Espen Hægeland (born 27 September 1981) is 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 as a winger for

Bryne Bryne () is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town in Time, Norway, Time municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The city is the administrative centre of the municipality of Time and it is also List of urban areas in Norway by population, o ...

Mandalskameratene FK Mandalskameratene is a Norwegian football club, from the town of Mandal in Vest-Agder, currently playing in the 3. divisjon. The club was founded on 1 July 1912, under the name of 'Alladin'. In 1918 the club changed its name to 'Mandalskamerat ...

and

Sandnes Ulf Sandnes Ulf is a Norwegian association football club from Sandnes, Rogaland, currently playing in the 1. divisjon, the second highest division in the Norwegian football league system. The club play their home matches at Øster Hus Arena. The clu ...

in the

Norwegian First Division The Norwegian First Division, also called 1. divisjon and OBOS-ligaen (named sponsor is property developer OBOS), is the second-highest level of the Norwegian football league system. Each year, the top finishing teams in the 1. divisjon are p ...

. He has later been

player-coach A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

Hana Hana or HANA may refer to: Places Europe * Haná, an ethnic region in Moravia, Czech Republic * Traianoupoli, Greece, called Hana during the Ottoman period * Hana, Norway, a borough in the city of Sandnes, Norway West Asia * Hana, Iran, a city ...

and assistant player-coach at Mandalskameratene and

Lyngdal is a municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Lister. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Alleen. Some of the main villages in Lyngdal include Austad, Byremo, Fleseland, Hæ� ...

Career

Hægeland was born in

, and started his career in the local club

Lyngdal IL Lyngdal Idrettslag is a local sports club from Lyngdal. It is the youth club of Ingvild Stensland, former captain of the Norway women's national football team. Lyngdal Idrettslag takes part in football, handball, volleyball, basketball, orient ...

. He scored 25 goals in 22 matches for Lyngdal in the Third Division in the 2004 season and was invited on a trial with

ahead of the 2005 season, but was not offered a contract with the club and joined

instead. Hægeland, who worked as a carpenter while playing for Bryne, scored nine goals in his first eight matches in the First Division including two goals in the 5–1 victory against

Skeid Skeid is a Norwegian alliance sports club from Nordre Åsen, Oslo. It has sections for association football (one for elite and one for grassroots football), Nordic skiing and bandy. General history The club was founded as ''IK Skeid'' on 5 De ...

on 6 June 2005 and a hat-trick when Bryne won 4–0 against Løv-Ham two weeks later. After 12 matches of the season, Bryne were leading the First Division and Hægeland only had

Daniel Nannskog Daniel Paul Gustav Nannskog (born 22 May 1974) is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a striker for Högaborg, Malmö FF, Djurgården, Assyriska, Sylvia, Landskrona BoIS, Sichuan Guancheng and Stabæk IF, as well as for th ...

ahead of him on the goal-scoring list. The Bryne-team struggled with their offensive play during the second half of the season, and after Tommy Bergersen and

André Danielsen André Saltvold Danielsen (born 20 January 1985) is a Norwegian former footballer who played as a right-back or central midfielder. Club career Born in Stavanger, Danielsen started his career with Stavanger IF before joining Viking in 2003. In t ...

was transferred to Bryne during the summer, Hægeland lost his place in the first-team. He scored 11 goals in the 2005 season, and finished 10th in the top goalscorer list. Hægeland was sent on loan to Mandalskameratene half-way through the 2006 season, and joined the club permanently on a three-year contract ahead of the 2007 season. He was one of Mandalskameratene's best players in 2007, and scored 11 goals in 30 matches when the team was relegated from the First Division. After the season, he was wanted by seven clubs, and stated that he wanted to play for a club in

Rogaland Rogaland () is a Counties of Norway, county in Western Norway, bordering the North Sea to the west and the counties of Vestland to the north, Vestfold og Telemark to the east and Agder to the east and southeast. In 2020, it had a population of 47 ...

as he was building a house in

. Hægeland played for

Randaberg Randaberg is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Jæren, at the northern end of the Stavanger Peninsula. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Randaberg. Randaberg ...

during the first half of the 2008 season, before he transferred to

in July 2008. He scored five goals in 14 matches for Sandnes Ulf in the First Division in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

. After the 2009 season he joined the Third Division side

Hana IL Hana Idrettslag is a Norwegian sports club from Sandnes, Rogaland. It has sections for association football, team handball and volleyball. It was established in 1976, and the club colors are yellow and blue. The men's football team currently pl ...

as a

, but left the club after only one season and returned to Mandalskameratene where he became playing assistant coach. Following Peer Danefeld's resignation as head coach of Mandalskameratene, Hægeland was temporarily working as head coach during the pre-season in 2011, but stated that he didn't want that position permanently. After rejoining Lyngdal, he scored more than 50 goals for the team in the Fourth Division during the 2012 season. Ahead of the 2013 season he became playing assistant coach of Lyngdal.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Haegeland, Espen 1981 births Living people People from Lyngdal Norwegian men's footballers Bryne FK players FK Mandalskameratene players Randaberg IL players Sandnes Ulf players Norwegian First Division players Norwegian football managers Men's association football wingers Footballers from Agder