Knut Torbjørn Eggen

Knut Torbjørn Eggen was the son of the Norwegian football coach legend Nils Arne Eggen, and started his playing career with the local club Orkdal IL. He later played 237 matches for Rosenborg BK in the Norwegian top league from 1978-91, scoring 21 goals, and winning the league title in 1985, 1988, and 1990 and the Cup Final in 1988 and 1990. He also played 43 national matches for junior boys, and 4 at the senior level. His first senior cap was against Iceland in Reykjavik 20 June 1984, and he did it well enough to be selected for the 1984 Olympic team, where he played all three of Norway’s matches as a middle defender.

Eggen was a teacher by education, but later made a career as a football coach. From 1997 to 2001 he coached Moss FK, and the club was promoted to the first league in Eggen’s first year as a coach. He then coached Fredrikstad FK from 2002-06, bringing the club up from the third to the first league in two seasons and winning the cup final in 2006. Eggen also worked as a sports director in Rosenborg BK and coach for the national U19-team for boys 2010.

Eggen struggled with mental issues for several years, which he spoke openly about. On 20 February 2012 Eggen was found dead in his home. In an interview one year later, his father Nils Arne said: “He had come to the point of life where he was more afraid to live than to die.”