Hallvar Thoresen (born 12 April 1957) 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 ...

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 ...

who played most of his career in the Dutch

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

. The son of former Norwegian international Gunnar Thoresen, Hallvar Thoresen was central in 1980s Norwegian football.

Career

Club

Thoresen started his career in

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 ...

, but travelled abroad at the age of nineteen, and soon became a regular at

FC Twente Football Club Twente () is a Dutch professional football club from the city of Enschede, sometimes known internationally as Twente Enschede. The club was formed in 1965 by the merger of 1926 Dutch champions Sportclub Enschede with Enschedese ...

in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. They won the

Dutch Cup The KNVB Beker (; en, KNVB Cup), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organized by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Ou ...

in 1977 and Thoreson was the club top-scorer in the 1979–80 and 1980–81 seasons. In the summer of 1981 he was sold to

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; en, Philips Sports Association ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional football department, w ...

for 1.3 million Dutch guilder where he formed a dynamic partnership with

Jurrie Koolhof Jurjen Jacob (Jurrie) Koolhof (10 January 1960 – 28 January 2019) was a Dutch international football striker and manager. As a player, Koolhof had a long and productive career, with 190 league goals. He played for a number of clubs in the Ne ...

. Helping capturing three league titles, Thoresen was a key player for seven years, serving as captain from 1983 to 1986, until he returned to Norway and played for

Frigg Frigg (; Old Norse: ) is a goddess, one of the Æsir, in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about her, she is associated with marriage, prophecy, clairvoyance and motherhood, and dwells in the wet ...

in the lower divisions. Troubled by an injury, he was forced to retire from his playing career shortly thereafter. With 152 goals Thoresen is the all-time leading foreign goalscorer in the

International

He played 50 matches for the Norway national football team, and scored 9 goals, one of which secured the historic victory over

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1981. Thoresen is among the six Norwegian internationals who have never played in the

Norwegian Premier League 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 ...

Managerial

He did assume the coaching position at Frigg, later moving on to coach larger clubs like Brann, Strømsgodset,

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 ...

, Skeid, and

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 ...

(assistant). He is currently in charge of the Norway U21.

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 ...

announced on 30 October 2006 that Thoresen had agreed to take over as the club's Director of Football. Thoresen was the chief scout for Rosenborg BK from 2016 until 2019. He is a supporter of Arsenal, to the point where he opened a pub in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...

, Norway called Highbury.

Acting

Thoresen played the role of Norwegian football player and Allied POW Gunnar Hilsson in the movie ''

Escape to Victory ''Escape to Victory'' (stylized as ''Victory'') is a 1981 American-British-Italian sports war film directed by John Huston and starring Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine, Max von Sydow and Pelé. The film is about Allied prisoners of wa ...

'' (1981).

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Thoresen, Hallvar 1957 births Living people Norwegian footballers Norway international footballers Norwegian football managers PSV Eindhoven players FC Twente players Eredivisie players Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Norwegian expatriate footballers Larvik Turn players Frigg Oslo FK players People from Larvik SK Brann managers Strømsgodset Toppfotball managers Skeid Fotball managers Association football midfielders Sportspeople from Vestfold og Telemark