Gunnar Halle (born 11 August 1965) is a Norwegian

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 ...

manager and former player who played as a

right back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. He is the current head coach of

Hønefoss __NOTOC__ Hønefoss is a town and the administrative center of the municipality of Ringerike in Buskerud county, Norway. Hønefoss is an industrial center of inner Østlandet, containing several factories and other industry. As of 1 January 2008, ...

. Halle is best known for his playing spells at Oldham Athletic and Leeds United, followed by his brief managerial spell at Lyn Oslo. Halle played professionally in England and for the Norwegian national team. In total he was capped 64 times and scored five international goals, including a memorable hat-trick against

San Marino San Marino (, ), officially the Republic of San Marino ( it, Repubblica di San Marino; ), also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino ( it, Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino, links=no), is the fifth-smallest country in the world an ...

, and was included in the squads for the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States ...

and

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

Playing career

Born in

Larvik Larvik () is a List of cities in Norway, town and Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestfold in Vestfold og Telemark Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Larvik. The municipality ...

, Halle started his youth career in local club Nesjar. Halle started his Norwegian Premier League career in

Lillestrøm Lillestrøm is a municipality in Viken county. It is located in the traditional district of Romerike. With a population of 85,757 inhabitants, it is the fourth most populated municipality in Viken. It was founded on 1 January 2020 as a merger be ...

in 1985 when he joined from

Larvik Turn Larvik Turn & Idrettsforening is a Norwegian sports club that does football, handball, athletics, wrestling, and gymnastics. The club was founded as early as 1865, and has been playing football since 1906. The football team was at its best durin ...

. He quickly became a team regular, and helped win the league titles in

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

and

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

. In the spring of 1991 he was sold to Oldham Athletic for £280,000, where he played over 200 matches and is regarded as one of the club's finest players during their Premiership days. He remains Oldham's most capped player, playing 25 times for Norway in his time there. Halle joined Leeds United for £500,000 in the winter of 1996, where he competed with Gary Kelly for the club's regular right back spot. Halle had a successful time at Leeds under the management of George Graham and latterly David O'Leary. He spent three seasons at the club. In his final season, Halle helped Leeds finish fourth in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

during the 1998–99 season and qualify for the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

competition. However, in the summer of 1999, Leeds signed future England right back Danny Mills and Halle joined newly promoted local rivals

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. Th ...

for £200k. He spent a further three seasons at

, scoring twice against Darlington in the League Cup and Portsmouth in the league. A brief spell with

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

concluded his stay in England. He returned to Norway with Lillestrøm in the summer of 2002. Halle played one and a half seasons for Lillestrøm.

International career

In 1987 Halle made his debut for the Norwegian national team. He represented Norway in both the

and

's. In total he was capped 64 times for Norway and scored five international goals, including a memorable hat-trick against

Coaching career

Halle rounding off his playing career and began his coaching career as player-coach for Norwegian Third Division side Aurskog/Finstadbru in the 2004 season. In the

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

and

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

seasons Halle worked as the Lillestrøm assistant coach, but was sacked on 13 November 2006 along with head coach

Uwe Rösler Uwe Rösler (; born 15 November 1968) is a German football manager and former professional footballer. As a player he was a centre forward, notably playing in the Premier League for Manchester City, where he was the leading goalscorer for three ...

. The pair were soon hired to coach

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 December 2008, he moved to

Lyn Ubisoft Montpellier is a French video game developer and a studio of Ubisoft based in Castelnau-le-Lez. Founded in 1994 as Ubi Pictures, it is best known for developing the ''Rayman'' and ''Beyond Good & Evil'' series. At 350 employees as of Se ...

as assistant manager. In August 2009 he stepped up to manager following the termination of Kent Bergersen's contract. The club was relegated to First Division after the 2009 season and changed its name to ''FK Lyn'' before the 2010 season. On 30 June 2010 the club declared bankruptcy after several years of financial difficulty, forcing them to forfeit from the league. On 30 August 2010, he was named the new assistant coach of

Molde FK Molde Fotballklubb () is a professional football club based in Molde, Norway, that competes in Eliteserien, the top flight of Norwegian football. Founded on 19 June 1911, the club was originally known as International and changed its name to ...

, again under Rösler. The duo coached Molde throughout the season. In February 2012, Halle was named as the new assistant coach of the Norway women's national football team under

Eli Landsem Eli Landsem (born 22 March 1962) is a Norwegian former international footballer who was the coach of the Norway women's national football team between 2009 and 2012. Career As a player, Landsem won 15 caps for Norway, scoring one goal. She made ...

. In 2013, he moved to Strømmen IF. Since 2015 he has been manager of various Norwegian FA youth teams from under 15s to under 19s. In December 2022, he was appointed head coach of

Honours

;Lillestrøm SK * Norwegian Premier League Champions:

* Norwegian Premier League Runners Up:

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

* Norwegian Football Cup Winners:

* Norwegian Football Cup Runners Up:

;Oldham Athletic * English Second Division Champions: 1990–91 * English FA Cup Semi Finalists: 1993–94

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Halle, Gunnar 1965 births Living people Sportspeople from Larvik Footballers from Vestfold og Telemark Norwegian men's footballers Norway men's international footballers Larvik Turn players Lillestrøm SK players Oldham Athletic A.F.C. players Leeds United F.C. players Bradford City A.F.C. players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players 1994 FIFA World Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players Eliteserien players English Football League players Premier League players Norwegian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in England Norwegian football managers Lyn Fotball managers Men's association football defenders Strømmen IF managers