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Håkon Opdal

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Håkon Opdal
Personal information
Full name Håkon Eikemo Opdal
Date of birth (1982-06-11) 11 June 1982 (age 42)
Place of birth Odda, Norway
Height 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)[1]
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Youth career
Odda
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2001–2011 Brann 178 (0)
2012 SønderjyskE 13 (0)
2013–2018 Start 141 (1)
2019–2021 Brann 56 (0)
Total 388 (1)
International career
2002–2004 Norway U21 13 (0)
2006–2008 Norway 12 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Håkon Eikemo Opdal (born 11 June 1982) is a Norwegian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He played for Brann and Start, where he won Tippeligaen in 2007 and the Norwegian Cup in 2004.

While playing for Brann, Opdal was awarded Kniksen Award as the best goalkeeper in Norway in 2006 and 2007, and he was also the first choice goalkeeper at the Norwegian national team where he was capped 12 times between 2006 and 2008.

Club career

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Opdal was born in Odda,[2] and played for Odda FK until he joined SK Brann in 2000. Opdal made his debut for the first team in the Third Round match of the 2001 Norwegian Football Cup against Ørn-Horten.[3] He made his debut in Tippeligaen in the match against Rosenborg on 27 October 2002.[2] Opdal was reserve to Ivar Rønningen for a couple of seasons, but Opdal made his breakthrough during the 2003 season, when he started some matches in Tippeligaen. Opdal became regular in the starting lineup when Rønningen was sold in the middle of the 2004 season, leaving Opdal with competition from Johan Thorbjørnsen. Opdal became a hero in one of his first starts. In a game in the 2004 Norwegian Football Cup against Bodø/Glimt the score was 3–3 at the end of regular time. In the penalty shootout, Opdal saved a penalty from Aasmund Bjørkan and later scored the winning penalty himself. Brann carried on to win the cup that year.[3]

Håkon Opdal while playing for Brann.

Opdal performance as goalkeeper in Brann was awarded with the Kniksen Award in 2006. and in 2007 Opdal was one of the most important contributors when Brann won Tippeligaen in 2007 and Opdal was again awarded the Kniksen Award. In 2008 and 2009 Opdal suffered from injuries.[3] Opdal was made captain of Brann by Steinar Nilsen ahead of the 2009 season instead of Eirik Bakke. Opdal was the captain of Brann until the 2011 season when Rune Skarsfjord stated that he wanted an outfield player to be captain.[4]

Opdal was Brann's first choice until Piotr Leciejewski arrived at the club in 2011, and when his contract expired after the 2011 season Opdal was not offered a contract renewal.[5] Still without a contract, Brann wanted to sign Opdal on a short-term contract in May 2012 as both Leciejewski and Jørgen Mohus were injured, but Opdal rejected Brann's offer due to a knee-injury.[6] Opdal joined the Danish Superliga side SønderjyskE in June 2012,[7] and made his debut for the club in the 6–1 win against Randers in the opening match of the season.[8]

On 25 September 2015, Opdal scored a free kick goal from the half-way line for Start against Vålerenga.[9]

On 14 August 2018, Opdal signed a two-year deal for his former club SK Brann, starting from 1 January 2019, when his contract with IK Start expired. He announced his retirement from professional football after the 2021 season in early November 2021.[10]

International career

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Opdal played eight matches for Norway U16 in 1998, five matches for the under-17 team in 1999 and six matches for the under-18 team in 2000. He was also capped for Norway U21, where he played 13 matches between 2000 and 2002.[11]

Opdal was called up for the senior team for the first time in May 2006,[12] and when Thomas Myhre was injured Opdal made his debut against Serbia on 15 November 2006.[13] Opdal played 12 matches between 2006 and 2008 and was the first choice goalkeeper for the national team.[3] After playing in the 3–1 loss against Montenegro in March 2008,[14] Opdal lost his position as first-choice goalkeeper to Rune Jarstein.[15] When Jarstein was made unavailable for the friendly match against Finland in April 2009, Opdal was again called up for the national team, but stayed on the bench with Jon Knudsen playing 90 minutes.[14]

