Håvard Nielsen (born 15 July 1993) is a Norwegian 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 plays as a forward for

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

club Hannover 96. He represented the Norway national team.

Club career

Born in the Norwegian capital,

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 ...

, Nielsen grew up in the outer-city neighborhood of Oppsal. He began his career with the local club

Oppsal IF Oppsal IF is a multi-sports club from Oslo, Norway. The women's handball team currently competes in Rema 1000-ligaen. The men's football team currently competes in the 2. divisjon, the third tier of the Norwegian football league system. Wome ...

, but signed for

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 2007, when he was 14 years old. On 5 October 2009, he made his debut 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 ...

against

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 ...

as the youngest ever Vålerenga player. In January 2011, he signed a three-year professional contract with Vålerenga. At the age of 18, Nielsen was already an experienced player and on 11 July 2012, he scored his first hat-trick for Vålerenga in the match against

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 ...

. In July 2012, he signed a deal with Red Bull Salzburg. In January 2014, he went on loan to the German

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

side Eintracht Braunschweig. On 26 January 2014 he made his debut in the German first tier, in a game against

Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen (), Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen, Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, they are best known for the ...

. The loan deal ended in June 2015 when he returned to Salzburg. In winter 2015 Nielsen moved to

SC Freiburg Sport-Club Freiburg e.V., commonly known as SC Freiburg () or just Freiburg, is a German football club, based in the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg. It plays in the Bundesliga, having been promoted as champions from the 2. Bund ...

. In July 2017, after 1.5 seasons at Freiburg, Nielsen signed a three-year contract with

side

Fortuna Düsseldorf Düsseldorfer Turn- und Sportverein Fortuna 1895 e.V., commonly known as Fortuna Düsseldorf (), is a German football club in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, which competes in the 2. Bundesliga. Founded in 1895, Fortuna entered the league ...

. He was loaned to

MSV Duisburg Meidericher Spielverein 02 e. V. Duisburg, commonly known as simply MSV Duisburg (), is a German association football club based in Duisburg, North Rhine-Westphalia. Nicknamed ''Die Zebras'' for their traditional striped jerseys, the club was on ...

on 8 January 2019. On 26 July 2019, Nielsen joined

side Greuther Fürth, signing a two-year contract. Ahead of the 2022–23 season, Nielsen joined 2. Bundesliga club Hannover 96 on a two-year contract.

International career

Nielsen has played for a national team above his age since he was 16. He played all matches during the 2011 European Under-19 Championship qualification and scored one goal, when

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 ...

advanced to the elite qualification. Nielsen made his debut for the senior Norwegian national team in 2012 as a teenager and since then he has played 11 times for the Norway national team and he is now a regular for Norway. He scored his first international goal for Norway at only 19 years of age, in November 2012, against Hungary in a friendly match. He scored his second goal for Norway in October 2014, in a European Championship qualifier against Bulgaria.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Norway's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Nielsen goal.''

References

External links

*
Profile
at VIF-Fotball.no Living people 1993 births Footballers from Oslo Association football forwards Norwegian footballers Norway international footballers Norway under-21 international footballers Norway youth international footballers Vålerenga Fotball players FC Red Bull Salzburg players Eintracht Braunschweig players SC Freiburg players Fortuna Düsseldorf players MSV Duisburg players SpVgg Greuther Fürth players Hannover 96 players Eliteserien players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Norwegian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Austria Expatriate footballers in Germany Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Austria Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Germany {{Norway-footy-forward-stub