Ragnar Nikolay Larsen (7 January 1925 – 14 January 1982) was a Norwegian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. He later became a football manager and, after actively retiring from the sport, he took up a position as a sports journalist for ''

Aftenposten (; ; stylized as in the masthead) is Norway's largest printed newspaper by circulation as well as Norway's newspaper of record. It is based in Oslo. It sold 211,769 daily copies in 2015 (172,029 printed copies according to University of Bergen ...

'', a Norwegian newspaper. Larsen played as a midfielder and started his playing career with Sandaker. He then relocated to Italy in 1951, spending time at both

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

and

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

. He also spent time with Swiss side

Lugano Lugano ( , , ; ) is a city and municipality within the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland. It is the largest city in both Ticino and the Italian-speaking region of southern Switzerland. Lugano has a population () of , and an u ...

before returning to his first club and then retiring from the field in 1962. Larsen was last capped in 1961, aged 37 years and 201 days, and is the fifth oldest player at the Norwegian national team. As well as being capped for the

Norway national football team The Norway national football team (, or informally ''Landslaget'') represents Norway in men's international Association football, football, and is controlled by the Norwegian Football Federation, the governing body for football in Norway. Norwa ...

, he was its manager for two different spells. He also coached

Lillestrøm SK Lillestrøm Sportsklubb is a Norwegian professional football club based in the city of Lillestrøm, just outside of the capital Oslo. Lillestrøm SK is a Norwegian football club based in Lillestrøm, playing in Eliteserien. The club was founde ...

and

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

References

1925 births 1982 deaths Footballers from Oslo Men's association football midfielders Norwegian men's footballers Norway men's international footballers SS Lazio players FC Lugano players Genoa CFC players Serie A players Norwegian football managers Norwegian expatriate football managers FC Lugano managers Norway national football team managers Lillestrøm SK managers Strømsgodset Toppfotball managers Norwegian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland 20th-century Norwegian sportsmen {{norway-footy-midfielder-stub