Frode Grodås (born 24 October 1964) is a Norwegian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach and former

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

. Capped 50 times for his country, he participated at the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 1 ...

as well as being an unused substitute at the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States w ...

Early life

Originally from

Hornindal Municipality Hornindal is a List of former municipalities of Norway, former municipality in Sogn og Fjordane county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1867 until 1965 and then again from 1977 until its dissolution in 2020. It was located in the Districts ...

Sogn og Fjordane Sogn og Fjordane (; literally "Parish and the Fjords") was a Counties of Norway, county in western Norway, from 1 January 1919 to 31 December 2019, after it was merged to become part of Vestland county. Bordering previous counties Møre og Romsda ...

, Grodås was born in

Volda Volda may refer to: Places *Volda Municipality Volda is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Møre og Romsdal Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Sunnmøre Districts of Norway, region. The administrative centre i ...

, Norway.

Playing career

During his career he played for several Norwegian clubs. After his ten-year spell at

Lillestrøm Lillestrøm is a municipality in Akershus county. It is located in the traditional district of Romerike. With a population of 85,757 inhabitants, it is the fourth most populated municipality in Viken. It was founded on 1 January 2020 as a merger ...

he spent six years abroad, in England, Germany and Spain. He won the English

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

in 1997 with Chelsea, keeping a clean sheet in a 2–0 win in the final. He rounded off his career with Norwegian Division One team

Hønefoss __NOTOC__ Hønefoss is a town and the administrative center of the municipality of Ringerike in Buskerud county, Norway. Hønefoss is an industrial center of inner Østlandet, containing several factories and other industry. As of 1 January 2022 ...

. Grodås was last capped in 2002, aged 37 years and 318 days, and is the fourth oldest player at the Norwegian national team.

Coaching career

He has education from the

Norwegian School of Sport Sciences The Norwegian School of Sport Sciences (, 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 education at the Bachelor, Mast ...

. After retiring as a player, Grodås received the highest level of football coach education in Norway and took over

HamKam Hamarkameratene (), often abbreviated to HamKam or Ham-Kam, is a Norwegian professional football club based in the town of Hamar. The club was founded in 1918, originally under the name Freidig. HamKam were most recently promoted to the Elites ...

from 1 December 2005. However, Grodås couldn't deliver the results, and Ham-Kam was relegated. Grodås was fired on 7 November 2006. In December 2006, Grodås signed a three-year contract with Lillestrøm as a goalkeeper-coach. Grodås is then back in what he regards as his home club. He has also acted as the third-choice goalkeeper for the club. In June 2007 Lillestrøm's first-choice goalkeeper Heinz Müller received a two match suspension after hitting Geir Ludvig Fevang with his left knee. As a result of this, Grodås sat on the substitute bench as backup goalie during the Tippeliga-match against

Sandefjord Sandefjord () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Vestfold. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Sandefjord ...

later that month. He returned to the bench in August 2007 after an injury to Müller. After Lillestrøm manager

Tom Nordlie Tom Nordlie (born 2 March 1962) is a Norwegian football 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 ...

had resigned on 29 May 2008, Grodås stepped in as caretaker together with former Chelsea teammate

Erland Johnsen Erland Johnsen (born 5 April 1967) is a Norwegian football manager and former professional footballer who is director of youth at Sarpsborg 08 FF. As a player he was a centre back from 1983 until 1999, notably in the Premier League for Chelsea ...

. In 2010, Grodås ended his term with Lillestrøm in a mutual agreement and took over as goalkeeper-coach for the Norwegian national team. On 8 January 2024, Grodås signed a short contract with

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga (, ) is a professional association football league in Denmark and the highest level of the Danish football league system. The league is currently contested by 12 teams each year, with 2 teams relegated. It is the current ...

club AGF until the summer of 2024. He would continue to fulfill his position on the Norwegian national team at the same time.

Personal life

Grodås' son, Victor Grodås, is also a footballer, playing for Hødd from

Ulsteinvik is a town in Ulstein Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The town is the commercial and administrative centre of the municipality and as such, Ulsteinvik contains 74% of the municipal population. The town has a population (2024) ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Lillestrøm *

1. divisjon The Norwegian First Division, also called 1. divisjon () and OBOS-ligaen (due to sponsoring ties with OBOS), is the second-highest level of the Norwegian football league system. Each year, the top finishing teams in the 1. divisjon are promo ...

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

Norwegian Football Cup The Norwegian Football Cup () 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 tournament in the country. The tournament ...

runner-up:

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

Chelsea *

: 1996–97 Schalke 04 *

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English language, English, is a German knockout Association football, football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competiti ...

: 2000–01, 2001–02 *

DFB-Ligapokal The DFL-Ligapokal (, officially Premiere Ligapokal , previously DFB-Ligapokal ) or the ''German League Cup'' was a German association football, football competition that took place before the start of the Bundesliga season, featuring the top five t ...

runner-up:

2001 The year's most prominent event was 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. The United States led a Participan ...

Individual *

Kniksen Award The Kniksen Award (), established in 1990, honors the best players in the Norwegian football premiership. The award is named after the legendary Norwegian football player Roald Jensen, nicknamed "Kniksen". Categories Category A A jury comp ...

Goalkeeper of the Year: 1991, 1993 * VG Goalkeeper of the Year: 1993 *

Romerikes Blad is a local newspaper published in Lillestrøm, Norway. It covers the Romerike district. History and profile was established by Martin Julius Halvorsen in 1902 in Jessheim under the name ''Akershusingen'', and was affiliated with the Norwegian ...

Athlete of the Year: 1993

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Grodas, Frode 1964 births Living people People from Volda 1994 FIFA World Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players Chelsea F.C. players Men's association football goalkeepers Hønefoss BK players Kniksen Award winners La Liga players Lillestrøm SK players Norway men's international footballers Norwegian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in England Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Norwegian football managers Norwegian men's footballers People from Hornindal Eliteserien players Premier League players Bundesliga players FC Schalke 04 players Sogndal Fotball players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Norwegian School of Sport Sciences alumni Sevilla FC players Hamarkameratene managers Footballers from Møre og Romsdal Aarhus Gymnastikforening non-playing staff 20th-century Norwegian sportsmen Eliteserien managers