Bjørn Borgen (22 September 1937 – 18 November 2015) was a Norwegian

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 le ...

who played for

Fredrikstad Fredrikstad (; previously ''Frederiksstad''; literally "Fredrik's Town") is a city and municipality in Viken county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Fredrikstad. The city of Fredrikstad was founded in 15 ...

and Lyn, as well as the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exam ...

, as a

right winger A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He later became a coach active in the lower leagues.

Early career

Born in

, Borgen began his career with local team Ørn Fjeldberg before joining

in 1948 at the age of 11, alongside Per Kristoffersen. He won the 1955 Norwegian Junior Cup with the team. He made his debut for the first-team the next year.

Debut with the Norway national team

By 1957 he was a first-team regular, and had also made his debut for the

. He suffered from behavioural problems in 1958, and eventually left the club in January 1959 to work in a clothes shop in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

and play for Lyn. He returned to Fredrikstad in October 1959, and in 1960 became the youngest Norwegian international to collect 25 caps. That same year he also turned down a professional contract offer from Italian club

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fo ...

Later career

Borgen spent a significant part of the 1962 season injured. He retired from playing in 1968, alongside Kristoffersen. With Fredrikstad he won the league championship three times, and also the national cup three times. He scored 6 goals in 35 senior international appearances for Norway, and also represented them at youth level. He later became a coach of lower-league teams, including

Rapid Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a ''cascade''. ...

Moss Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hor ...

, Trosvik and

Rolvsøy Rolvsøy is a village, an island, and a former municipality in Viken county, Norway. It was created by a split from Tune on 1 January 1911. At that time Rolvsøy had a population of 2,381. On 1 January 1994 Rolvsøy was incorporated into the mu ...

. He also played for Rolvsøy in a Cup match in 1972, against Fredrikstad.

Death and legacy

Borgen died on 18 November 2015 following a long illness. Kristoffersen subsequently described him as the best right winger Norway has ever produced.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Borgen, Bjorn 1937 births 2015 deaths Norwegian footballers Fredrikstad FK players Lyn Fotball players Eliteserien players Norwegian First Division players Men's association football wingers Norwegian football managers Footballers from Fredrikstad Norway men's international footballers