Aston Villa goalkeeper Robin Olsen made three league appearances this season and two of those came in the past two matches.
Emiliano Martínez has been the first-choice for Unai Emery this season and the Argentine suffered an injury in Aston Villa’s 4-1 defeat to Crystal Palace on February 26th.
Emery was forced to take offer Martínez after the first half, and replaced him with Olsen. This development saw the Sweden international train during the break at Selhurst Park.
Crystal Palace had arranged a few penalty kicks for their young supporters during the break. Olsen, who was training on the pitch, refused to let the kids take a penalty. This didn’t go down well with the home supporters, and he was criticised by a section of the media.
The video of the incident involving the Villans stopper was widely shared on social media. The 35-year-old is currently with his national team, and this gave him an opportunity to address this issue during a chat with Fotbollskanalen.
“At that time, I felt like they were trying to provoke me. It became a very big deal, which is incredibly sad,” he said.
“At the same time: the goalkeeper warm-up before a match is 40 minutes and I was supposed to do it in 12-13 minutes at half-time. We went straight to our side where we warmed up. Then they came in the middle of everything and then there were scenes. Unfortunately, it has become a big deal. I got a lot of rubbish, just for the sake of the children.”
The former Everton man claims he has contacted the family of one of those kids who were on the pitch at Selhurst Park.
“One of the children’s mothers wrote to me privately. She didn’t apologise for all the rubbish I had received, but she didn’t really understand [why Olsen had to receive it],” Olsen explained.
“We found such a great solution that she and her son are coming over to visit us now during the Easter break. We’re going to have lunch and play some football. I’ve promised him that he will get to take his penalties.”
Olsen claims he was doing his ‘job’ and was ‘sad’ with the reaction.
“It wasn’t a situation I wanted to end up in. A very unnecessary situation when I think I was there to do my job,” he added.
“I don’t really know what I would have done. Would I have gone over to the other goal when Crystal Palace players were warming up on that half of the pitch? It was just an unnecessary thing. Of course, when there are children involved, it never ends well. But I’m incredibly happy that we were able to find a solution with one of the kids.”
