Sander Gard Bolin Berge (born 14 February 1998) is a Norwegian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for club

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games a ...

and the Norway national team. Berge is a product of

Asker Asker ( no, Asker), properly called Askerbygda in Norwegian, is a district and former municipality in Akershus, Norway. From 2020 it is part of the larger administrative municipality Asker, Viken (also known as Greater Asker) in Viken count ...

youth academy In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if ...

Club career

Early career

Berge was born in

Bærum Bærum () is a municipality in the Greater Oslo Region in Norway that forms an affluent suburb of Oslo on the west coast of the city. Bærum is Norway's fifth largest municipality with a population of 128,760 (2021). It is part of the electora ...

, Viken. He started his career playing youth football for

Asker Fotball Asker Fotball is the football department of Norwegian sports club Asker SK from Asker. The women's football team is one of the most successful clubs ever in Norway, with 6 top flight championships and 5 cup championships. Due to financial di ...

, making his senior debut in the end of the 2013 season for the team then playing in the Norwegian 2. divisjon. He joined top flight team Vålerenga before the 2015 season. Berge made his league debut coming off the bench against Sandefjord on 11 July 2015 and his first league start against Rosenborg, quickly establishing himself as a key player for the club. On 2 January 2017, he signed a four-year contract with K.R.C. Genk. He made his first team league debut on 21 January as a substitute in the 0–1 win away against

Eupen Eupen (, ; ; formerly ) is the capital of German-speaking Community of Belgium and is a city and municipality in the Belgian province of Liège, from the German border ( Aachen), from the Dutch border (Maastricht) and from the " High Fe ...

. He earned his first start and full match against

Royal Excel Mouscron Royal Excel Mouscron (, ), commonly known as Mouscron or familiarly as REM, was a Belgian professional football club based in Mouscron. The team was formed as ''Royal Mouscron-Péruwelz'' in the spring of 2010 as a result of the merging between ...

on 17 February in a 1–0 win at home, becoming an integral part of the team for the remaining season, which included an impressive run in the

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

, ending in the quarter finals against

Celta Vigo Real Club Celta de Vigo (; ), commonly known as Celta de Vigo or simply Celta, is a Spanish professional football club based in Vigo, Galicia, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spanish football. Nicknamed ''Os Celestes'' (The Sky Blues) ...

Sheffield United

On 30 January 2020, Berge signed for

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

, becoming the club's record signing. He joined on a four-and-a-half year contract. On 2 July 2020, Berge scored his first goal for Sheffield United in a 3–1 win against

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

International career

Berge made his debut for Norway when he played for the under-15 team against Canada U15 on 2 May 2013. He has since represented Norway at every level up to the senior national team. He made his senior international debut on 23 March 2017, aged 19, coming on as a substitute in the 76th minute of the Euro-qualifier against

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. North ...

. On 5 September 2019, Berge scored his first senior international goal in the 34th minute of a game against

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

in the

UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from March 2019 to November 2020 to determine the 24 UEFA member men's national teams that advanced to the UEFA Euro 2020 final tournament, played across Europ ...

rounds.

Personal life

Berge comes from a basketball-playing family, with his father, Swedish mother and older brother all having played basketball at international level. His brother has also played for top flight teams Centrum Tigers and Asker Aliens. Berge is also the grandson of Ragnar Berge, who played as a left-back for Vålerenga from 1945 until 1957, and was capped once by

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

(in 1955).I bestefars fotspor
, ''Vålerenga Fotball'' (10 February 2015)

Career statistics

Club

International

:''As of match played 12 June 2022. Norway score listed first, score column indicates score after each Berge goal.''

Honours

Genk *

Belgian First Division A The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 tea ...

: 2018–19 *

Belgian Super Cup The Belgian Super Cup ( nl, Belgische Supercup, ; french: Supercoupe de Belgique; german: Belgischer Fußball-Super Cup), ''Pro League Supercup'', is a Belgian club competition played as a single match between the Belgian First Division A champio ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

References

External links

Profile
at the Sheffield United F.C. website {{DEFAULTSORT:Berge, Sander 1998 births Living people Sportspeople from Bærum Norwegian footballers Norway youth international footballers Norway under-21 international footballers Norway international footballers Association football midfielders Asker Fotball players Vålerenga Fotball players K.R.C. Genk players Sheffield United F.C. players Norwegian Third Division players Norwegian Second Division players Eliteserien players Belgian Pro League players Premier League players Norwegian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Belgium Expatriate footballers in England Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in England Norwegian people of Swedish descent