Sven Otto Birkeland (born 10 February 1948) is a Norwegian 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

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 ...

. Birkeland was born in

Kristiansand Kristiansand is a seaside resort city and municipality in Agder county, Norway. The city is the fifth-largest and the municipality the sixth-largest in Norway, with a population of around 112,000 as of January 2020, following the incorporation ...

. He played as a

for

Start Start can refer to multiple topics: *Takeoff, the phase of flight where an aircraft transitions from moving along the ground to flying through the air * Starting lineup in sports *Standing start, and rolling start, in an auto race Acronyms *St ...

from 1973–78, and won the league in

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...

. He began his career at Vigør and played for

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 ...

from 1969 to 1973. He also played for Jerv and was the coach of Donn. Birkeland was the match winner against Bodø/Glimt when Start's first league title was secured on 15 October 1978. He has five caps and one goal for the Norway national team, and made his debut against Sweden in 1967, becoming the first sørlending to play for Norway. Birkeland is the father of the former Start player Bernt Christian Birkeland.

Career statistics

:''Score and result list Norway's goal tally first, score column indicates score after Birkeland goal.''

References

External links

*
fotball.no

Aftenposten arkiv

Fædrelandsvennen – Fra Starts gullhelt til sauebonde
*Start i hundre – {{DEFAULTSORT:Birkeland, Sven Otto 1948 births Living people Sportspeople from Kristiansand Norwegian footballers Association football midfielders Norway international footballers Eliteserien players Lyn Fotball players IK Start players FK Jerv players