Antonio Nusa Opens Up About Bullying During Club Brugge Stint

Nusa details tough Brugge move ahead of Norway’s World Cup return  

The 21-year-old Leipzig winger opens up on isolation, envy, and how he turned things around ahead of the World Cup.

With Norway heading to their first World Cup since 2000, Antonio Nusa shares the challenges he faced early in his move abroad...

RB Leipzig’s Antonio Nusa has revealed he was bullied after leaving Stabaek for Club Brugge in Belgium’s Jupiler Pro League. The Norway international shared the experience in his new book Alt starter med en drom, which translates to Everything Starts with a Dream.

With Norway set to play in their first World Cup this century in just over a month, Nusa has released the book under the title Alt starter med en drom.

In the book, the 21-year-old RB Leipzig playmaker, who is set to be key for Norway at the World Cup, admits the move from Stabaek to Club Brugge wasn’t easy. He describes dealing with jealousy from teammates and a difficult atmosphere in the locker room.

“I felt the dynamics. Silence. Backbiting. People who looked at me and spoke a language I didn't understand. Try to imagine that you are sitting there alone in the locker room and everyone is staring at you. Two or three guys who are supposed to be teammates are sitting there and talking about you, but not to you.”

“I was still developing there, and the idea of pressure and stress was still quite new to me. It meant that I was very influenced by things that were happening around me, which is not the best thing,” Nusa explains to NRK.no.

He said it was tough arriving in a new country where everyone spoke Flemish or French, and where he didn’t know any other Norwegians.

"I was very young, and I came to a place where I was not completely comfortable yet. It affected me on the pitch. And that's where the problem started, which in many ways was a vicious circle."

“As long as I played good football, it's fine. But when I didn't feel good on the pitch and didn't play well, it became difficult. That was the first challenge. I couldn't play like myself. As a result, there were not very good reactions from the others on the team. They didn't like it, and they didn't like me being there, taking their place.”

“At the same time, I was three years younger than everyone on that team, so they were like, 'Hey, there’s a 16-year-old coming to play instead of us, and he’s not even good.” I let it get to me. He says that backbiting is not uncommon among young people.

“But it was difficult at the time, and I was alone in it. I couldn’t talk to people about it, and I think that made it even harder.”

The Leipzig player explains that things got so difficult he briefly didn’t want to play for Norway’s youth teams. In the book, he writes that all he wanted at the time was to go home.

“I even argued with the Norwegian Football Association because I didn’t want to go to the Under-17 national team training camp; I just wanted to be home. Think about it, a youngster doesn’t want to be on the national team. But my self-confidence and motivation were on the line.”

🇳🇴⭐️ When Antonio Nusa did this against Italy... today, he turns 21! 😍 pic.twitter.com/5otMaGA8pg

— EuroFoot (@eurofootcom) April 17, 2026

Things have turned around for Nusa since then. Now playing mainly as a winger and playmaker, he became one of RB Leipzig’s key contributors this season. His pace and ability to change games gave the team valuable depth as they finished 3rd in the Bundesliga. 

Across the campaign he logged more than 2,000 minutes in 31 league appearances, adding important goals and assists both as a starter and off the bench.