Nils Arne Eggen

Nils Arne Eggen grew up in Orkdal, southwest of Trondheim. In 1959, he moved to the city, and began playing for Rosenborg. RBK were one of the better clubs in Trondheim at the time, but they played in the second division and were by no means the massive club they are today. In fact, before their cup win in 1960, Rosenborg had never won a major trophy. Eggen was a member of that team. RBK, still in the second division, won the cup again in 1964, but this time it was without Eggen, as he had moved to Oslo - mainly to study history and literature at the University, but he also found the time to play top flight football for Vålerenga. Eggen spent three years at Vålerenga, and picked up a league championship medal in 1965. That year, he was also a member of the Norway team that shocked Yugoslavia in a World Cup qualifier - one of the national team's few highlights in the 1960s. In their next game, Norway were beaten 4-0 by Finland, and Eggen was dropped.

In 1967, Eggen returned to Rosenborg, who had been promoted the season before. Rosenborg were now starting to establish themselves as one of the top teams in the country, and the newcomers from Trondheim showed no respect for the more established teams, and went on to win the league that year. Another championship was added in 1969. Things were going well for Eggen at international level too. He was recalled to the national side in June 1967, and was virtually ever-present for the next two-and-a-half years. However, football was strictly part-time in Norway at the time, so at the end of 1969, Eggen quit the game to get a real job.

Eggen's retirement from the game turned out to be short-lived. In 1971, Rosenborg coach George Curtis was named Norway manager, Eggen was named as his replacement. All RBK did in Eggen's first season as coach was winning the league and cup double, and they also reached two more cup finals during Eggen's first spell as coach, which ended midway through the 1974 season when he received another job offer. Curtis had been injured in a car accident, which left him unable to perform his job as national coach, so once again, he was replaced by his former protégé. This time, Eggen shared the job with former Viking coach Kjell Schou-Andreassen. However, despite Eggen and Andreassen's enthusiasm, and despite having all-time greats like Tom Lund and Odd Iversen in the side, they were unable to lift Norway from their state of mediocrity. In their three years in charge of the national team, Eggen and Andreassen won only six of a possible 26 games, and in 1977, the pair stepped down.

The next chapter of Eggen's coaching career came in 1978, when he rejoined Rosenborg, who had been relegated in 1977. The team won promotion at the first attempt and re-established themselves among Norway's elite. Among the players at the club were Eggen's son Knut Torbjørn. The elder Eggen left Rosenborg for the second time in 1980, and spent the next few years out of the game, working as a teacher. He returned to football in 1986, when he became coach of second division Moss, whom he led to promotion and then the league championship the following year.

In 1988, Eggen returned to Trondheim and was appointed Rosenborg coach for the third time, and this time he was there to stay. This marked the beginning of a Rosenborg reign of superiority that has lasted until today, and is likely to continue for at least a few more years. Rosenborg won their second league and cup double in 1988, finished second the next year and won another double in 1990. In 1991, they finished second behind Viking, and since then, Norwegian football has been completely dominated by Rosenborg. Between 1992 and 2002, Rosenborg won the league every single year - and with the exception of 1998, when he took a one-year sabbatical and his assistant Trond Sollied filled in, Eggen was in charge of all those Rosenborg teams. Eggen also made Rosenborg a force in European football. And that's a tremendous achievement when you look at the Norwegian teams' performances (or lack thereof) in European competition before the 1990s. RBK reached the group stage of the Champions League for the first time in 1995, and stayed in this elite company throughout Eggen's reign. Their best performance came in 1996/97, when Rosenborg shocked the world and advanced to the quarter-finals by beating AC Milan at the San Siro. Other highlights include victories against Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Galatasaray and a 5-1 demolition of Olympiakos in 1997.

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