to Tottenham, who won both the series and the cup in 1961.
It is not known how long His Majesty King Harald will stay in the UK. He is likely to return to Norway at the beginning of this week. He will be travelling to Karasjok in northern Norway on Thursday.
