Vegar Eggen Hedenstad (born 26 June 1991) is a Norwegian 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 plays as a right-back for Eliteserien 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 ...

. Hedenstad has been capped at international level for Norway

Club career

Hedenstad was born in Elverum and played for Elverum Fotball where he made his senior debut in the

Third Division In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

in 2006, at the age of 14 and became the youngest ever senior player at the team. At the age of 16, Hedenstad played on a team consisting of local talents in a show-match against HamKam, and HamKam's head coach

Arne Erlandsen Arne Erlandsen (born 20 December 1959) is a Norwegian football manager and former player. He is currently the manager for Finnish team KuPS. During his own playing career he had relative success as a midfielder, having played for Lillestrøm SK ...

approached Hedenstad immediately after the match and stated that he wanted to sign him. However, Hedenstad signed for Stabæk and joined the club ahead of the 2008 season. Hedenstad made his debut in Tippeligaen on 7 June 2008 against

Strømsgodset Strømsgodset is a former municipality in Vestfold county (from 1964 Buskerud county), Norway, today a part of the city of Drammen. History Strømsgodset was originally a small rural annex to the city parish of Bragernes (Drammen). But since th ...

and made a total of three appearances during the 2008 season when Stabæk won Tippeligaen, enough to earn him a championship-medal. The next season, Hedenstad was playing regularly on the team that finished third in Tippeligaen and won bronze-medals. On 17 July 2012, Hedenstad signed a four-year deal with Bundesliga outfit SC Freiburg, and became the second footballer from Elverum in the Bundesliga, after Terje Olsen who played for Bayer Leverkusen in the 1980s. He was injured after five minutes in his first match for Freiburg, during the team's pre-season tour to Austria. Hedenstad made his debut in the Bundesliga when Freiburg lost 2–0 to Bayer Leverkusen on 1 September 2012. On 4 July 2014, Hedenstad joined

Eintracht Braunschweig Braunschweiger Turn- und Sportverein Eintracht von 1895 e.V., commonly known as Eintracht Braunschweig () or BTSV (), is a German association football, football and sports club based in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony. The club was one of the founding ...

on a one-year loan deal. Hedenstad joined FC St. Pauli in the summer 2016. In February 2017 he joined Rosenborg. In December 2020 it was announced Hedenstad would leave Rosenborg after 4 seasons after his contract expired at the end of the year. On 5 January 2021, Hedenstad signed for Süper Lig club

Fatih Karagümrük Fatih () is a district of and a municipality (''belediye'') in Istanbul, Turkey, and home to almost all of the provincial authorities (including the governor's office, police headquarters, metropolitan municipality and tax office) but not the co ...

International career

Hedenstad has represented Norway at every level from under-15 to under-23, and was playing regularly as a right back for the under-21 team in the

2013 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship qualification The 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification was a series of parallel association football competitions held over 2011 and 2012 to decide the qualifiers for 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, to be held in Israel. The draw fo ...

, when the team qualified for the championship. Hedenstad made his debut for the national team when he replaced

Lars Christopher Vilsvik Lars-Christopher Horst Jan Vilsvik (born 18 October 1988) is a Norwegian footballer who plays as a defender for the Eliteserien side Strømsgodset. Vilsvik, who has a German mother and a Norwegian father, grew up in Germany where he played fo ...

at half time in a 1–1 friendly draw against Denmark on 15 January 2012. He was again called up for the friendly match against Hungary in October 2012. In the absence of

John Arne Riise John Arne Semundseth Riise (born 24 September 1980) is a Norwegian professional football manager and former player who played as a left back and a left midfielder. He is currently the manager of Toppserien club Avaldsnes. With 110 caps, Riise is ...

Hedenstad played the whole match on the left back to great acclaim, with the pundits stating that Hedenstad would soon replace Riise as Norway's regular starting left-back.

Personal life

In January 2009, after his girlfriend Charlotte received news that she was dying of cancer and only had a few months left to live, Hedenstad took a break from professional football. Only 17 at the time, he later described those last few months with her as "fantastic", because they were able to spend them together. In May 2012, Hedenstad experienced another tragic death, when his teammate at Stabæk, Tor Marius Gromstad, died at the age of 22 from an accidental fall at a construction site.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Stabæk * Norwegian League:

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Rosenborg * Norwegian League:

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2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

* Norwegian Football Cup:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hedenstad, Vegar Eggen 1991 births Living people People from Elverum Norwegian footballers Men's association football fullbacks Men's association football midfielders Norway men's international footballers Norway men's under-21 international footballers Norway men's youth international footballers Stabæk Fotball players Eliteserien players SC Freiburg players Eintracht Braunschweig players FC St. Pauli players Rosenborg BK players Fatih Karagümrük S.K. footballers Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Süper Lig players Norwegian expatriate footballers Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Germany Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate footballers in Turkey Sportspeople from Innlandet