Tor Thodesen (born 3 March 1966) 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. In 2006, he was awarded the "Coach of the year" award by his colleagues, for his work in

Sandefjord Sandefjord () is a city and the most populous municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county, Norway. The municipality of Sandefjord was established on 1 January 1838. The municipality of Sandar was merged into Sandefjord on 1 January 1969. On 1 ...

Career

Early years

Thodesen played youth football in

Teie IF Teie Idrettsforening is a Norwegian sports club from Nøtterøy, Vestfold. It has sections for association football and team handball. It was established in 1924, and the club colors are blue and yellow. The men's football team currently plays ...

and was drafted into the senior squad in the mid-1980s. In 1986 he moved to neighbours

Nøtterøy IF Nøtterøy is an island and a former municipality in the present-day municipality of Færder in Vestfold and Telemark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality was the village of Borgheim. The parish of ''Nøtterø'' was estab ...

. He also enrolled in the

Norwegian School of Sport Sciences The Norwegian School of Sport Sciences ( no, Norges idrettshøgskole, NIH) is a public university located at Sognsvann in Oslo, Norway. It has the national responsibility for education and research related within sport sciences. It provides educa ...

in Oslo. For some time he commuted from Oslo to Nøtterøy to play for his team, but transferred to

IF Ready Idrettsforeningen Ready is a sports club in Vestre Aker, Oslo, Norway. The club was established on June 14, 1907 by Aage Blom Lorentzen. The football club play their home games at Gressbanen in Oslo. Gressbanen was the arena for the Norway n ...

after the 1988 season. In the summer of 1990 he returned to Teie, upon graduation from the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences. While studying and playing, Thodesen also did academy work and goalkeeper coaching in Teie, Nøtterøy and Ready. He was recruited by Per Egil Nygård as an instructor in Oslo Goalkeeper School. In 1991 Thodesen became goalkeeper coach 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 ...

, among others for the national team player Einar Rossbach. After the 1991 season he was promoted to assistant manager, and quit his active career for Teie. Thodesen was also goalkeeper coach of

Asker Asker ( no, Asker), properly called Askerbygda in Norwegian, is a district and former Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Akershus, Norway. From 2020 it is part of the larger administrative municipality Asker, Viken (also known as Greate ...

' women's team on a part-time basis, and was announced as new head coach in September 1992. He continued in Lyn until the end of the 1994 season, when contract negotiations stalled and he was picked up by

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 ...

. He also worked at the

Norwegian School of Elite Sport 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 ...

. Between 1999 and 2002, he joined his former superior in Lyn,

Teitur Thordarson Teitur Thordarson ( is, Teitur Þórðarson, born 14 January 1952) is an Icelandic football coach. He is the older brother of Ólafur Þórðarson. Playing career Club Íþróttabandalag Akraness Before coaching, Teitur playing as a striker fo ...

, as assistant coach in

Flora Tallinn FC Flora, commonly known as Flora Tallinn, or simply as Flora, is a professional Football team, football club based in Tallinn, Estonia, that competes in the Meistriliiga, the top flight of Estonian football league system, Estonian football. The ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

and

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 ...

Sandefjord Fotball

Thodesen coached

Norheimsund IL Norheimsund is the administrative centre of the municipality of Kvam in Vestland county, Norway. The village is located on the northern side of the Hardangerfjord, about from the city of Bergen. The village of Øystese lies about to the northeas ...

and won promotion to the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

with the small club. In 2005, Thodesen took over

Sandefjord Fotball Sandefjord Fotball, commonly known simply as Sandefjord, is a Norwegian professional football club, founded on 10 September 1998. The club currently competes in Eliteserien, the top tier of the Norwegian football league system. Their home ground ...

, and led the club to its first promotion to

Tippeligaen 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 ...

in his first season, after a dramatical last round in the

2005 Norwegian First Division The 2005 1. divisjon (referred to as Adeccoligaen for sponsorship reasons) was a Norwegian second-tier football season. The season kicked off on 10 April 2005, and the final round was played on 30 October 2005. Stabæk were promoted to the 2006 ...

, where

Moss FK Moss Fotballklubb is a Norwegian football club, founded on 28 August 1906. They play in the 2. divisjon, the third highest division in the Norwegian football league system. They played in the Norwegian top flight between 1937-1939, 1953-1954, 1 ...

were beaten 4–3. Though thought upon by most Norwegian football experts, as the weakest team in the

2006 Norwegian Premier League The 2006 Tippeligaen was the 62nd completed season of top division football in Norway. The season began on April 9, 2006 and ended on November 5, 2006. Rosenborg became champions on October 29, with one round to go, by defeating Viking at home. T ...

