Geirmund "Geddi" Brendesæter (born 22 March 1970) is a Norwegian former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

defender.

Club career

Brendesæter played 13 seasons for Brann. His debut was on 1 June 1991, and he played his last match against

Vålerenga Vålerenga () is a neighbourhood in the city of Oslo, Norway, belonging to the borough of Gamle Oslo. Vålerenga is located between the neighbourhoods of Gamlebyen, Jordal, Ensjø, Etterstad and Lodalen. Vålerenga is in particular known for it ...

in the last match of the season 2003. He played mostly as a right defender. During this period he also played 13 matches for the German team

Arminia Bielefeld DSC Arminia Bielefeld (; full name: ; commonly known as Arminia Bielefeld (), also known as ''Die Arminen'' or ''Die Blauen'' ), or just Arminia (), is a German sports club from Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. Arminia offers the sports of ...

in 1997, but returned to Brann to play the last half of the season. Brendesæter played in total 336 matches for Brann, but scored only seven goals. In the 2001 season, he went to the media and asked the supporters if he should retire or not. The voting ended with 3525 votes to continue, and 3429 votes to retire. Eventually Brendesæter signed a new contract. In his last match for Brann, he was put on as a substitute a few minutes before the end, the crowd going wild as he entered the pitch. He was placed as a striker, the position which he had played in as a junior player, but had never been used in for Brann.

Cult status

Brendesæther, more commonly known as "Geddi", has been subject to a certain degree of idolizing by the supporters of

SK Brann Sportsklubben Brann (commonly known as Brann, and less often as SK Brann) is a Norwegian professional football club, founded 26 September 1908, from Bergen. Brann had been in the Eliteserien, Norway's Premier Division of Football, since 1987, bar ...

. This is due to his fierce loyalty to the club, alongside his blazing right-flank raids. According to former Brann captain and

Aberdeen F.C. Aberdeen Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in Aberdeen, Scotland. They compete in the Scottish Premiership and have never been relegated from the top division of the Scottish football league system since they were ...

left-back

Cato Guntveit Cato Guntveit is a retired Norwegian footballer who played for SK Brann the most of his career. He was the captain of Brann from 2004 until Brann coach Mons Ivar Mjelde decided Martin Andresen should take over the captaincy prior to the 2006 seas ...

, the young Brendesæther consistently used to do the tunnel dribble on his opponents while setting the

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 ...

alight with his firework displays and trademark haircut.

International career

Brendesæther also made six appearances for Norwegian national team between 1993 and 1995.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brendesaeter, Geirmund Living people 1970 births People from Stord Association football fullbacks Norwegian footballers Norway international footballers SK Brann players Arminia Bielefeld players Bremnes IL players Bundesliga players Expatriate footballers in Germany Norwegian expatriate footballers Sportspeople from Vestland