Tor Hogne Aarøy (born 20 March 1977) is a Norwegian former

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 ...

forward. Standing tall, Aarøy is one of the world's tallest professional footballers. In a video game by

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they imitated real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" (EASN) ...

, FIFA 15, he is credited as the tallest player in the game, at 6'8.

Club career

Early career

Aarøy began his career with Spjelkavik IL, He then had short spells at Aalesund and

Frigg Frigg (; Old Norse: ) is a goddess, one of the Æsir, in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about her, she is associated with marriage, prophecy, clairvoyance and motherhood, and dwells in the wetl ...

, before returning to Spjelkavik in August 1998. Aarøy was signed by Rosenborg in the summer of 1999, and spent little over a year at the club. However, his time with Rosenborg was marred by injuries.

Aalesund

At the start of the 2001 season he joined second-tier club Aalesund, having previously had a short spell with the club in the autumn of 1997. In his first season back, he scored 11 goals in 26 games. The next season, he would help Aalesund win promotion to the Norwegian top league for the first time in their history, ending second top goalscorer with 17 goals. The 2003 season was a failure, despite 6 goals for Aarøy, the team finished second last and was relegated. In 2004, he had a decent season and Aalesund was promoted back. 2005 was another poor season, with Aalesund once again relegated. Right before the 2006 season he got a new partner, Dedé Anderson with whom he formed a great striking partnership. During the 2006 season he managed to score 12 goals while Dedé scored 14. In 2007, Aarøy played 20 top division games, scoring 6 goals.

Move to J. League

In 2011 Aarøy moved to

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

to play for

J2 League The or simply J2 is the second division of the and the second level of the Japanese association football league system. The top tier is represented by the J1 League. It (along with the rest of the J.League) is currently sponsored by Meiji Yasud ...

team

JEF United Chiba , full name and also known as , is a Japanese professional football club based in Chiba, capital of Chiba Prefecture. They currently play in the J2 League, Japanese second tier of professional football. History Furukawa Electric SC (19 ...

. On 6 March 2011, he scored his debut goal for Chiba against Giravanz Kitakyushu. On 24 April, his second league goal against FC Tokyo came from Australia international Mark Milligan's long throw. On 3 October 2012 he announced that he was leaving JEF United Chiba at the end of 2012 season. He is not being used by Chiba manager, Takashi Kiyama. Aarøy returned to Norway and Aalesund in 2013, where he played his last two seasons of his career.

International career

Aarøy was called up to the Norwegian national team on 27 January 2009, as a part of caretaker coach Egil Olsen's first squad. He eventually opted to withdraw from the squad to stay home awaiting the birth of his second child.

Club statistics

* 2008 season also includes play-off matches (2 games, 4 goals) * Blank space means zero games or goals. ? = number not verified

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aaroy, Tor Hogne 1977 births Living people Footballers from Ålesund Men's association football forwards Norwegian men's footballers Spjelkavik IL players Frigg Oslo FK players Rosenborg BK players Aalesunds FK players JEF United Chiba players Eliteserien players Norwegian First Division players Norwegian expatriate men's footballers Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Japan Expatriate men's footballers in Japan J2 League players