, Sandefjord managed to retain their spot in Tippeligaen with a 9th place, and qualified to the

cup final The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the FA Cup, Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the List of sports attendance figures, most attended domestic football ev ...

for the first time in the history of the club. The following season, Sandefjord won 5 of 30 league matches and were relegated to the First Division. In the next season, Thodesen was fired on 7 May 2008, the day after a humiliating loss to

Notodden FK Notodden Fotballklubb is a Norwegian football club located in Notodden. The team currently plays in 2. divisjon, the third tier of the Norwegian football league system. It was founded in 1999 as a merger between the football departments of SK Sn ...

took Sandefjord to a 15th place in Adeccoligaen.

Second Division

On 31 Oktober 2008, Thodesen signed for the Second Division club

FK Tønsberg FK Tønsberg was a football club from Tønsberg, Norway, founded on 10 October 2001 as a cooperation project between 20 local clubs. The new team replaced Eik-Tønsberg in the Norwegian Second Division beginning in the 2002 season. The first ...

, and the goal was promotion to the First Division. After two years, he left FK Tønsberg stating that "the current economic situation in the club does not allow a full time coach". Thodesen was hired as the head coach of Second Division side Moss FK ahead of the 2011 season.

UAE and return to Vestfold

Following a tenure as assistant manager of Emirati club

Baniyas Baniyas ( ar, بَانِيَاس ') is a Mediterranean coastal city in Tartous Governorate, northwestern Syria, located south of Latakia (ancient Laodicea) and north of Tartous (ancient Tortosa). It is known for its citrus fruit orchards an ...

, Thodesen moved back to

Vestfold Vestfold is a traditional region, a former county and a current electoral district in Eastern Norway. In 2020 the county became part of the much larger county of Vestfold og Telemark. Located on the western shore of the Oslofjord, it bordered th ...

and was hired at Re Upper Secondary School. Steadily approached by local clubs, he was assistant coach of

IL Flint Idrettslaget Flint is a Norway, Norwegian sports club from Søndre Slagen, Tønsberg, Vestfold. It has sections for association football, team handball, volleyball, table tennis and track and field. Flint is the largest sports club in Vestfold, a ...

in the autumn of 2015, before being hired as player developer and U16 coach in FK Tønsberg. In the summer of 2016 he became caretaker manager of the men's team. After the season he moved to Eik-Tønsberg as director of sports and U16 coach. He remained until September 2018, when Frode Lafton was sacked as

Hønefoss BK Hønefoss Ballklubb is a Norwegian football club from Hønefoss, founded in 1895. The club was a part of the multi-sports club L/F Hønefoss, which folded in 2008. After 11 years in 1. divisjon, the second tier of Norwegian football, Hønefoss ...

manager and Thodesen was hired in his place.

Abroad

Thodesen was the head coach of

HIFK HIFK, the Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna, Helsingfors (IFK, Helsingfors) rf (officially abbreviated IFK Helsingfors, colloquially often Helsingfors IFK or Helsingin IFK ) is a multi-sport association based in Helsinki, Finland. Formed in 1897 on ...

in Finland from 2019 to 2020. After spending 2021 in

Kvik Halden FK Kvik Halden FK is a Norwegian football club, founded on 19 June 1906. The club plays in the 2. divisjon after their promotion from the 2018 3. divisjon. In 2010 they contested a playoff to win promotion, and succeeded by beating Eik-Tønsberg 5 ...

, Thodesen was hired as manager of the Senegalese second-tier outfit Oslo Football Academy. He was brought to Senegal by Youssoupha Fall, a player agent whom Thodesen had worked with since coaching Sandefjord.

Honours

;Individual *

: coach of the year: 2006

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thodesen, Tor 1966 births Living people People from Nøtterøy Sportspeople from Vestfold og Telemark Norwegian men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Norwegian School of Sport Sciences alumni Norwegian football managers Vålerenga Fotball non-playing staff SK Brann non-playing staff Sandefjord Fotball managers Moss FK managers Hønefoss BK managers HIFK Fotboll managers Norwegian expatriate football managers Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Estonia Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Finland Expatriate football managers in Finland Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Senegal Expatriate football managers in Senegal