Steinar Nilsen (born 1 May 1972) is a Norwegian football

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

who has been in charge of

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 Brann in the

Norwegian Premier League 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 ...

. As a player, he played as a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

at Tromsø and also had a notable stay in Italy's

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Copp ...

and

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had been ...

, before retiring in 2004. He won two caps for Norway. He is the brother of Roger Nilsen.

Player career

Nilsen played for

between 1989 and 1997, before he was sold to A.C. Milan. Nilsen then moved on to

S.S.C. Napoli Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli, commonly referred to as Napoli (), is an Italian professional football club based in the city of Naples ( it, Napoli, nap, Napule), Campania that plays in Serie A, the top flight of Italian football. Napoli ha ...

, before returning to Tromsø in 2003.

Coaching career

Tromsø

After Per Mathias Høgmo resigned his job as head coach of Tromsø in 2005, Nilsen became assistant coach to Otto Ulseth, Høgmo's former assistant. A horrible start to Tromsø's season saw Ulseth fired and Nilsen promoted to head coach. This move was criticised by many Norwegian sports commentators, with some, especially

Ivar Hoff Ivar (Old Norse ''Ívarr'') is a Scandinavian masculine given name. Another variant of the name is Iver, which is more common in Norway. The Old Norse name has several possible etymologies. In North Germanic phonology, several of the elements c ...

, claiming it would assuredly mean Tromsø would be relegated. However, Nilsen turned Tromsø poor form around, and after a good run in the autumn-part of the season, the team avoided relegation. Nilsen also led Tromsø to a historic

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, cla ...

victory over

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club'') is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul in Turkey. Most notable for its association football department, the club also consists of various other dep ...

, making Tromsø the first Norwegian team (together with

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 ...

) to reach the UEFA Cup's group stage. At the end of the 2005-campaign, Nilsen stepped down from his position as head coach of Tromsø, despite urges from many fans for him to stay longer. In 2006, following another string of bad results, Tromsø's head coach

Ivar Morten Normark Ivar Morten Normark (born 27 May 1963, in Narvik) is a Norwegian football coach and former player. His most recent head coaching job was at FK Mjølner in the 2. divisjon. Normark resigned from this position at the end of the 2013 season. Normark ...

was fired and Nilsen once more stepped in as a replacement for the remainder of the season, in hopes that he could save Tromsø from relegation. Nilsen's effect was not as noticeable on the team this time, however, and with four matches left of the season Tromsø I.L. looked like they would almost certainly be relegated. However, a string of three consecutive wins at the end of season put Tromsø in 10th place, meaning Nilsen had once more saved Tromsø from relegation. In 2007, his first full season as Tromsø-manager, Nilsen led Tromsø to a comfortable 6th-place finish, just a few points shy of European qualification.

SK Brann

In November 2008 Nilsen signed a three-year contract with Brann, to become the successor of Mons Ivar Mjelde. Under his command, Brann finished 5th in the

2009 Tippeligaen The 2009 Tippeligaen was the 65th completed season of top division football in Norway. The competition began on 15 March and end on 1 November. Stabæk were the defending champions. Odd Grenland, Sandefjord and Start entered as the three promote ...

, a step up from an 8th place under Mjelde in 2008. On 21 May 2010 Nilsen's spell as head coach for Brann ended. He was relieved of his contract after a poor start to the season, including an early exit from the

Norwegian Cup The Norwegian Football Cup ( no, Norgesmesterskapet i fotball for herrer) is the main knockout cup competition in Norwegian football. It is run by the Football Association of Norway and has been contested since 1902, making it the oldest footbal ...

Pundit

Recently, Nilsen has worked as a

pundit A pundit is a person who offers mass media opinion or commentary on a particular subject area (most typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport). Origins The term originates from the Sanskrit term ('' '' ), meaning "knowledg ...

at the Norwegian broadcaster MAX. In August 2012, ''

Dagbladet ''Dagbladet'' (lit.: ''The Daily Magazine'') is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally ''Dagbladet'' is considered the main liberal newspa ...

'' named Nilsen a candidate for succeeding

Per-Mathias Høgmo Per-Mathias Høgmo (born 1 December 1959) is a football manager from Norway and former player. He is the former manager of the Norway national football team. He has previously been head coach of Norway women's national football team and the Tippel ...

at Tromsø after the 2012 season.

Tromsø

On 16 September 2013 he was signed as Agnar Christensen's assistant coach at Tromsø, but on 1 October he was promoted to head coach when Christensen was sacked, with Nilsen's old teammate

Sigurd Rushfeldt Sigurd Rushfeldt (born 11 December 1972) is a Norwegian football coach and former player who works as an assistant coach for Tromsø. During his playing career, he played for Tromsø, Birmingham City, Rosenborg, Racing de Santander, and Austri ...

becoming the new assistant coach. In December 2013, Tromsø announced that Nilsen had signed a three-year contract as head coach of the club, with a clear ambition of promotion back to Tippeligaen after the 2014 season. And he did, but he lost his job again on 18 August 2015 for reasons undisclosed by the management.Mads Wedervang,
– Dette kommer som lyn og torden fra klar himmel
' fra nyhetskanalen TV2.no den 18. august 2015.

References

External links

*
Nilsen profile
at www.til.no
Nilsen profile
at Norwegian FA {{DEFAULTSORT:Nilsen, Steinar 1972 births Living people Sportspeople from Tromsø Norwegian footballers Norway under-21 international footballers Norway international footballers Tromsø IL players A.C. Milan players S.S.C. Napoli players Eliteserien players Serie A players Serie B players Norwegian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Italy Norwegian football managers Tromsø IL managers SK Brann managers Association football defenders