Ragnvald Soma (born 10 November 1979) is a Norwegian former

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 defender.

Position

He was primarily a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

, although he had been both a left back and a defensive midfielder earlier in his career.

Club career

Early career

Soma was drafted into the senior squad of

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 ...

after the 1996 season. Soma was also a prolific Norway youth international. During his time in Bryne, the team won promotion to the 2000 Eliteserien, with Soma amassing 99 league games.

West Ham United

In January 2001 he moved to English

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 ...

club

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

for £800,000. His stay there lasted just over one and a half years, during which Soma made only seven league appearances before returning to Bryne on a free transfer. Whilst at West Ham he played in their 1–0 victory over

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and is the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,197, it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after W ...

in the

2000–01 FA Cup The 2000–01 FA Cup (known as The FA Cup sponsored by AXA for sponsorship reasons) was the 120th season of the world's oldest knockout football competition, the FA Cup. The competition was won by Liverpool, who came from 1–0 behind against Arse ...

, coming on as a late substitute for his debut.

Norwegian football

With Bryne relegated at the end of the 2003 season, Soma moved to

SK Brann Sportsklubben Brann is a Norwegian professional football club based in Bergen. Founded on 26 September 1908, Brann has played in the first tier of Norwegian football for 67 out of 80 seasons, the second most of any club. They play their hom ...

. He became an instant hit, being voted player of the year by several newspapers and becoming a regular in the Norway national team. In March 2006 he transferred to

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� ...

for an undisclosed fee believed to be around £500,000, with Brann also getting right back Bjørn Dahl as a

part exchange __NOTOC__ A part exchange or part exchange deal is a type of contract. In a part exchange, instead of one party to the contract paying money and the other party supplying goods/services, both parties supply goods/services, the first party supplyin ...

Austria and Denmark

After over three years at Viking, Soma signed for

Rapid Vienna Sportklub Rapid (), commonly known as Rapid Wien or Rapid Vienna in English language, English, is an Football in Austria, Austrian professional football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian cham ...

on 14 August 2009. After a spell with the

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga (, ) is a professional association football league in Denmark and the highest level of the Danish football league system. The league is currently contested by 12 teams each year, with 2 teams relegated. It is the current ...

side

Nordsjælland North Zealand, also North Sealand (), refers to the northeastern part of the Danish island of Zealand. The Danish tourist authorities have recently introduced the term Danish Riviera to cover the area in view of its increasing importance for to ...

, Soma joined the

Danish 1st Division The 1st Division (''1. Division'') is the second-highest football league in Denmark, also known as NordicBet Liga for sponsorship reasons. From 1945 to 1991, the 1. Division was the name of the highest level of football in Denmark. With the for ...

side

Lyngby Kongens Lyngby (, Danish language, Danish for "the King's Heather Town"; short form Lyngby) is the seat and commercial centre of Lyngby-Taarbæk Municipality in the northern suburbs of Copenhagen, Denmark. Lyngby Hovedgade is a busy shopping stre ...

. After his contract with Lyngby expired, he was training with his old club Viking. He played the second half of 2013 for

Førde IL Førde Idrettslag is a Norwegian sports club based in Førde, Sunnfjord. It has sections for alpine skiing, association football, athletics, biathlon, cross-country skiing, floorball, gymnastics, handball, orienteering, powerlifting, ski jumping, ...

. From 2014 he went into semi-retirement, playing for Frøyland IL. He also featured for

Klepp IL Klepp IL is a Norwegian sports club from the municipality of Klepp. It was founded on 1 October 1919, and has sections for football, handball and gymnastics as well as the less active sections for athletics and orienteering. Best known for t ...

International career

Soma played 22 matches for the Norwegian under-21 team before he was capped five times 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 ...

between 2004 and 2005.

Career statistics

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Soma, Ragnvald 1979 births Living people Footballers from Rogaland Norwegian men's footballers Norway men's international footballers Norwegian Christians Bryne FK players West Ham United F.C. players SK Brann players Viking FK players SK Rapid Wien players FC Nordsjælland players Lyngby Boldklub players Klepp IL (men) players Men's association football central defenders Premier League players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Eliteserien players Danish Superliga players Norwegian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in Austria Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Austria Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Denmark