Ragnvald Soma (born 10 November 1979) 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 ...

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 plays as a defender for his childhood club Frøyland Idrettslag. He signed for them 02.02.2014 effectively retiring from professional football.

Position

He is primarily a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

, although he has been both a left back and a defensive midfielder earlier in his career.

Club career

Early career

Soma started his professional career in

Bryne FK Bryne Fotballklubb () is a professional football club in Bryne, Norway, that competes in the 1. divisjon, the second tier of Norwegian football. History Bryne has played a total of 17 seasons in the top flight of Norwegian football since thei ...

, amassing 99 league games.

West Ham United

In January 2001 he moved to English

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

for £800,000. His stay there lasted just over one and a half years, during which Soma made only seven league appearances before returning to Bryne on a free transfer. Whilst at West Ham he played in their 1–0 victory over

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...

in the

2000–01 FA Cup The 2000–01 FA Cup (known as The FA Cup sponsored by AXA for sponsorship reasons) was the 120th season of the world's oldest knockout football competition, the FA Cup. The competition was won by Liverpool, who came from 1–0 behind against Arse ...

, coming on as a late substitute for his debut.

Norwegian football

With Bryne relegated at the end of the 2003 season, Soma moved to

SK Brann Sportsklubben Brann (commonly known as Brann, and less often as SK Brann) is a Norwegian professional football club, founded 26 September 1908, from Bergen. Brann had been in the Eliteserien, Norway's Premier Division of Football, since 1987, bar ...

. He became an instant hit, being voted player of the year by several newspapers and becoming a regular in the Norway national team. In March 2006 he transferred to

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 ...

for an undisclosed fee believed to be around £500,000, with Brann also getting right back Bjørn Dahl as a part-exchange.

Austria and Denmark

After over three years at Viking, Soma signed for

Rapid Vienna Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a ''cascade''. ...

on 14 August 2009. After a spell with the

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 yea ...

side

Nordsjælland North Zealand, also North Sealand ( da, Nordsjælland), refers to the northern part of the Danish island of Zealand which is not clearly defined but generally covers the area north of Copenhagen. The Danish tourist authorities have recently in ...

, Soma joined the

Danish 1st Division The 1st Division (''1. Division'') is the second-highest football league in Denmark, also known as NordicBet Liga for sponsorship reasons. From 1945 to 1991 the 1. Division was the name of the highest level of football in Denmark. With the forma ...

side

Lyngby Kongens Lyngby (, Danish for "the King's Heather Town"; short form Lyngby) is the seat and commercial centre of Lyngby-Taarbæk Municipality in the northern suburbs of Copenhagen, Denmark. Lyngby Hovedgade is a busy shopping street and the site of ...

. After his contract with Lyngby expired, he was training with his old club Viking. He played the second half of 2013 for

Førde IL Førde Idrettslag is a Norwegian sports club based in Førde, Sunnfjord. It has sections for alpine skiing, association football, athletics, biathlon, cross-country skiing, floorball, gymnastics, handball, orienteering, powerlifting, ski jumping, ...

International career

Soma played 22 matches for the Norwegian under-21 team before he was capped five times while playing 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 ...

between 2004 and 2005.

Career statistics

References

External links

* * *
rogalandsavis.no
{{DEFAULTSORT:Soma, Ragnvald 1979 births Living people Norwegian footballers Norway international footballers Norwegian Christians Bryne FK players West Ham United F.C. players SK Brann players Viking FK players SK Rapid Wien players FC Nordsjælland players Lyngby Boldklub players Association football central defenders Premier League players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Eliteserien players Danish Superliga players Norwegian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in England Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in Austria Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Austria Expatriate footballers in Denmark Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Sportspeople from Rogaland