Erik Midtgarden (born 18 November 1987) is a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

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 ...

and

player-coach A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

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

Åssiden Åssiden is the largest borough of Drammen in Buskerud county, Norway. Åssiden was a part of Lier municipality until 1951, when it became part of Drammen municipality. Åssiden is located on the western side of Drammen, north of the Drammenselva ...

. He has previously played for

Tippeligaen Eliteserien () is a Norwegian professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the Norwegian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotio ...

sides

Odd Grenland Odd means unpaired, occasional, strange or unusual, or a person who is viewed as eccentric. Odd may also refer to: Acronym * ODD (Text Encoding Initiative) ("One Document Does it all"), an abstracted literate-programming format for describing X ...

Lillestrøm Lillestrøm is a municipality in Viken county. It is located in the traditional district of Romerike. With a population of 85,757 inhabitants, it is the fourth most populated municipality in Viken. It was founded on 1 January 2020 as a merger ...

Hønefoss __NOTOC__ Hønefoss is a List of cities in Norway, town and the administrative center of the municipalities of Norway, municipality of Ringerike (municipality), Ringerike in Buskerud county, Norway. Hønefoss is an industrial center of inner Østl ...

and

Mjøndalen Mjøndalen is a built up area in Drammen municipality in Viken county (formerly Buskerud county), Norway. It is situated south of the Drammenselva River opposite of Krokstadelva. History Mjøndalen has traditionally been a railway site most ...

and won the

Meistriliiga Meistriliiga (, known as the A. Le Coq Premium Liiga for sponsorship reasons) is the highest division of the Estonian Football Association annual football (soccer), football championship. The league was founded in 1992, and was initially semi-p ...

with

Flora Tallinn FC Flora, commonly known as Flora Tallinn, or simply as Flora, is a professional football club based in Tallinn, Estonia, that competes in the Meistriliiga, the top flight of Estonian football. The club's home ground is Lilleküla Stadium. Fo ...

in 2011. Midtgarden has also spent time with the First Division sides

Pors Grenland Pors Fotball is a Norwegian football club from Porsgrunn, currently playing in the 3. divisjon. Pors plays in blue jerseys, and their home ground is Pors Stadion. Notable former players include Jan Halvor Halvorsen and Erik Pedersen. History Th ...

Notodden Notodden () is a city and municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Øst-Telemark. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Notodden. Notodden was separated from the munici ...

(previous spell) and

(two previous spells). He has represented Norway at under-17, under-18 and under-21 level.

Club career

Born in

Skien Skien () is a city and municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county in Norway. In modern times it is regarded as part of the traditional region of Grenland, although historically it belonged to Grenmar/Skiensfjorden, while Grenland referred the ...

, Midtgarden joined

's first-team squad ahead of the 2005 season. He made his debut in the first round of the

2005 Norwegian Football Cup The 2005 Norwegian Football Cup was the 100th edition of the Norwegian Football Cup. The tournament started on 7 May 2005 and was contested by 128 teams, going through 7 rounds before a winner could be declared. The final match was played on 6 ...

match against Langesund/Stathelle, when he played the last 20 minutes as a winger and scored Odd's last goal in the 4–0 victory. He made three appearances for Odd in

in his first season at the club, and was the top goalscorer for the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

in the 2. divisjon with eleven goals. He spent the 2006 season on loan to

, where he was a regular for the team in the First Division. His contract with Odd expired after the season, and although the club wanted to renew his contract, Midtgarden chose to sign a two-year contract with the newly promoted First Division side

, where he was promised regularly playing time. After playing regularly for Notodden in 2007, Midtgarden was far away from the first team in the following season and wanted to leave the club when his contract expired after the 2008 season. He played a total of 29 league-matches for Notodden. He joined

ahead of the 2009 season, where the head coach Vegard Hansen used Midtgarden as a

utility player In sports, a utility player is one who can play several positions competently. Sports in which the term is often used include association football, American football, baseball, rugby union, rugby league, softball, ice hockey, and water polo. The ...

