Reidar Brede Olsen (20 September 1910 – 1 September 1997) 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 ...

who played as a

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 ...

for

Fredrikstad Fredrikstad (; previously ''Frederiksstad''; literally "Fredrik's Town") is a city and municipality in Viken county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Fredrikstad. The city of Fredrikstad was founded in 15 ...

. He was

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

twice 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 ...

. Olsen had two spells in Fredrikstad first-team squad, once in 1931 and another between 1938 and 1946, and won two Norwegian league titles and two

Norwegian Cup The Norwegian Football Cup ( no, Norgesmesterskapet i fotball for herrer) is the main knockout cup competition in Norwegian football. It is run by the Football Association of Norway and has been contested since 1902, making it the oldest football ...

while playing for the club. He also played

bandy Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two teams wearing ice skates on a large ice surface (either indoors or outdoors) while using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal. The international governing body for bandy is ...

for Fredrikstad.

Career

Olsen was born in

, and made his debut for

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 ...

in 1931. After an injury sidelined him, he started to play for Fredrikstad FK's

team. He scored two goals in the first ever bandy match played in Fredrikstad in 1935 and was a part of the Fredrikstad-team that won the district championship ( no, Kretsmesterskap) in bandy in 1936. In 1938, Olsen was back in the first-team squad of Fredrikstad's football department, and won both the

1937–38 League of Norway The 1937–38 Norgesserien was the 1st season of top division football in Norway. League tables District I District II, Group A District II, Group B District III District IV, Group A District IV, Group B District V, Group A Distric ...

and the 1938 Norwegian Football Cup. Olsen was also a part of the team that won the Norwegian league during the 1938–39 season and the

1940 A calendar from 1940 according to the Gregorian calendar, factoring in the dates of Easter and related holidays, cannot be used again until the year 5280. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January *January ...

. In the 1940 Norwegian Cup Final against

Skeid Skeid is a Norwegian alliance sports club from Nordre Åsen, Oslo. It has sections for association football (one for elite and one for grassroots football), Nordic skiing and bandy. General history The club was founded as ''IK Skeid'' on 5 De ...

, Olsen was named as one of Fredrikstad's best players along with

Gunnar Andreassen Gunnar Andreassen (5 January 1913 – 23 July 2002) was a Norwegian football player and manager. He played on Fredrikstad FK from 1933 to 1950, except during the World War II German occupation of Norway. He appeared twice on the Norway national t ...

by '' Fredriksstad Blad''. No organized football was played between 1940 and 1945, because of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Olsen was at that time involved in the

Norwegian resistance movement The Norwegian resistance (Norwegian: ''Motstandsbevegelsen'') to the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany began after Operation Weserübung in 1940 and ended in 1945. It took several forms: *Asserting the legitimacy of the exiled government, ...

Milorg Milorg (abbreviation of militær organisasjon – military organization) was the main Norwegian resistance movement during World War II. Resistance work included intelligence gathering, sabotage, supply-missions, raids, espionage, transport of ...

. After the war was over, the Norwegian national team was meeting

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

in a friendly match, which was dubbed "the independence match". The

Football Association of Norway The Norwegian Football Federation ( nb, Norges Fotballforbund, nn, Noregs Fotballforbund; NFF) is the governing body of football in Norway. It was formed in 1902 and organises the men's and women's national teams, as well as the league systems f ...

decided to primarily call-up players from the reigning Norwegian Cup champions, Fredrikstad. Six Fredrikstad-players started the match, and Thorleif Larsen,

Bjørn Spydevold Bjørn Spydevold (8 September 1918 – 30 March 2002) was a Norwegian football player. He was born in Sarpsborg, and played for the sports club Fredrikstad FK. He played for the Norwegian national team at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsink ...

Kjell Moe Kjell Moe (27 October 1909 – 8 December 1999) was a Norwegian footballer who played for Fredrikstad between 1938 and 1945. He won two Norwegian league titles and one Norwegian Cup. He was capped twice and scored one goal for Norway in 1945; a ...

and Olsen made their international debut. Aged 34 years, 11 months, Olsen is the second oldest player ever to have made the debut for the Norwegian national time; Kjell Moe who was almost one year his senior and played in the same match being the oldest. Olsen made another appearances for the national team in the 10–0 loss against

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

in October 1945. Olsen played all three matches against

Lyn Ubisoft Montpellier is a French video game developer and a studio of Ubisoft based in Castelnau-le-Lez. Founded in 1994 as Ubi Pictures, it is best known for developing the ''Rayman'' and ''Beyond Good & Evil'' series. At 350 employees as of Se ...

, when Fredrikstad lost the

1945 Norwegian Football Cup The 1945 Norwegian Football Cup was the 40th season of the Norwegian annual knockout football tournament. This was the first cup in five years, due to the Second World War. The tournament was open for all members of NFF, except those from Norther ...

Final. After his retirement, Olsen was head coach of

Østsiden IL Østsiden Idrettslag Fredrikstad is a Norwegian sports club, based in the city of Fredrikstad. The men's football team currently plays in the Norwegian second division. The club was formed as Østsiden IL on 14 June 1935, and includes football ...

between 1948 and 1951, and in 1954. He was also head coach of Fredrikstad in 1963.

Personal life

Olsen's brother, Ivar, was playing as a goalkeeper when Fredrikstad won their first-ever Norwegian Cup in

1932 Events January * January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. * January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident (1932), Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort ...

. Reidar Olsen died in 1997.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Olsen, Reidar 1910 births 1997 deaths Footballers from Fredrikstad Norwegian bandy players Norwegian men's footballers Norway men's international footballers Fredrikstad FK players Norwegian football managers Fredrikstad FK managers Norwegian resistance members Men's association football midfielders 20th-century Norwegian people