Asbjørn Halvorsen (3 December 1898 – 16 January 1955), nicknamed Assi, was a Norwegian

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 centre-half for

Sarpsborg FK Sarpsborg Fotballklubb is a Norwegian football club from Sarpsborg, Viken. It was founded on 8 May 1903. Sarpsborg is one of the most successful teams in the Norwegian Football Cup, with six titles and twelve finals in total. In 2007, the clu ...

and

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of thr ...

. He was capped 19 times playing 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 t ...

, and was a part of the Norwegian team who competed in the

1920 Summer Olympics The 1920 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 1920; nl, Olympische Zomerspelen van 1920; german: Olympische Sommerspiele 1920), officially known as the Games of the VII Olympiad (french: Jeux de la VIIe olympiade; nl, Spelen van ...

. He was later Secretary general of the

Norwegian Football Association The Norwegian Football Federation ( nb, Norges Fotballforbund, nn, Noregs Fotballforbund; NFF) is the governing body of football in Norway. It was formed in 1902 and organises the men's and women's national teams, as well as the league systems ...

, and acted as head coach of the Norwegian national team. He is regarded as the architect behind the Norwegian "Bronze Team" that finished third in the

1936 Olympics 1936 Olympics may refer to: *The 1936 Winter Olympics, which were held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany *The 1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI ...

Personal life

Halvorsen was born in

Sarpsborg Sarpsborg ( or ), historically Borg, is a city and municipality in Viken county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Sarpsborg. Sarpsborg is part of the fifth largest urban area in Norway when paired with neigh ...

, the son of baker Christian Halvorsen and Jakobine Dorthea Thronsen. He established himself as a ship broker in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

, and his first marriage was with a German citizen. He married for a second time in 1951 with Sigrid Helga Willadsen.

Playing career

Halvorsen was a centre-half who played 19 times for the

Norwegian national team 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 ...

, and won the

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 footbal ...

1917 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January * January 9 – WWI – Battle of Rafa: The last substantial Ottoman Army garrison on the Sinai Peninsula is captured by the Egyptian Expeditionary For ...

as captain of

. Aged 18 years and 318 days, he is the youngest captain in a Norwegian Cup final. He made his debut for the national team in 1918, in a match against Sweden, and played four matches for the national team in 1918, and four matches in 1919. He represented Norway at the

in Antwerp, where the Norwegian team reached the quarter finals. Between 1922 and 1934, Halvorsen played in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

for

, where he won the German championships in 1923 and 1928. He played his last match for the national team against

in 1923, his nineteenth game for the national selection.

Manager career

He returned to his home country in 1934, and was hired as secretary of the

, NFF. This job also made him head of the national team's selection committee, and in the years before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, he also acted as national team coach. With Halvorsen at the helm, Norway won the bronze medals at the 1936 Olympics, and qualified for the

1938 World Cup The 1938 FIFA World Cup was the third edition of the World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams and was held in France from 4 June until 19 June 1938. Italy defended its title in the final, beat ...

. This was Norway's first and only appearance in the World Cup finals until the 1990s.

World War II

During the war, Halvorsen was one of the figureheads of the Norwegian sports boycott. Practically all organized sport ceased its operations during the German occupation, and as a result, Halvorsen was arrested and placed in a

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simp ...

. He was imprisoned at

Møllergata 19 Møllergata 19 is an address in Oslo, Norway where the city's main police station and jail was located. The address gained notoriety during the German occupation from 1940 to 1945, when the Nazi security police kept its headquarters here. This is ...

for one day, then in

Grini concentration camp '', '' no, Grini fangeleir'', location= Bærum, Viken, Norway, location map=Viken#Norway, built by=Norway, original use=Constructed as a women's prison, operated by=Nazi Germany, notable inmates=List of Grini prisoners, liberated by=Harry Söderm ...

from August 1942 to July 1943, then in Natzweiler-Struthof, Neckarelz and

Vaihingen an der Enz concentration camp Vaihingen an der Enz (officially named Wiesengrund) concentration camp, near the city of Vaihingen an der Enz in the Neckar region of Germany, was a slave labor camp for armament manufacturing built by the Todt organization. In the end phase of t ...

Post war

After the war, Halvorsen continued working for the NFF, with the title of Secretary General, until his death in 1955. He was a board member of

Norsk Tipping Norsk Tipping is a Norwegian gambling company headquartered in Hamar, Norway. Founded in 1948, Norsk Tipping is owned by the Norwegian government and administered by the Norwegian Ministry of Culture. The company offers a wide range of lott ...

from 1946. He was decorated Knight of the Swedish

Order of Vasa The Royal Order of Vasa () is a Swedish order of chivalry, awarded to citizens of Sweden for service to state and society especially in the fields of agriculture, mining and commerce. It was instituted on 29 May 1772 by King Gustav III. It was ...

. He died in

Narvik ( se, Áhkanjárga) is the third-largest municipality in Nordland county, Norway, by population. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Narvik. Some of the notable villages in the municipality include Ankenesstranda, Ba ...

in 1955.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Halvorsen, Asbjorn 1898 births 1955 deaths Norwegian footballers Norway international footballers Norwegian football managers Norwegian expatriate football managers Olympic footballers of Norway Footballers at the 1920 Summer Olympics Sarpsborg FK players Hamburger SV players 1938 FIFA World Cup managers Norwegian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Germany Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Grini concentration camp survivors Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp survivors Vaihingen an der Enz concentration camp survivors Hamburger SV managers Norway national football team managers Knights of the Order of Vasa Association football midfielders People from Sarpsborg Sportspeople from Viken (county)