Erik Fuglestad (born 13 August 1974) is a Norwegian former 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 lea ...

and is currently head coach of

Randaberg Randaberg is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Jæren, at the northern end of the Stavanger Peninsula. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Randaberg. Randaberg ...

. During his professional career, Fuglestad played for

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

and

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club is a professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was founded in 1902. Since 1935, Norwich have played their h ...

and made appearances for Norway at the under-21 level.

Player career

Fuglestad, nicknamed "Fuglis", was born in

Stavanger Stavanger, officially the Stavanger Municipality, is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the third largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the ...

and began his senior career with

Viking FK Viking Fotballklubb, commonly known as Viking or Viking Stavanger internationally, is a Norwegian professional football club from the city of Stavanger. The club was founded in 1899. It is one of the most successful clubs in Norwegian football, ...

, having arrived from

Randaberg IL Randaberg Idrettslag is a Norwegian sports club from Randaberg. It has sections for football, swimming, gymnastics and volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to sc ...

as a junior. He made his debut in a friendly in 1993, and his league debut in the final game of the 1994 season, replacing Øyvind Mellemstrand at left back. Fuglestad's break-through followed in the 1995 season, when he featured in 25 of the club's 26 league games, scoring two goals, both against

IK Start Idrettsklubben Start (or simply IK Start) is a Norwegian Association football, football club from the city of Kristiansand that currently plays in the Norwegian First Division, the second tier of the Norwegian football league system. The club was ...

in the space of two weeks during July. Being a local lad, Fuglestad excited the Viking following with his attacking style and good crossing. He remained the first-choice left back at Viking for a further two seasons, before Mike Walker brought him to

on a Bosman free transfer in November 1997. He made 80 appearances, scoring 2 goals against

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history ...

and

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confl ...

, for the Canaries before his contract was cancelled towards the end of the 1999–00 season and he returned to former club Viking. Upon returning to Norwegian football, Fuglestad retrained as a midfielder, playing both in the centre and on the left wing, and he remained a midfielder for the rest of his career. In the 2001 season, he started all 26 league games for Viking, scoring nine goals. In addition, he scored three goals in six cup games, when his club won the 2001 Norwegian Football Cup, Viking's first cup-win in twelve years. However, he missed the cup final due to an injury. The 2001 Norwegian Cup trophy was his only trophy as a senior footballer. Fuglestad remained a first-choice midfielder throughout the 2002 season, but he missed all of 2003 through injury. His comeback in 2004 lasted only 15 league games, before a

kidney In humans, the kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped blood-filtering organ (anatomy), organs that are a multilobar, multipapillary form of mammalian kidneys, usually without signs of external lobulation. They are located on the left and rig ...

illness forced him into retirement. He remained as an employee of Viking, where he had a role in the administration and was later the head coach of the junior team. An attempted comeback with home club Randaberg IL in 2007 was cut short as Fuglestad's illness returned, and he announced his definitive retirement on 7 August 2007.

Coaching career

Ahead of the 2008 season he went from being coach of Viking FK's junior team to player developer in

Bryne FK Bryne Fotballklubb () is a professional Association football, football club located in Bryne, Norway, which competes in the Eliteserien, the top tier of Norwegian football. Founded on 10 April 1926 as Bryne Fotball-lag, the club joined the Nor ...

. In 2012, he became the head coach of Randaberg IL.

References

* *''Drømmen om de mørkeblå'' by Ole J. Askeland and Arild I. Olsson, published by Stavanger Aftenblad, (1999),

External links

Career information at ex-canaries.co.uk
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fuglestad, Erik 1974 births Living people Footballers from Stavanger Norwegian men's footballers Randaberg IL players Viking FK players Norwich City F.C. players Eliteserien players English Football League players Expatriate men's footballers in England Norwegian expatriate men's footballers Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in England Viking FK non-playing staff Norwegian football managers Randaberg IL managers Men's association football defenders