Roger Nilsen (born 8 August 1969) is a Norwegian football coach and former player. A defender, he played for the Norwegian clubs

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 ...

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to 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 s ...

Molde Molde () is a town and List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Møre og Romsdal Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Romsdal. It is located on the Romsdal Pen ...

and

Bryne Bryne () is a town in Time municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The city is the administrative centre of the municipality of Time and it is also one of the 50 largest towns/cities in Norway. Bryne's location in the region of Stavanger/Sand ...

, and spent time abroad at

1. FC Köln 1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V., commonly known as simply FC Köln () or FC Cologne in English, is a German professional football club based in Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was formed in 1948 as a merger of the clubs ''Kölner Ballsp ...

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games a ...

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

and

Grazer AK Grazer AK, founded 18 August 1902 as Grazer Athletiksport Klub (in Austria the abbreviation GAK is more common), is an Austrian sports club, from the city of Graz in the federal state of Styria (''Steiermark''). The football section used to be o ...

. He made 32 appearances and scored three goals for

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. He later worked as assistant coach at Viking.

Club career

Viking FK

Born in

, Nilsen's career began in

, but it was after he moved on to

that he became established, winning Tippeligaen, the

Norwegian top division 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 promoti ...

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the ...

. In his four seasons at Viking, Nilsen successfully became a regular in Norway's U21 team, and won his first senior cap in 1990. He was loaned to

, and was put up for sale towards the end of the 1993 season.

Sheffield United

Having already signed Norwegian team-mate

Jostein Flo Jostein Flo (born 3 October 1964) is a Norwegian former footballer who played as a forward. Usually a centre-forward or striker, he was known for his physical playing style and aerial dominance, and was also capable of playing on the right fla ...

boss

Dave Bassett David Thomas Bassett (born 4 September 1944 in Stanmore) is an English football manager and a former player. During his career he has managed Wimbledon, Watford, Sheffield United, Crystal Palace, Nottingham Forest, Barnsley, Leicester City ...

added Nilsen in November 1993 for the fee of £500,000, beating Aberdeen to his signature. Nilsen joined as the club fought unsuccessfully against relegation from the Premier League, and was a regular at left-back. A popular figure at Bramall Lane, Nilsen played six seasons under five different managers, with a number of games at centre-back - particularly after United switched to a wing-back formation in 1997/98. He started the 1997 playoff final defeat at Wembley against Crystal Palace, and United's defeat to Newcastle in the FA Cup semi-final in 1998. It was in that cup-run where Nilsen had arguably his most memorable moment, during the quarter-final penalty shootout win over Coventry City. Never scoring for the Blades, and with Gareth Taylor having missed the first United penalty, Nilsen stepped up to convert the second - powering the ball past Steve Ogrizovic to put the Blades 1–0 up. Nilsen's final appearance came as he helped keep a clean sheet in a 3–0 win over West Brom in Feb 1999, before a surprise return to the Premier League saw him transferred to Tottenham Hotspur on a free.

Later career

After making just two appearances at Spurs, Nilsen had a brief spell at

before he returned home to play for

and

. He left Bryne in 2003, but continued his career in the Norwegian third division with Stavanger IF.

International career

Nilsen represented Norway at youth international level and played for the under-20 team in the

1989 FIFA World Youth Championship The 1989 FIFA World Youth Championship took place in Saudi Arabia between 16 February and 3 March 1989. The 1989 championship was the 7th contested. The tournament took place across four cities: Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, and Ta'if. Qualificatio ...

. He played 19 matches and scored two goals for Norway U21. Nilsen made his debut for the senior team in the friendly match against

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west- central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; th ...

on 31 October 1990. He scored his first goal for Norway against Sweden on 26 August 1992, and scored two goals in the 10–0 win against

San Marino San Marino (, ), officially the Republic of San Marino ( it, Repubblica di San Marino; ), also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino ( it, Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino, links=no), is the fifth-smallest country in the world an ...

two weeks later. Nilsen was a part of the

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

squad, but did not play any matches in the tournament. He played his last match for Norway against Sweden on 4 February 2000. Nilsen was capped a total of 32 times, and scored three goals.

Coaching career

In 2006, he retired and took over as head coach for Stavanger IF, guiding the club to promotion to the second division. At the end of the season, Nilsen left the club to take up the assistant coach position at the Norwegian top-flight side Viking. After manager

Uwe Rösler Uwe Rösler (; born 15 November 1968) is a German football manager and former professional footballer. As a player he was a centre forward, notably playing in the Premier League for Manchester City, where he was the leading goalscorer for three ...

left in November 2009 he was briefly caretaker manager. He was downsized from his assistant job after the 2010 season. In 2014, he succeeded Odd-Karl Stangnes as manager of

IF Fløya Idrettsforeningen Fløya is a Norway, Norwegian football (soccer), football club from the city of Tromsø. The club was founded on 22 June 1922 and named after the Fløya mountain which overlooks Tromsø centre. The women's team has got two third ...

's women's team, combined with a teaching job at the Norwegian College of Elite Sports in Tromsø. In September 2018 Nilsen was sacked from his role managing

FK Vidar FK Vidar is an association football club from Stavanger, Norway. They currently play in the 3. divisjon, the fourth highest level in the Norwegian football league system. Club history The club was founded on 18 April 1906. FK Vidar played their ...

with the club 2nd bottom in the 2nd division.

Personal life

Roger Nilsen is the brother of the former player and coach

Steinar Nilsen Steinar Nilsen (born 1 May 1972) is a Norwegian football coach who has been in charge of Tromsø and Brann in the Norwegian Premier League. As a player, he played as a central defender at Tromsø and also had a notable stay in Italy's Serie A ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nilsen, Roger 1969 births Living people Sportspeople from Tromsø Norwegian footballers Norway international footballers Norway youth international footballers Norway under-21 international footballers Association football defenders Tromsø IL players Viking FK players 1. FC Köln players Sheffield United F.C. players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Grazer AK players Molde FK players Bryne FK players Eliteserien players Bundesliga players Premier League players 1994 FIFA World Cup players Kniksen Award winners Expatriate footballers in Germany Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Austria Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in England Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Austria Norwegian expatriate footballers Norwegian football managers Viking FK non-playing staff