Erik Johannessen (born 20 March 1952) is a Norwegian former

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

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

for

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 ...

between 1971 and 1983. He won the Norwegian league six times and earned six caps while playing 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 ...

. Johannessen has later been a part of Viking coaching-staff as a goalkeeping-coach.

Club career

Johannessen was born in

Stavanger Stavanger (, , American English, US usually , ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the fourth largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the a ...

and started his career in

in 1971, where he soon became

Sverre Andersen Sverre Andersen (9 October 1936 – 1 November 2016) was a Norwegian footballer. He made his debut for Viking FK in 1952 as a goalkeeper, and played his last game in 1971. He played a total of 482 games for Viking (262 in Norwegian league). Fo ...

's successor as the first-choice goalkeeper. Johannessen was a part of Viking's golden generation that won four consecutive Norwegian league championships between 1972 and 1975, and he was voted Viking-player of the year in both 1974 and 1975. Johannessen also kept a

clean sheet In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

for 672 minutes in the 1974 1. divisjon. As of the end of the 2012 season, this is still the record in the top league of Norway, with Kenneth Udjus 557 minutes from 2011 and 2012 as the second-longest clean sheet. Johannessen also won the league with Viking in

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

and

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...

, and is with his six championship the most-winning Viking-player of all times. His last match for Viking was the 2–9 loss against Brann in the last match of the 1983 season. He played 245 league-matches for

between 1971 and 1983, and with 501 matches for Viking, including friendlies, he is the Viking-player with third most appearances for the club, behind

Svein Kvia Svein "Kvien" Kvia (27 September 1947 – 2 February 2005) was a Norwegian footballer who spent his entire career at Viking F.K., where he was one of the club's most successful players of all time. Between 1965 and 1980, Kvia played 551 times for ...

and Sigbjørn Slinning.

International career

Johannessen played 11 matches for the Norway under-19 team between 1968 and 1970, before he played 8 matches for the under-21 team between 1972 and 1975. He made his debut for the senior team against

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

on 15 May 1975, and was capped a total of 6 times playing for Norway.

Coaching career

Johannessen was working as

Benny Lennartsson Benny Lennartsson is a Sweden, Swedish football (soccer), football coach, former football and bandy player. He has managed Örebro SK, Lyngby FC and Bristol City among others. Managerial career Viking In 1988, Lennartsson signed for Norway, Norw ...

's goalkeeping-coach at Viking in 1989 and 1990. He later worked as goalkeeping-coach at

Hinna Hinna is a borough of the city of Stavanger which lies in the southwestern part of the large municipality of Stavanger in Rogaland county, Norway. The borough includes the southernmost part of the city, bordering the city of Sandnes. The boro ...

before he was coaching Viking's youth-team. He was also working as a teacher at Kristianlyst Ungdomskole, but left this job when he replaced

Kurt Hegre Kurt is a male given name of Germanic or Turkish origin. ''Kurt'' or ''Curt'' originated as short forms of the Germanic Conrad, depending on geographical usage, with meanings including counselor or advisor. In Turkish, Kurt means "Wolf" and is ...

as Viking's goalkeeping-coach ahead of the 2007 season. He quit the job in the coaching staff after the 2010 season, and joined Viking's administrative staff before he returned to his teacher-job from 1 January 2012 and became Jørn Øvrebø's assistant coach at Hinna in the

3. divisjon The Norwegian Third Division, also called 3. divisjon, is the fourth highest division of the men's football league in Norway. Like the rest of the Norwegian football league system, the season runs from spring to autumn, running approximately from ...

Personal life

Johannessen had two daughters, Josefine and Martine, and was married to Brit Tone who died from cancer in 2011. Four days after his wife's burial, he got a large rift in the

aorta The aorta ( ) is the main and largest artery in the human body, originating from the left ventricle of the heart and extending down to the abdomen, where it splits into two smaller arteries (the common iliac arteries). The aorta distributes ...

. The doctors claimed he had a 50% chance of surviving, but Johannessen recovered after a ten-hour-long surgery at Haukeland Sykehus.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johannessen, Erik 1952 births Living people Footballers from Stavanger Norwegian men's footballers Norway men's international footballers Viking FK players Eliteserien players Viking FK non-playing staff Men's association football goalkeepers