Ivar Rønningen (born 13 February 1975) is a

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 the ...

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 le ...

who played as a goalkeeper 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 ...

, Brann, Rosenborg and

HamKam Hamarkameratene (literally ''the Hamar Comrades''), often abbreviated to HamKam or Ham-Kam, is a Norwegian football club based in the town of Hamar. The club was founded in 1918, originally under the name Freidig. HamKam were most recently pro ...

. He also spent time on loan with

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands County, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east ...

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 ...

. After playing professional football for almost 20 years, Rønningen retired after the 2012-season, and joined HamKam as a goalkeeper coach.

Career

Early years

Rønningen was born in

Lunner Lunner is a municipality in Viken county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Hadeland. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Roa. Lunner was established when it was separated from the municipality of Jevnake ...

and played for the local club

Lunner IL Lunner Idrettslag is a Norwegian sports club from Lunner, Oppland. It currently only has a section for team handball. The club is best known for its women's handball team. It played in the highest Norwegian league for many years, and became runn ...

until he joined

in 1994. He made his debut for Vålerenga in the 1997 Norwegian Football Cup match against Brann, and became the first goalkeeper to score a goal in an official match, when he scored from the penalty spot in the 6–0 victory against Eik-Tønsberg. Rønningen did not get many chances for Vålerenga, and in the spring of 1999 he was loaned out to English club

. When Rønningen returned to Norway, the only club who wanted to get Rønningen on loan was the

Norwegian Third Division The Norwegian Third Division, also called 3. divisjon, is the fourth highest division of the men's football league in Norway. Like the rest of the Norwegian football league system, the season runs from spring to autumn, running approximately from ...

side Grindvoll.

needed a goalkeeper-reserve in the fall of 1999, and Thodesen tipped the club that Rønningen was available for loan.

Brann

After Thodesen was hired as

Teitur Thordarson Teitur Thordarson ( is, Teitur Þórðarson, born 14 January 1952) is an Icelandic football coach. He is the older brother of Ólafur Þórðarson. Playing career Club Íþróttabandalag Akraness Before coaching, Teitur playing as a striker fo ...

's assistant in Brann ahead of the 2000 season, he brought Rønningen to the club. After a year as the second-choice goalkeeper, but got the chance when

Magnus Kihlstedt Tommy Magnus Kihlstedt (born 29 February 1972) is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He played professionally in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, and won two Danish Superliga titles with FC Copenhagen. He won 13 caps ...

was injured in the spring of 2001. Rønningen soon became the first choice at Brann, and in August 2001 he was called up to the

Norway national football team The Norway national football team ( no, Norges herrelandslag i fotball, or informally ''Landslaget'') represents Norway in men's international football and is controlled by the Norwegian Football Federation, the governing body for football in ...

, two years after he was playing in the Third Division. Rønningen was never capped for Norway, but did play one match for Norway B against Romania in January 2002, in addition to two matches for the under-21 team and one match for the under-18 team. Rønningen scored a goal from the penalty spot in the 4–1 victory against Hovding in the second round of the

2002 Norwegian Football Cup The 2002 Norwegian Football Cup was the 97th edition of the Norway, Norwegian Football Cup. Vålerenga Fotball, Vålerenga won their 3rd Norwegian Championship title after defeating Odd Grenland in the final with the score 1–0. The final was pla ...

. Brann was leading 3–1 and had been awarded a

penalty kick A penalty shot or penalty kick is a play used in several sports whereby a goal is attempted during untimed play. Depending on the sport, when a player commits certain types of penalties, the opposition is awarded a penalty shot or kick attempt. ...

, which Rønningen converted. Rønningen remained a regular at Brann, even though he was competing with the talented youngster

Håkon Opdal Håkon Eikemo Opdal (born 11 June 1982) is a Norwegian professional footballer who plays for Brann in the Eliteserien, as a goalkeeper. He has previously played for Brann and Start, where he won Tippeligaen in 2007 and the Norwegian Cup in 200 ...

, and played a total of 95 matches for the club, until he in the summer of 2004 transferred to rivals Rosenborg.

Rosenborg

That he transferred to Rosenborg was quite a surprise, as they already had the goalkeepers Espen Johnsen and

Alexander Lund Hansen Alexander Lund Hansen (born 6 October 1982) is a Norwegian former footballer. Career He came to Rosenborg from local team Nardo in 2001. In parts of 2004 and 2005 he was on loan to Fredrikstad, where he played 19 matches. He played in six match ...

. Rønningen was however not happy with the contract negotiation with Brann, and moved to Rosenborg where he received a bigger payment, even though he was supposed to be the third-choice goalkeeper. The young goalkeeper Lund Hansen was sent on loan to

Fredrikstad FK Fredrikstad Fotballklubb (also known as Fredrikstad or FFK) is a Norwegian association football, football club from the town of Fredrikstad. With nine league championships and eleven Norwegian Football Cup, Norwegian Cup wins, FFK is one of the ...

so that he could play regularly, and Rønningen remained the second-choice goalkeeper at Rosenborg, but did however play the first round of the

2005 Norwegian Football Cup The 2005 Norwegian Football Cup was the 100th edition of the Norwegian Football Cup. The tournament started on 7 May 2005 and was contested by 128 teams, going through 7 rounds before a winner could be declared. The final match was played on 6 N ...

against

Orkla Orkla may refer to: Places * Orkla (river), a river in Trøndelag county, Norway Business * Orkla Group (or ''Orkla ASA''), a large Norwegian company * Orkla Mining Company, a historic company in Norway * Orkla Metall, a former smelting company in ...

, where he scored one of the goals from the penalty spot in the 11–0 victory.

HamKam

Rønningen moved to

ahead of the 2006 season, and was the first-choice goalkeeper until Jon Masalin became the preferred goalkeeper half-way through the 2008 season. Rønningen wanted to leave HamKam, but after Masalin was injured Rønningen again became the first choice. Rønningen stayed at the club through two relegations, even though his payment was reduced from 1,2 M NOK at Rosenborg to 0,2 M NOK at the third tier. He scored a goal on a penalty when HamKam won promotion back to the second tier with a 6–0 victory against

Lørenskog is a Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Akershus in Viken (county), Viken Counties of Norway, county, Norway. A suburb of Oslo, it is part of the Oslo urban area and the Districts of Norway, traditional region of Romerike. The administrati ...

in the decisive match of the 2010 season. According to the local newspaper ''

Hamar Arbeiderblad ''Hamar Arbeiderblad'' (often referred to locally as "HA") is local newspaper published in Hamar, Norway by Hamar Media. The paper is edited by Carsten Bleness. HA was one of the first newspapers to place the internet edition of a newspaper behind ...

'', Rønningen was HamKam's best player in the 2011 season, and the 36-year-old decided to play for one more season, despite being called "father" by his younger teammates. He was however injured in the beginning of the next season, and he believed he had played his last match for HamKam, but when his replacement Gary Hogan was injured, Rønningen was again playing. After playing for the club for seven seasons, Rønningen retired after the 2012 season and joined HamKam's coaching staff as a goalkeeper coach, where he was working the talented goalkeepers Lars Øvernes and Emil Holst.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ronningen, Ivar 1975 births Living people Norwegian men's footballers Vålerenga Fotball players Walsall F.C. players Lillestrøm SK players SK Brann players Rosenborg BK players Hamarkameratene players Norwegian First Division players Eliteserien players Norwegian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in England Men's association football goalkeepers People from Lunner Footballers from Innlandet