Vegard Heggem (born 13 July 1975) 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 ...

who played as a

right back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. He rose to prominence with Rosenborg, winning three league titles and a cup, and scoring a goal to knock

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

out of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

. In 1998, he joined

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

, but was troubled by injury during his five seasons there before retiring. In a two-year international career, Heggem earned 20

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

for

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

, scoring once in his debut match. He was part of their squads at the 1998 FIFA World Cup and

UEFA Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament wa ...

Club career

Heggem made his professional debut with Rosenborg on 21 April 1995 against

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 Aus ...

in the

Norwegian Premier League 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 ...

.Heggem's RBK stats
(in Norwegian). Rosenborg BK. Retrieved 10 April 2013. He is best remembered by some for the goal in the away match against

in the 1996–97 UEFA Champions League when Rosenborg sensationally beat the Italian giants, thereby advancing to the Champions League quarter-finals and at the same time knocking

out of the tournament. After the 1998 FIFA World Cup, Heggem transferred to Liverpool for £3.5 million. His first two seasons at

Anfield Anfield is a football stadium in Anfield, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, which has a seating capacity of 53,394, making it the seventh largest football stadium in England. It has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 189 ...

were successful, but he was plagued by

hamstring In human anatomy, a hamstring () is any one of the three posterior thigh muscles in between the hip and the knee (from medial to lateral: semimembranosus, semitendinosus and biceps femoris). The hamstrings are susceptible to injury. In quadrupe ...

injuries. He was the player substituted when Steven Gerrard made his Premier League debut for the club on 29 November 1998 in a 2–0 win over

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

. After being injured in the 2000 European Championship he made only four appearances for Liverpool during the 2000–01 treble-winning season, and he made no appearances at all during his last two years at the club. Heggem left Liverpool when his contract ended in the summer of 2003, and shortly thereafter retired from football at the age of 28. He played his last game of football at the age of just 25.

International career

Heggem made his national team debut on 25 February 1998 against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, scoring a goal in the 3–3 draw at the Stade Vélodrome in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

. He was selected for the 1998 FIFA World Cup squad, but spent the entire tournament on the substitutes' bench as Norway reached the last 16. He played in the

2000 UEFA European Football Championship The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament was ...

, playing the full 90 minutes in Norway's opening 1–0 win over

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

De Kuip Stadion Feijenoord (), more commonly known by its nickname De Kuip (, the Tub), is a stadium in Rotterdam, Netherlands. It was completed in 1937. The name is derived from the Feijenoord district in Rotterdam, and from the club with the same na ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...

. However, in the second match against

FR Yugoslavia Serbia and Montenegro ( sr, Cрбија и Црна Гора, translit=Srbija i Crna Gora) was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yug ...

, he left the pitch injured after 35 minutes to be replaced by his Liverpool teammate

Stig Inge Bjørnebye Stig Inge Bjørnebye (born 11 December 1969) is a Norwegian former professional footballer who played in Norway, England, and Denmark, most notably for Liverpool, and is currently the sports director of the Danish football club AGF Aarhus. His p ...

, and Norway eventually were eliminated.

Legacy

In the 2002 book ''Folkets Fotballbok. De største øyeblikkene'' (The People's Football Book. The Greatest Moments) (), penned by sports writer Oddleiv Moe, his goal against Milan at the

San Siro Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, commonly known as San Siro, is a football stadium in the San Siro district of Milan, Italy, which is the home of A.C. Milan and Inter Milan. It has a seating capacity of 80,018, making it one of the largest stadiums in ...

was named one of the twelve greatest moments in Norwegian football history. The chapter devoted to his goal was named ''Mirakelet på San Siro'' (The miracle at San Siro).

Personal life

Until the end of the 2020 salmon fishing season Heggem ran the

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...

fishing business Aunan Lodge on the river

Orkla Orkla may refer to: Places * Orkla (river), a river in Trøndelag county, Norway Business * Orkla Group (or ''Orkla ASA''), a large Norwegian company * Orkla Mining Company, a historic company in Norway * Orkla Metall, a former smelting company ...

Trøndelag Trøndelag (; sma, Trööndelage) is a county in the central part of Norway. It was created in 1687, then named Trondhjem County ( no, Trondhjems Amt); in 1804 the county was split into Nord-Trøndelag and Sør-Trøndelag by the King of Denmar ...

. Heggem still owns the property but the new tenants will continue the operation under the name ''Grindal Salmon Lodge''. He is also an official patron of

A.F.C. Liverpool Affordable Football Club Liverpool is a semi-professional football club based in Liverpool, England. The club were formed in 2008 by 1,000 supporters of Liverpool Football Club; a not-for-profit organisation, it is run on a one-member, one-vote ...

, an independent football club owned and run by Liverpool supporters. He is also a regular at Liverpool home matches, and was also at the

2005 UEFA Champions League Final The 2005 UEFA Champions League Final was the final match of the 2004–05 UEFA Champions League, Europe's primary club football competition. The showpiece event was contested between Liverpool of England and Milan of Italy at the Atatürk Olym ...

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

. In February 2012, the AGM of Rosenborg elected Vegard Heggem as a member of the board for a period of two years. Heggem decided not to stand for reelection when his fourth term ended in 2020..

Career statistics

Club

International

Appearances and goals by national team and year International goals

Honours

;Rosenborg *

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

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 ...

, *

Norwegian 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 ...

;Liverpool *

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

References

External links

*
Profile
at LFCHistory.net

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heggem, Vegard 1975 births Living people Norwegian footballers Norway international footballers Norway under-21 international footballers Association football fullbacks Association football wingers Rosenborg BK players Liverpool F.C. players UEFA Cup winning players Eliteserien players Premier League players 1998 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2000 players Norwegian businesspeople People from Rennebu Footballers from Trondheim Expatriate footballers in England Norwegian expatriate footballers Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in England