Harald Martin Brattbakk (born 1 February 1971) is a Norwegian former professional

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 as a striker. He was the all-time top scorer in the

Norwegian top division 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 ...

with 166 goals in 255 matches, before being surpassed by

Sigurd Rushfeldt Sigurd Rushfeldt (born 11 December 1972) is a Norwegian football coach and former player who works as an assistant coach for Tromsø. During his playing career, he played for Tromsø, Birmingham City, Rosenborg, Racing de Santander, and Austria ...

in 2011. After his retirement from playing he became a

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

Club career

Brattbakk was born in

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

. He has played for Kolstad, Rosenborg BK,

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

F.C. Copenhagen Football Club Copenhagen ( da, Football Club København, ), commonly known as FC København, FC Copenhagen, Copenhagen or simply FCK, is a professional Danish football club in Copenhagen, Denmark. FCK was founded in 1992 as a superstructure on ...

and Bodø/Glimt (loan). Brattbakk is most known for his goalscoring abilities for the Norwegian club Rosenborg BK where he has enjoyed three spells (1990–91, 1994–97 and 2001–06) scoring most of his goals which has helped him reach the top of the all-time goalscoring chart 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 ...

. At Celtic, where he played from December 1997 to January 2000, Brattbakk seemed overawed by the pressures of playing for one of Scotland's

Old Firm The Old Firm is the collective name for the Scottish football clubs Celtic and Rangers, which are both based in Glasgow. The two clubs are by far the most successful and popular in Scotland, and the rivalry between them has become deeply em ...

clubs. Though he did enjoy some success with the club — including hitting the clinching goal against St Johnstone to help them win the

SPL SPL may refer to: Association football * Saudi Professional League * Scottish Premier League * SportPesa Premier League, Kenya * Singapore Premier League * RoboCup Standard Platform League, matches between autonomous robots Computing Program ...

title on the final day of the 1997–1998 season, and scoring all four goals in a 4–0 win over Kilmarnock that same year — his spell in Glasgow was generally characterised by nervous performances and insufficient goals. However, Brattbakk has been very successful in Norway. With 166 goals he was the highest-scoring player in the history of the

, until his record was beat by

on 29 May 2011. Moreover, his record in the Champions League is an impressive one, and includes goals against such top sides as Real Madrid and

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

. He scored 28 goals in 66 matches for Rosenborg BK and scored 4 goals in 9 matches for Celtic in various European Cups. In November 2001, he scored twice against his old club Celtic as Rosenborg defeated them 2–0 in a Champions League tie in Trondheim. Brattbakk returned to Rosenborg after being on a loan to Bodø/Glimt in the last half of the 2005 season, but on 20 February 2006 it was announced that he had been relieved from his contract and he has now retired from the game. In 2008 Brattbakk made a comeback in football after signing a contract with his native Kolstad-Fotball, an amateur club in the Norwegian 3rd Division Dep. 19. However, the comeback lasted only for the rest of the 2008 season.

International career

Brattbakk made his debut 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 the ...

in a February 1995 friendly match against

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

in which he scored two goals. He went on to play seventeen times for his country, scoring five goals.

Retirement

On 21 November 2006, Brattbakk announced on the Norwegian television channel TV3 that he intended to become an airline pilot after his retirement from professional football. He trained as a pilot in Florida at Phoenix East Aviation, Inc. and got his commercial aircraft certification in 2008. Until 2010 he flew for the aircraft company

Helitrans Helitrans is a Norwegian helicopter and maintenance company based at Trondheim Airport, Værnes established in 1990. The airline also has bases in Lillestrøm Kjeller Airport, Ås (kommune), Mo i Rana Airport, Røssvoll, Narvik, Langnes Airpo ...

, based at

Trondheim Airport, Værnes Trondheim Airport ( no, Trondheim lufthavn; ) is an international airport serving Trondheim, a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The airport is located in Værnes, a village in the municipality of Stjørdal in Trøndelag ...

. This included missions for

Norwegian Coast Guard The Norwegian Coast Guard ( no, Kystvakten) is a maritime military force which is part of the Royal Norwegian Navy. The coast guard's responsibility are for fisheries inspection, customs enforcement, border control, law enforcement, shipping ...

. From 2010 he has been working as a pilot for

Norwegian Air Shuttle Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA, trading as Norwegian, is a Norwegian low-cost airline and Norway's largest airline. It is the fourth largest low-cost carrier in Europe behind Wizz Air, easyJet and Ryanair, the second-largest airline in Scandinavia ...

Personal life

His son

Filip Brattbakk Filip Brattbakk (born 24 April 2000) is a Norwegian footballer who plays as a winger for Raufoss. Born in Denmark, he has played for the Norway U17 national team internationally. Career Filip Brattbakk joined Rosenborg ahead of 2015 from loca ...

plays for Rosenborg.

Career statistics

Honours

Bodø/Glimt *

Norwegian Cup The Norwegian Football Cup ( no, Norgesmesterskapet i fotball for herrer) is the main knockout cup competition in Norwegian football. It is run by the Football Association of Norway and has been contested since 1902, making it the oldest football ...

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

Rosenborg *

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 ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

, 1996,

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 *

, 2003 Celtic *

Scottish Premier Division The Scottish Football League Premier Division was, from 1975 until 1998, the top division of the Scottish Football League and the entire Scottish football league system. It lay above the Scottish Football League First, Second and (from 1994) ...

: 1997–98 Copenhagen *

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga ( da, Superligaen, ) is the current Danish football championship tournament, and administered by the Danish Football Association. It is the highest football league in Denmark and is currently contested by 12 teams each ye ...

: 2000–01 Individual * Tippeligaen top scorer: 1994, 1995, 1996, 2002, 2003 *

Kniksen Award The Kniksen Award ( no, Kniksenprisen), established in 1990, honors the best players in the Norwegian football premiership. The award is named after the legendary Norwegian football player Roald Jensen, nicknamed "Kniksen". Categories Catego ...

Striker of the Year:

, 2003

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brattbakk, Harald Martin 1971 births Living people Footballers from Trondheim Norwegian aviators Norwegian footballers Norway international footballers Rosenborg BK players FK Bodø/Glimt players Celtic F.C. players F.C. Copenhagen players Danish Superliga players Eliteserien players Norwegian First Division players Scottish Football League players Scottish Premier League players Kniksen Award winners Norwegian expatriate footballers Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Expatriate footballers in Denmark Expatriate footballers in Scotland Association football forwards Commercial aviators