. He was on a trial with

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...

in July 2010, but was not offered a contract. Midtgarden scored 22 goals in 54 matches in his two seasons at Mjøndalen. His contract with Mjøndalen expired after the 2010 season, and in January 2010 he joined his old club Odd Grenland on a one-year contract. Midtgarden played 14 matches for Odd in

in the first half of the 2012 season, and scored a goal in the 4–1 win against

Sogndal Sogndal is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located on the northern shore of the Sognefjorden in the traditional district of Sogn. The village of Hermansverk is the administrative center of Sogndal municipality. Other villages ...

on 3 April 2011 one minute after he replaced

Håvard Storbæk Håvard Storbæk (born 5 May 1986) is a Norwegian football midfielder who plays for Storms BK. He announced at the end of 2019, that he was retiring from professional football. He has previously played for Nybergsund, FK Haugesund and Odd. He ...

as a substitute. In July 2011, he was bought by Dutch club

Vitesse Arnhem Vitesse may refer to: * Vitesse Models, a diecast model car company * Vitesse (band), Dutch rock band * Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse, a car * Rover 216 Vitesse, a car * Rover 3500 Vitesse, a car * Rover 800 Vitesse, a car * Triumph Vit ...

, and was subsequently sent on loan to Estonian club

, where he played 15 matches and won the

2011 Meistriliiga The 2011 Meistriliiga was the 21st season of the Meistriliiga, the top Estonian league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1992. The season began on 5 March 2011 and concluded on 5 November 2011. The defending champions FC ...

with the club. Midtgarden was supposed to return to Vitesse in January 2012, but when he did not get the payments as agreed in his contract, he decide to break the contract and move home to Norway, where he signed a one-year contract with

ahead of the 2012 season. After

Magnus Haglund Magnus Haglund (born 15 April 1973) is a Swedish football coach and former player. He is currently the manager of Halmstads BK. He has previously managed IF Elfsborg and Lillestrøm SK, having signed a two-year contract starting in January 201 ...

became head coach of Lillestrøm, the club bought several new players to the club, and Midtgarden became superfluous at the club. He was loaned out to Mjøndalen in August 2012, and scored a goal in his debut against

Sandefjord Sandefjord () is a city and the most populous municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county, Norway. The municipality of Sandefjord was established on 1 January 1838. The municipality of Sandar was merged into Sandefjord on 1 January 1969. On 1 ...

on 10 August 2012. He scored 10 goals in 13 matches for Mjøndalen in the First Division in the 2012 season. As a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

, Midtgarden was on trials with

Strømsgodset Strømsgodset is a former municipality in Vestfold county (from 1964 Buskerud county), Norway, today a part of the city of Drammen. History Strømsgodset was originally a small rural annex to the city parish of Bragernes (Drammen). But since th ...

Tromsø Tromsø (, , ; se, Romsa ; fkv, Tromssa; sv, Tromsö) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Tromsø. Tromsø lies in Northern Norway. The municipality is the 21s ...

and Odd ahead of the 2013 season, before he signed for

in February 2013. During his spell at Hønefoss, Midtgarden was mostly used as a substitute. After Hønefoss was relegated from Tippeligaen, he decided to return to Mjøndalen for his third spell at the club. He left ahead of the 2017, as the trainings became too difficult to combine with PE teacher studies at the

Telemark University College Telemark University College (TUC, no, Høgskolen i Telemark, HiT) was, until its merger, the fourth largest university college in Norway. The University College had about 7000 students, split between four different locations in Bø, Notodden, Por ...

, Notodden campus. He therefore rejoined Notodden FK.

International career

Midtgarden has represented Norway at youth international level, and played three matches for the under-17 team in 2004 before he played 10 matches for the under-18 team the next year. He made his debut for the under-21 team on 5 October 2006 in a match against Denmark U21, where he scored one of the goals. He made one more appearance for the under-21 team, in February 2007 against Slovakia U21.

Career statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Midtgarden, Erik 1987 births Living people Sportspeople from Skien Norwegian footballers Norway youth international footballers Odds BK players Pors Grenland players Notodden FK players Mjøndalen IF players SBV Vitesse players FC Flora players Lillestrøm SK players Hønefoss BK players Eliteserien players Norwegian First Division players Norwegian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in Estonia Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Estonia Association football wingers