Ragnar Nikolay Larsen (7 January 1925 – 14 January 1982) was a Norwegian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He later became a football manager and, after actively retiring from the sport, he took up a position as a sports journalist for ''

Aftenposten ( in the masthead; ; Norwegian for "The Evening Post") is Norway's largest printed newspaper by circulation. It is based in Oslo. It sold 211,769 copies in 2015 (172,029 printed copies according to University of Bergen) and estimated 1.2 million ...

'', a Norwegian newspaper. Larsen played as a midfielder and started his playing career with Sandaker. He then relocated to Italy in 1951, spending time at both

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

and

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

. He also spent time with Swiss side

Lugano Lugano (, , ; lmo, label=Ticinese dialect, Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Luga ...

before returning to his first club and then retiring from the field in 1962. Larsen was last capped in 1961, aged 37 years and 201 days, and is the fifth oldest player at the Norwegian national team. As well as being capped for 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 ...

, he was its manager for two different spells. He also coached

Lillestrøm SK Lillestrøm Sportsklubb is a Norwegian professional football club from the city of Lillestrøm, just outside of the capital Oslo. Lillestrøm SK is a Norwegian football club based in Lillestrøm, playing in Eliteserien. The club was founded in 1 ...

and Strømsgodset.

References

1925 births 1982 deaths Footballers from Oslo Association football midfielders Norwegian footballers Norway international footballers S.S. Lazio players FC Lugano players Genoa C.F.C. players Serie A players Norwegian football managers Norwegian expatriate football managers FC Lugano managers Norway national football team managers Lillestrøm SK managers Strømsgodset Toppfotball managers Norwegian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Italy Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Italy {{norway-footy-midfielder-stub