Thorstein Helstad (born 28 April 1977) is a Norwegian former professional footballer who played as a forward.

Career

Helstad was born in Hamar, and started his career in his local club

FL Fart Fotballaget Fart is a Norwegian football club based in Vang outside Hamar. The club is most noted for their women's team which played in Toppserien in 2008, 2012 and 2019. Their home matches are played at Fartbana. Norway international footballe ...

where he at age 16 scored two goals against Løten in 1993 that made the team win promotion to 3. divisjon. He transferred to the local Norwegian First Division side HamKam, at the age of 18, and played for the club between 1995 and 1997. Helstad joined the Tippeligaen side Brann ahead of the 1998 season. He became one of the biggest stars in the team, and was Tippeliga top scorer in both

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

and

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

and won the Kniksen Award as the best striker in 2000. Helstad was sold to

Austria Wien Fußballklub Austria Wien AG (; known in English as Austria Vienna, and usually shortened to Austria (German: Österreich) in German-speaking countries, is an Austrian association football club from the capital city of Vienna. It has won the mos ...

alongside

Raymond Kvisvik Raymond Kvisvik (born 8 November 1974) is a Norwegian former professional association football, footballer who played as a winger (association football), winger. He is most noted for his spells at SK Brann, Brann, but he did also play for Moss F ...

, where he won both the

Austrian Bundesliga The Austrian Football Bundesliga (german: Österreichische Fußball-Bundesliga, italic=no , "Austrian Football Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Austrian football league system. Th ...

, the

Austrian Cup The Austrian Cup (german: ÖFB-Cup), known as UNIQA ÖFB Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual football competition held by the Austrian Football Association, the ÖFB. During the 2008–09 season, Austria Wien won the tournament for 27th t ...

and the

Austrian Supercup The Austrian Supercup (German: ÖFB-Supercup) was a Association football, football competition held annually from 1986 until 2004 between the winners of the Austrian Football Bundesliga and the Austrian Cup. 19 editions were played during the sho ...

. After scoring 14 goals in 69 matches for the Austrian side, Helstad returned to Norway where he signed a four-year deal with Rosenborg. With

Steffen Iversen Steffen Iversen (born 10 November 1976) is a Norwegian footballer who is player-manager for Norwegian 4th division side Trygg/Lade as a striker. He is the son of former Norway international Odd Iversen, one of Norway's most prolific goalscorers ...

as the preferred striker, Helstad never managed to gain a regular spot in the first squad, but was often used a winger in a 4–3–3 system. After scoring 24 goals in 58 matches, Helstad returned to Brann in June 2006. Since he transferred in the middle of the season he won both gold with Rosenborg and silver with Brann. In July 2008, Brann accepted a €2 million bid for Helstad from French club

Le Mans Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Man ...

, where he was installed as their starting striker. Helstad scored 21 goals in

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

. In June 2011, Helstad made a free transfer move to recently relegated and former Champions League finalist Monaco. He announced his retirement from playing in April 2014.

Career statistics

Club

International goals

:''Scores and results list Norway's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Helstad goal.''

Honours

Austria Wien *

: 2002–03 *

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

Rosenborg * Tippeligaen:

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

Brann *Tippeligaen:

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

Individual * Tippeligaen top scorer:

* Kniksen Award Attacker of the Year:

* Norwegian Football Association Gold Watch

References

External links

Helstad profile
at Norwegian FA {{DEFAULTSORT:Helstad, Thorstein 1977 births Living people Sportspeople from Hamar Norwegian footballers Norway international footballers Norway under-21 international footballers FL Fart players Hamarkameratene players FK Austria Wien players Rosenborg BK players SK Brann players Le Mans FC players Lillestrøm SK players Expatriate footballers in Austria Expatriate footballers in France Expatriate footballers in Monaco Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Eliteserien players Norwegian First Division players Kniksen Award winners Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Austria Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in France Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Monaco Norwegian expatriate footballers Association football forwards