Career statistics

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Club

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Appearances and goals by club, season and competition[16]
Club Season League National cup Europe Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Brann 2001 Tippeligaen 0 0 1 0 1 0 2 0
2002 1 0 1 0 – 2 0
2003 13 0 3 0 – 16 0
2004 16 0 7 0 – 23 0
2005 24 0 4 0 4 0 32 0
2006 25 0 2 0 1 0 28 0
2007 25 0 1 0 9 0 35 0
2008 18 0 3 0 4 0 25 0
2009 20 0 3 0 – 23 0
2010 30 0 0 0 – 30 0
2011 6 0 1 0 – 7 0
Total 178 0 26 0 19 0 223 0
SønderjyskE 2012–13 Danish Superliga 13 0 0 0 – 13 0
Start 2013 Tippeligaen 30 0 3 0 – 33 0
2014 20 0 1 0 – 21 0
2015 29 1 0 0 – 29 1
2016 30 0 1 0 – 31 0
2017 OBOS-ligaen 28 0 0 0 – 28 0
2018 Eliteserien 4 0 2 0 – 6 0
Total 141 1 7 0 0 0 148 1
Brann 2019 Eliteserien 27 0 1 0 2 0 30 0
2020 17 0 0 0 – 17 0
2021 12 0 0 0 – 12 0
Total 56 0 1 0 2 0 59 0
Career total 388 1 34 0 21 0 443 1

Honours

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Norway

Individual

References

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  1. ^ "accessdate". Norsk & Internasjonal Fotballstatistikk (in Norwegian). NTB. Retrieved 24 April 2009.
  2. ^ a b "Håkon Opdal". altomfotball.no (in Norwegian). Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  3. ^ a b c d "Håkon Opdal" (in Norwegian). SK Brann. Archived from the original on 10 November 2017. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  4. ^ "Opdal ferdig som kaptein" (in Norwegian). Bergens Tidende. 26 February 2011. Archived from the original on 1 March 2011. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  5. ^ "Håkon Opdal fremdeles klubbløs" (in Norwegian). NRK. 16 January 2012. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  6. ^ "Brann henter ikke ny keeper med det første" (in Norwegian). Bergens Tidende. 18 May 2012. Archived from the original on 27 June 2012. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  7. ^ "Opdal klar for ny klubb" (in Norwegian). TV 2. 7 June 2012. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  8. ^ Bøyum, Mads (28 July 2012). "Håkon Opdals nye fotballiv" (in Norwegian). Bergens Tidende. Archived from the original on 18 August 2012. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  9. ^ Keeper Håkon Opdal med ellevill scoring!
  10. ^ Vik, Øystein; Bøyum, Mads (10 November 2021). "Håkon Opdal legger opp". Bergens Tidende (in Norwegian). Retrieved 11 November 2021.
  11. ^ "Håkon Eikemo Opdal's profil". fotball.no (in Norwegian). Football Association of Norway. Archived from the original on 21 August 2012. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  12. ^ Johannessen, Sturla (15 May 2006). "Opdal håper på fast plass" (in Norwegian). Nettavisen. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  13. ^ Strand, Tore (14 November 2006). "Ny Serbia-utfordring for Opdal" (in Norwegian). Bergens Tidende. Archived from the original on 24 February 2008. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  14. ^ a b Svendsen, Roy Hilmar (24 March 2009). "Opdal tilbake på landslaget" (in Norwegian). NRK. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  15. ^ Olsen, Olav Rege (26 May 2008). "Duket for keeperskifte" (in Norwegian). Stavanger Aftenblad. Archived from the original on 27 May 2008. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  16. ^ "Håkon Opdal". altomfotball.no (in Norwegian). TV 2. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
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