Biography
Eggen began his active football career when he was 15 years old as a defender at Orkdal's senior team. Later on he moved to Trondheim to study, and felt it natural to join Rosenborg. He enjoyed winning the Norwegian Football Cup with them in 1960.
In 1963 he moved to Oslo where he soon joined Vålerenga. They won the Norwegian Premier Division in 1965, before he moved back to Trondheim where he played an important role for Rosenborg when they won the Premier Division twice - and he himself won the "Player of the Year" in 1968 – before he decided to quit his football career.
He was soon appointed as Rosenborg's coach, together with Tor Røste Fossen, and in his first season (1971) they won "the double" – first time ever in the club's history. In middle of the 1970s he was the coach for the Norwegian U21 national team, and later for the senior national team.
In 1978 he was once again back as coach in Rosenborg – the team struggling in Norway's second division at that time. Two years later the team once again was among the top teams in the first division. He returned to Rosenborg after being the coach of Moss in 1986-87. At Moss he led the team to the league championship in 1987, something which was nothing less than one of the bigger surprises of Norwegian football. After Eggen left the club, they were relegated the next season.
Eggen resigned as manager for Rosenborg in 2002, and Åge Hareide took over as manager (who in turn was succeeded by Ola By Rise only a year later). Two of Eggen's last achievements was winning the Norwegian Premier Division (11th time in a row), and qualifying for the European UEFA Champions League (8th time in a row). During his spell as manager Rosenborg also won the Norwegian football cup a number of times.
After a somewhat turbulent year for Rosenborg in 2004, he was once again appointed by the club in November 2004 – this time as assistant manager/counsellor, a position he later stepped down from in 2005, when he admitted that his role hadn't worked as planned. In May 2010 he again took over as manager of Rosenborg after Erik Hamrén took over as manager of Sweden national football team. As a caretaker manager until Jan Jönsson was available to take over, Eggen led Rosenborg to their 22nd Norwegian Premier League victory.
On 1 November 2011 he once again returned to coaching, this time for Orkla (former Orkdal) at the fifth level of Norwegian football.
In 2003 he was awarded the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav for his effort in Norwegian football.
Read more about this topic: Nils Arne Eggen
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