Bjorn Helge Riise wants to emulate his brother and win an FA Cup final with Fulham.
Riise’s elder brother, John Arne, scored a penalty in the shoot-out that decided an enthralling 2006 final in Liverpool’s favour after a 3-3 draw with West Ham. The Norwegian midfielder, who joined Fulham from Lillestrom this summer, is keen on tasting some of the glory himself.
I’ve been watching my brother go through to the Champions League final and the FA Cup final and when you see something like that and see what kind of feeling a player gets, you want to go there yourself. It’s an amazing feeling, I’m sure.
Of course, I want to experience it myself and I’ve never played at Wembley either, so it would be fantastic to go all the way. The Premier League is still the most important thing for us, but the FA Cup is a very big competition as well.
Riise, though, was disappointed not to draw a big name in the fourth round, even if Fulham’s chances of progress would probably have been helped by being handed a tie against either Accrington Stanley or Gillingham.
I always want a big club in the draw. I like to play big games.
Of course you have a better chance against the smaller teams, but I like to play the big teams because it’s more fun. When you are a young kid, you watch on TV and think ‘I want to play in these big games’.
You want to go through as well, though, and it’s good for me if we do because I get to play more of these games – in the FA Cup and the Europa League.
