Arild Stavrum (born 16 April 1972) is a Norwegian novelist, football coach and former player. His playing career included clubs as Brann,

Molde Molde () is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town and the seat of Molde Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Romsdal. It is located on the Romsdal Pen ...

, Stabæk,

Helsingborg Helsingborg (, , ), is a Urban areas in Sweden, city and the seat of Helsingborg Municipality, Scania County, Scania (Skåne), Sweden. It is the second-largest city in Scania (after Malmö) and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, ninth ...

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

and

Beşiktaş Beşiktaş () is a district and municipality of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 18 km2 and its population is 175,190 (2022). It is located on the European shore of the Bosphorus strait. It is bordered on the north by Sarıyer and ...

Playing career

Hailing from

Kristiansund Kristiansund (, ; historically spelled Christianssund and earlier named Fosna) is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality on the western coast of Norway in the Nordmøre district of Møre og Romsdal counties of Norway, county. The admin ...

, he started his career in local club

Clausenengen Clausenengen Fotballklubb (CFK) is a football club located in Kristiansund, Norway. Many famous players have played at this club, including Ole Gunnar Solskjær, Øyvind Leonhardsen, Trond Andersen, Jan Erlend Kruse, Andre Flem, Arild Stavrum ...

, and played for another two small clubs Jerv and

Nordlandet Nordlandet is an island in Kristiansund Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The island is located just east of the city center of Kristiansund, and is one of the boroughs of the city. The island is home to Kristiansund Airport, K ...

. He was then picked up by Brann, and later by

. At Molde he formed a partnership with

Ole Gunnar Solskjær Ole Gunnar Solskjær (; born 26 February 1973) is a Norwegian professional football manager and former player who currently manages Süper Lig club Beşiktaş. He spent the majority of his playing career with Manchester United and made 67 appea ...

and Ole Bjørn Sundgot known as "the three S'es". He then played one season for Stabæk before going abroad with

in Sweden. Playing under former Molde coach

Åge Hareide Åge Fridtjof Hareide (born 23 September 1953) is a Norwegian former football coach and player who last managed the Iceland national team. In his playing career, he played for Hødd and Molde in Norway as well as Manchester City and Norwich Cit ...

, Stavrum became Allsvenskan top scorer in the 1998 season. On 30 October 1999, he scored the only goal of the game when Helsingborgs IF defeated

IFK Göteborg Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Göteborg (officially IFK Göteborg Fotboll), commonly known as IFK Göteborg, IFK (especially locally) or Blåvitt, is a Swedish professional Football team, football club based in Gothenburg. Founded in 1904, it ...

on away ground, winning Allsvenskan and the Swedish Championship. He then went to Scotland, joining

. In his first season, he made 32 appearances and scored 12 goals. He scored 17 goals in his second season with Aberdeen, which made him the second highest goalscorer in the 2000–01 Scottish Premier League. He was popular with the fans in Aberdeen, particularly after he cut and collected his trademark long hair, posting the offending follicles to local journalist Charlie Allan, who had previously claimed said locks were holding the Norwegian back. However, as a result of a contract clause that allowed him to move for a nominal fee, he signed for

in Turkey. This came as a bit of a surprise to Aberdeen, as he was pictured in the Turkish media with a Beşiktaş shirt before Aberdeen were actually aware that he would be leaving. His spell in Turkey was short-lived, as he left within a year. He returned to a second and final spell in the Norwegian league with Molde. He retired from a playing career following the 2004 season. On the international level, Stavrum played for

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

twice, once against

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

in a friendly.

Later career

In the 2005 season Stavrum was appointed coach of Second Division team

Bærum SK Bærum Sportsklubb is a Norwegian association football club founded on 26 March 1910. The men's team is currently playing in the 3. divisjon, after being relegated from the 2. divisjon in 2023. The club comes from Sandvika, the administrative ...

. Having guided them to a respectable league position, Stavrum was hired by his old team Molde. However, he coached the team to relegation in

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

and was sacked after the season. It was announced in December 2007 that Arild had signed a two-year coaching contract with Skeid of

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

. Outside of football, he has written for the media in Norway, as well as occasionally contributing to

Scottish newspapers This is a list of newspapers in Scotland. Daily newspapers : Traditionally newspapers could be divided into 'quality', serious-minded newspapers (usually referred to as 'broadsheets' due to their large size) and 'tabloids', or less serious news ...

. In 2008, he made his debut as a fiction writer, with the novel ''31 år på gress'' published by the Norwegian publishing house Oktober.31 år på gress
at Bokkilden

Career statistics

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stavrum, Arild 1972 births Living people Norwegian men's footballers Norway men's international footballers Clausenengen FK players SK Brann players Molde FK players Stabæk Fotball players Helsingborgs IF players Aberdeen F.C. players Scottish Premier League players Beşiktaş J.K. footballers Norwegian football managers Molde FK managers 21st-century Norwegian novelists Footballers from Kristiansund Norwegian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Sweden Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Süper Lig players Allsvenskan players Eliteserien players Norwegian First Division players Skeid Fotball managers Men's association football forwards Eliteserien managers