Svein Grøndalen (born 8 February 1955) is a Norwegian former

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 ...

. He was born in

Halden Halden (), between 1665 and 1928 known as Fredrikshald, is both a town and a municipality in Viken county, Norway. The municipality borders Sarpsborg to the northwest, Rakkestad to the north and Aremark to the east, as well as the Swedish m ...

, and as a youngster he lived in Halden,

Drammen Drammen () is a city and municipality in Viken, Norway. The port and river city of Drammen is centrally located in the south-eastern and most populated part of Norway. Drammen municipality also includes smaller towns and villages such as Konner ...

, Halden again, and Hunndalen. He played youth football for

Kvik Halden 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 ...

and

Raufoss Raufoss is the administrative centre of Vestre Toten Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The village is located about south of the larger town of Gjøvik. The village area is located along the municipal border with the neighboring Gjøv ...

, and senior football for Raufoss, Rosenborg,

Moss Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta ('' sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and ...

and Ås. In total he got 77 caps 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 ...

, between 1973 and 1984. Grøndalen played left back or central defender, and was noted for his "physical" style of play. Many people remember him best for a brutal tackle which injured Swede

Ralf Edström Ralf Sigvard Edström (born 7 October 1952) is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a forward. Widely regarded as Sweden's best player in the 1970s, he started off his career with Degerfors IF in the late 1960s and went on t ...

during a 1977 international match. He is also remembered for missing a World Cup qualification match due to a bizarre injury, while running in the forest before the game Grøndalen ran into a moose and injured himself so badly he couldn't play the next game. He took education at the

Norwegian Institute of Technology The Norwegian Institute of Technology (Norwegian: ''Norges tekniske høgskole'', NTH) was a science institute in Trondheim, Norway. It was established in 1910, and existed as an independent technical university for 58 years, after which it was m ...

References

Svein Grøndalen
on Playerhistory.com 1955 births Living people People from Halden Sportspeople from Gjøvik Norwegian footballers Norway international footballers Raufoss IL players Rosenborg BK players Moss FK players Eliteserien players Norwegian Institute of Technology alumni Association football defenders {{Norway-footy-defender-stub