Thomas Edvin Berntsen (born 31 July 1970) is 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 ...

manager, sporting director and former football defender. As a player, Berntsen is most notable for his time at

Lillestrøm Lillestrøm is a municipality in Viken county. It is located in the traditional district of Romerike. With a population of 85,757 inhabitants, it is the fourth most populated municipality in Viken. It was founded on 1 January 2020 as a merger be ...

and

Vålerenga Vålerenga () is a neighbourhood in the city of Oslo, Norway, belonging to the borough of Gamle Oslo. Vålerenga is located between the neighbourhoods of Gamlebyen, Jordal, Ensjø, Etterstad and Lodalen. Vålerenga is in particular known for it ...

in Tippeligaen and the

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n club Bregenz. After his retirement he has been head coach of Lørenskog,

Kongsvinger Kongsvinger () is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Glåmdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Kongsvinger. Other settlements in the municipality include Aust ...

and Strømmen.

Player career

He was born in Oslo, and started his career in Strømmen before he moved to

where he played 65 matches in Tippeligaen from 1993 to 1996. He then moved to

where he played 45 league-matches between 1997 and 1999 and also won the

Norwegian Football 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 ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

. In 2000, Berntsen moved to the

n club SW Bregenz, where his former teammate from Lillestrøm, Jan Ove Pedersen also were playing. After playing three matches in six months for Bregenz, he was loaned out to Bryne where he played five matches in Tippeligaen before he retired after one season with

Bærum Bærum () is a municipality in the Greater Oslo Region in Norway that forms an affluent suburb of Oslo on the west coast of the city. Bærum is Norway's fifth largest municipality with a population of 128,760 (2021). It is part of the electoral ...

2001 Norwegian Second Division The 2001 2. divisjon was the third highest football league for men in Norway. 26 games were played in 4 groups—changed from the 8 groups in the 2000 season—with 3 points given for wins and 1 for draws. Tollnes, Åsane, Oslo Øst and L� ...

Managerial career

In 2006, Berntsen was the head coach of the third-tier club Lørenskog and

John Carew John Alieu Carew (born 5 September 1979) is a Norwegian former professional footballer who played as a forward. He was capped 91 times, scoring 24 goals for the Norway national team. As of 2023, he has been hired until the end of 2024 at Norw ...

's youth club was fighting promotion alongside Notodden. In the decisive match of 2006 Norwegian Second Division, Notodden won 5–3 against Lørenskog at home, and was promoted to Adeccoligaen. Even though Lørenskog was not promoted, Berntsen was head coach of a second-tier team in 2007 since

hired him as

Vegard Skogheim Vegard Skogheim (born 28 April 1966) is a Norwegian football coach and former player who played as a midfielder. During his active career, he played for HamKam, Werder Bremen and Viking. He had a total of 197 matches and 36 goals in the Norweg ...

's successor on 6 November 2006. Berntsen led Kongsvinger to a strong fourth place in

2007 Adeccoligaen The 2007 1. divisjon season (referred to as Adeccoligaen for sponsorship reasons) was a Norwegian second-tier football season. The season began on April 9, 2007 and concluded on November 4, 2007. It was the tenth and final season in which teams c ...

, two points behind Bryne which played promotion play-off. With two points in the six first matches of the 2008-season, and Kongsvinger positioned at the bottom of the table, Berntsen was fired on 7 May 2008. On 3 August 2008 he was hired as head coach of his youth-club Strømmen, and saved the club from relegation to

Norwegian Third Division The Norwegian Third Division, also called 3. divisjon, is the fourth highest division of the men's football league in Norway. Like the rest of the Norwegian football league system, the season runs from spring to autumn, running approximately from ...

. Ahead of the 2009-season, Petter Myhre was named co-coach together with Berntsen. With Berntsen and Myhre as coaches, Strømmen won their

2009 Norwegian Second Division The 2009 2. divisjon season was the third highest football (soccer) league for men in Norway. 26 games were played in 4 groups, with 3 points given for wins and 1 for draws. Strømmen IF, Strømmen, Follo FK, Follo, Sandnes Ulf and Ranheim Fotball, ...

group and was promoted to Adeccoligaen. In

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

Strømmen finished three points behind the play-off promotion. The next season, Myhre had resigned from the job at Strømmen and was replaced by Andreas Holter which would be leading Strømmen together with Berntsen. In the decisive match of the 2011 season, Strømmen avoided relegation with a 6–1 win against Nybergsund. In July 2011, Nettavisen named Berntsen as one of the most talented football-coaches in Norway. Berntsen's contract ended after the 2011 season, and he was replaced by Erland Johnsen. In December 2011, Berntsen was linked to the vacant job as head coach of the

Eliteserien Eliteserien () is a Norwegian professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the Norwegian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion ...

club Stabæk, but according to TV 2 Berntsen rejected Stabæk's offer. Ahead of the 2013 season he was named as director of sports in Sarpsborg 08 FF. The club reached its all-time high, participating in the

2018–19 UEFA Europa League group stage The 2018–19 UEFA Europa League group stage began on 20 September and ended on 13 December 2018. A total of 48 teams competed in the group stage to decide 24 of the 32 places in the knockout phase of the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League. Draw The draw ...

. Berntsen was credited for large discoveries and subsequent sales, such as

Krépin Diatta Krépin Diatta (born 25 February 1999) is a Senegalese professional footballer who plays as a winger for Ligue 1 club Monaco and the Senegal national team. Club career Sarpsborg 08 On 26 February 2017, Diatta signed a four-year contract wit ...

and

Ismaila Coulibaly Ismaila Cheick Coulibaly (born 25 December 2000) is a Malian footballer who plays as a midfielder for Allsvenskan club AIK on loan from Sheffield United and the Mali national team. Career On 14 January 2019, Sarpsborg 08 announced the signing of ...

. In 2023 Berntsen accepted a contract offer from Swedish club

AIK AIK Fotboll (), more commonly known simply as AIK (), an abbreviation for Allmänna Idrottsklubben (meaning ''the public'' or ''general sports club''), is a Swedish football club competing in Allsvenskan, the top flight of Swedish football. The ...

to become their new director of sports.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berntsen, Thomas 1970 births Living people Footballers from Oslo Norwegian men's footballers Eliteserien players Strømmen IF players Lillestrøm SK players Vålerenga Fotball players Schwarz-Weiß Bregenz players Bryne FK players Bærum SK players Norwegian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Austria Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Austria Norwegian football managers Kongsvinger IL Toppfotball managers Strømmen IF managers Men's association football defenders Sarpsborg 08 FF non-playing staff AIK Fotboll non-playing staff Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Sweden