Erik Thorstvedt (born 28 October 1962) 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 ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

. He won 97 caps for the Norway national team, and was the starter in goal at the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States w ...

. He 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� ...

, Eik-Tønsberg,

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e.V. Mönchengladbach, better known as Borussia Mönchengladbach () and colloquially known as just Gladbach, is a professional Association football, football club based in Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-W ...

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 ...

and

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

Career

Thorstvedt was the first Norwegian to win the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

when he won it with Spurs in

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

and later became the second Norwegian to play in the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

. During his time at Tottenham Thorstvedt lived in the

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

town of Hoddesdon. Thorstvedt retired in 1996 due to back injuries. After his career as a player, he worked as a goalkeeping coach with the Norway national team, and had a brief spell as Director of Football at Viking. He has worked as an expert commentator/pundit for various TV channels, and was the TV-host on the Royal League matches shown on

TVNorge TVNorge (literally "TVNorway"; originally abbreviated TVN, now just abbreviated N in the logos) is a Norwegian television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA. History TVNorge went on the air on 5 December 1988 and was the first adv ...

. He was also the coach of Tufte IL, a team created for the reality-TV show Heia Tufte!. For his appearance in this show he was awarded the '' Se og Hør'' readers' TV personality of the year award. He had a weekly football show on Mondays called "Matchball Mandag" on TV2 where he and guests looked at games played in the

Norwegian top division Eliteserien () is a professional association football league in Norway and the highest level of the Norwegian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Norwegian First Division ...

with a humorous approach.

Personal life

He is the father of Norwegian model and former

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

presenter Charlotte Thorstvedt and Sassuolo midfielder Kristian Thorstvedt.

Honours

Tottenham Hotspur *

: 1990–91 *

FA Charity Shield The Football Association Community Shield (formerly the Charity Shield) is English football's annual match contested at Wembley Stadium between the champions of the previous Premier League season and the holders of the FA Cup. If the Premier ...

(shared)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Thorstvedt, Erik 1962 births Living people Norwegian men's footballers Norway men's international footballers Norway men's under-21 international footballers Viking FK players Olympic footballers for Norway Men's association football goalkeepers FK Eik Tønsberg players IFK Göteborg players Borussia Mönchengladbach players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Premier League players Bundesliga players Allsvenskan players Eliteserien players Footballers at the 1984 Summer Olympics 1994 FIFA World Cup players Kniksen Award winners Expatriate men's footballers in West Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Sweden Expatriate men's footballers in England Norwegian expatriate men's footballers Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in West Germany Footballers from Stavanger Norwegian association football commentators Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in England Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Sweden 20th-century Norwegian sportsmen