Erik Stensrud Pedersen (born 11 October 1967) is a former

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

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 as left back. Pedersen spent most of his career in Norway, but had a spell in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

with

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dundee. The club name is usually abbreviated to Dundee United. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1 ...

Playing career

Pedersen played youth football for

Storms A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere of an astronomical body. It may be marked by significant disruptions to normal conditions such as strong wind, tornadoes, hail, thunder and lightning (a thunderstorm), ...

and Eidanger before joining

Odds Odds provide a measure of the likelihood of a particular outcome. They are calculated as the ratio of the number of events that produce that outcome to the number that do not. Odds are commonly used in gambling and statistics. Odds also have ...

in 1984. He moved to

Tromsø Tromsø (, , ; se, Romsa ; fkv, Tromssa; sv, Tromsö) is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Tromsø (city), city of Tromsø. Tromsø lies ...

in 1988 and then

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 se ...

in 1991. He made ten appearances 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 ...

between 1990 and 1992 and won the

1991 Tippeligaen The 1991 Tippeligaen was the 47th completed season of top division football in Norway. 22 game-weeks were played with 3 points given for wins and 1 for draws. Number eleven and twelve are relegated. The winners of the two groups of the 1. divis ...

with Viking, but his career began to be disrupted by injuries. Pedersen rejoined Odds (now known as Odd Grenland) for a year in 1994 before returning to Viking. On 26 October 1996, Pedersen appeared as a trialist for

in a

Scottish Premier Division The Scottish Football League Premier Division was, from 1975 until 1998, the top division of the Scottish Football League and the entire Scottish football league system. It lay above the Scottish Football League First, Second and (from 1994) Th ...

match against Hearts, subsequently signing a contract with the club. He quickly became a cult hero with United supporters, playing in all but one of the remaining fixtures of the 1996-97 season and helping the club to a third-placed finish in the league. In November 1997, Pedersen collected a runners-up medal in the

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existen ...

when he played in Dundee United's 3-0 final defeat against

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

. After an injury-hit third season in Scotland, during which he made only eight appearances, he left United when his contract expired. Although Pedersen's time in Scotland was relatively short, his popularity was such that he was inducted into the Dundee United Hall of Fame in 2011. His own affection for United is demonstrated by a tattoo of the club badge. Returning to Norway in 1999, Pedersen joined Odd Grenland for a third time. He won his second major trophy with them in 2000 when Odd defeated Viking 2-1 in the Norwegian Cup final. When he was not offered a new contract by Odd for 2002, he joined

Pors Grenland Pors Fotball is a Norwegian football club from Porsgrunn, currently playing in the 3. divisjon. Pors plays in blue jerseys, and their home ground is Pors Stadion. Notable former players include Jan Halvor Halvorsen and Erik Pedersen. History ...

, playing for their first team until 2005.

Honours

Club

;

: *

Tippeligaen 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 promotion ...

: 1991 ;

Odd Grenland Odd means unpaired, occasional, strange or unusual, or a person who is viewed as eccentric. Odd may also refer to: Acronym * ODD (Text Encoding Initiative) ("One Document Does it all"), an abstracted literate-programming format for describing X ...

: *

Norwegian Football 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 football ...

: 2000

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pedersen, Erik 1967 births Living people Norwegian footballers Norway international footballers Odds BK players Tromsø IL players Viking FK players Dundee United F.C. players Pors Fotball players Sportspeople from Porsgrunn Expatriate footballers in Scotland Norwegian expatriate footballers Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Eliteserien players Norwegian First Division players Scottish Premier League players Scottish Football League players Association football fullbacks