Tom Nordlie (born 2 March 1962) 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 ...

coach. He has managed several top Norwegian football teams.

Playing career

Nordlie was not a footballer himself, but he did play for the national water polo team. He has his education from the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences.

Managing career

Nordlie is a household name in Norway, having managed several top-flight teams. He is known for introducing the concept ''kontrollert sinnsyk'', i.e. "controlledly insane". In 1998, he led Odd Grenland to promotion to the

Norwegian top division 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 promoti ...

, and to a respectable seventh place the next season. In 2000, he took over big club

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 ...

, but was fired after a season that led to Vålerenga's relegation from the Norwegian top division. After working as a football expert in TV 2 for a while, Nordlie was hired as coach of Sandefjord. He led the club to the promotion play-offs in both

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

and

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, but lost both times. In 2004, he took over the struggling

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 ...

, and in his first season in charge, Start won the

1. divisjon The Norwegian First Division, also called 1. divisjon and OBOS-ligaen (named sponsor is property developer OBOS), is the second-highest level of the Norwegian football league system. Each year, the top finishing teams in the 1. divisjon are p ...

and were promoted. In their return to the top flight, Start had a great spring season, and won the

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc ...

s, only one point behind winners Vålerenga. For this feat, Nordlie won the Kniksen award as (Head) Coach of the Year. However, in 2006 Start had a poor opening to the season, and on 14 July 2006, Nordlie was fired. After working in TV 2 for a short period, Nordlie signed as the new manager of Viking on 14 September for the rest of the 2006 season, saving Viking from being relegated to the 1. divisjon, when Viking beat Brann 5–0 in the last match of the 2006-season. After Lillestrøm fired Uwe Rösler, Nordlie was hired on 16 November. In his first season (2007) at Lillestrøm Nordlie achieved a fourth place in the league, and won the Norwegian Cup, LSK's first major trophy in 18 years. The following 2008 season started off disappointingly for Nordlie and LSK, and after 8 matches, and only 6 points, Nordlie was sacked on 29 May. In August the same year he was hired as a manager for struggling second-tier side Kongsvinger, which he led with success until he was hired by Fredrikstad in August 2009. He had some months at the club who were battling against relegation when he arrived. By the end of the season Fredrikstad were relegated, after being beaten by local rivals Sarpsborg 08 in the play-offs. Nordlie left a few months after the relegation. Nordlie returned to Kongsvinger in September 2011, after

Per Brogeland Per Brogeland (born 27 January 1953) is a Norwegian football manager. He has been the head coach of Lillestrøm, among others. He is among an exclusive group of Norwegians who have managed a top-flight team abroad, in Brogeland's case the Austri ...

was fired, to save the club from relegation to the Second Division. The club was 11th, two points ahead of the relegation zone when Nordlie arrived, and finished the season as the 7th best team in the 1. divisjon. He originally joined Kongsvinger on a short-term contract, but decided to stay at the club for another year, before he left Kongsvinger after the 2012 season. Nordlie managed

Avaldsnes Avaldsnes is a village in Karmøy municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The village is located on the northeastern part of the island of Karmøy, along the Karmsundet strait, just south of the town of Haugesund. The village was an ancient ...

women's team from 2014 until his dismissal on 6 October 2015 by the board after it was presented with evidence that he had stalked and sexually harassed one of his players, Hólmfríður Magnúsdóttir. At the time of his departure the team was in second place in the

Toppserien The Toppserien is the top level of women's association football in Norway. It was founded in 1984. History Women's league football was introduced on a county basis in 1977. These leagues acted as qualification for the regional (South) league in ...

with four matches to go and had reached the Norwegian Cup finals. In the final stages of the 2019 season, Nordlie and Skeid agreed to terminate his contract to let him re-join Lillestrøm and lead the team through two matches in the relegation play-offs. Lillestrøm lost the play-offs on the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaker, tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the ...

and were relegated to the second tier after a 5–5 draw on aggregate against Nordlie's former club

Honours

;Lillestrøm * Norwegian Cup:

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nordlie, Tom 1962 births Living people Norwegian football managers Strømmen IF managers Odds BK managers Vålerenga Fotball managers Sandefjord Fotball managers IK Start managers Viking FK managers Lillestrøm SK managers Kongsvinger IL Toppfotball managers Fredrikstad FK managers Sandnes Ulf managers Avaldsnes IL managers Skeid Fotball managers Kniksen Award winners Norwegian male water polo players Norwegian School of Sport Sciences alumni Eliteserien managers