Terje Olsen (born 22 December 1970) 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 lea ...

who played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. He signed for German club

Bayer 04 Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen, officially known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH () and commonly known as Bayer Leverkusen or simply Leverkusen, is a German professional association football, football club based in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia. ...

at the age of 15, where he played one match for the first team. Olsen also represented Norway in the

1989 FIFA World Youth Championship The 1989 FIFA U-20 World Cup, FIFA World Youth Championship took place in Saudi Arabia between 16 February and 3 March 1989. The 1989 championship was the 7th contested. The tournament took place across four cities: Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, and Ta' ...

, before retiring from professional football in 1992.

Club career

Olsen grew up in

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

, and travelled to Germany to play for

in 1986, where he played for the youth academy for two years. Olsen signed a professional contract with the first-team ahead of the 1988–89 season. He made his debut in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

when he played four minutes in the match against 1. FC Nürnberg on 5 May 1989. He later signed a contract with Leverkusen's amateur team who were playing at the third tier in Germany. In 1991 Olsen returned to Norway, and played for

in the

First Division 1st Division or First Division may refer to: Military Airborne divisions *1st Parachute Division (Germany) *1st Airborne Division (United Kingdom) * 1st Airmobile Division (Ukraine) * 1st Guards Airborne Division Armoured divisions *1st Armoure ...

. After two seasons he had lost his motivation and retired. In an interview with the Norwegian newspaper ''Aftenposten'' in 2006, he was asked if he regretted moving to Germany at the age of 15, but Olsen responded that even though he only played one match for the Bayer Leverkusen he would still do the same thing if he had the chance to go back and undo it.

International career

Olsen was a part of the Norwegian "golden generation" that later qualified for the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

and

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

, and he played alongside

Lars Bohinen Lars Roar Bohinen (born 8 September 1969) is a Norwegian football manager and former professional footballer who is the manager of Jerv. As a player, he was a midfielder from 1986 until 2005, notably playing in the Premier League for Nottingham ...

Henning Berg Henning Stille Berg (; born 1 September 1969) is a Norwegian football manager and former player. He is currently the manager of Omonia. His career lasted from 1988 to 2004, most notably in the Premier League where he won titles with both Black ...

and Stig Inge Bjørnebye for Norwegian youth teams. Olsen was never capped at senior level, but played 41 matches and scored five goals at youth international level between 1985 and 1989, including four matches for the under-21 team and played for Norway U20 in the

Personal life

Leverkusen Leverkusen () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, on the eastern bank of the Rhine. To the south, Leverkusen borders the city of Cologne, and to the north the state capital, Düsseldorf. The city is part of the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan ...

, Olsen was flatmates with

Stefan Schwarz Hans-Jürgen Stefan Schwarz (; ; born 18 April 1969) is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Schwarz started off his career with Malmö FF in 1987 before moving on to represent Benfica, Arsenal, Fiorentina and Va ...

, who later was capped 69 times for

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. He got married and got a daughter while living in Germany. He also studied while playing for Bayer Leverkusen, and has worked as a teacher after he returned to Norway.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Olsen, Terje 1970 births Living people People from Elverum Norwegian men's footballers Norway men's youth international footballers Norway men's under-21 international footballers Bayer 04 Leverkusen players Bundesliga players Elverum Fotball players Norwegian First Division players Norwegian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in West Germany Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in West Germany Men's association football midfielders Footballers from Innlandet