Per Bredesen (22 December 1930 – 3 October 2022) was a Norwegian

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 ...

. He played as an

inside forward Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

for a number of Italian clubs, and was one of the first Norwegian footballers to achieve success in a foreign league.

Club career

Bredesen began his career at his hometown team Ørn Horten in 1947Per Bredesen
(in Norwegian). FK Ørn Horten. Retrieved 4 April 2013. – only 16 years old, and quickly established himself as one of the league's most talented players. In 1952, Bredesen became a professional when he was signed by Italian side

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

. Because the Norwegian FA at the time allowed only amateur players to play for the national team, this move also ended Bredesen's international career. Bredesen played three years at Lazio, and later played for

Udinese Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Italian football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sports club, and on 5 July 1911 as a fo ...

AC Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 and 1982–83 seasons ...

Bari Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy a ...

and

Messina Messina (, also , ) is a harbour city and the capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of more than 219,000 inhabitants in ...

. In 1957, as a member of Milan, he became the first – and to this date, the only – Norwegian to win the ''

Scudetto The ''scudetto'' (Italian language, Italian for: "little shield") is a decoration having the colors of the flag of Italy which is sewn onto the jersey of the Italian sports clubs that won the highest level championship of their respective sport in ...

''. Overall, Bredesen played 214 matches in Italian football and scored 50 goals. In 1961 he left Italy and moved back to Norway, where he rejoined Ørn Horten. He played his last match for Ørn-Horten in 1969.

International career

Bredesen made his international debut against

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

as an 18-year-old in 1949, and marked the event by scoring a fine goal. Overall, Bredesen won 18 caps and scored seven goals 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 t ...

. He was not selected for Norway after moving abroad, since the Norwegian FA had a strict rule of only using amateur footballers.

Personal life and death

Bredesen died on 3 October 2022, at the age of 91.

Career statistics

Club

International

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bredesen, Per 1930 births 2022 deaths People from Horten Sportspeople from Vestfold og Telemark Norwegian footballers Association football forwards Norway international footballers Eliteserien players Serie A players Serie B players FK Ørn-Horten players S.S. Lazio players Udinese Calcio players A.C. Milan players S.S.C. Bari players A.C.R. Messina players Expatriate footballers in Italy Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Norwegian expatriate footballers