| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | (1898-12-03)3 December 1898 | ||
| Place of birth | Sarpsborg, Norway | ||
| Date of death | 16 January 1955(1955-01-16) (aged 56) | ||
| Place of death | Narvik, Norway | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1917–1921 | Sarpsborg FK | ||
| 1922–1934 | Hamburger SV | ||
| International career | |||
| 1918–1923 | Norway | 19 | (0) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 1933 | Hamburger SV | ||
| 1936–1940 | Norway | ||
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Asbjørn Halvorsen (3 December 1898 – 16 January 1955), nicknamedAssi, was aNorwegianfootballer, who played as a centre-half forSarpsborg FK andHamburger SV. He was capped 19 times playing forNorway, and was a part of the Norwegian team who competed in the1920 Summer Olympics. He was later Secretary general of theNorwegian Football Association, and acted as head coach of the Norwegian national team. He is regarded as the architect behind the Norwegian "Bronze Team" that finished third in the1936 Olympics.[1]
Halvorsen was born inSarpsborg, the son of baker Christian Halvorsen and Jakobine Dorthea Thronsen. He established himself as a ship broker inHamburg, and his first marriage was with a German citizen. He married for a second time in 1951 with Sigrid Helga Willadsen.[2]
Halvorsen was a centre-half who played 19 times for theNorwegian national team, and won theNorwegian Cup in1917[3][4] as captain ofSarpsborg FK.[2] Aged 18 years and 318 days, he is the youngest captain in a Norwegian Cup final.[5] He made his debut for the national team in 1918, in a match againstSweden,[2] and played four matches for the national team in 1918, and four matches in 1919.[6] He represented Norway at the1920 Summer Olympics inAntwerp, where the Norwegian team reached the quarter-finals.[7] Between 1922 and 1934, Halvorsen played inGermany forHamburger SV, where he won the German championships in 1923 and 1928.[3] He played his last match for the national team againstGermany inHamburg in 1923, his nineteenth game for the national selection.[6]
He returned to his home country in 1934, and was hired as secretary of theNorwegian Football Association, NFF. This job also made him head of the national team's selection committee, and in the years beforeWorld War II, he also acted as national team coach.[2]
With Halvorsen at the helm, Norway won the bronze medals at the 1936 Olympics, and qualified for the1938 World Cup. This was Norway's first and only appearance in the World Cup finals until the 1990s.
During the war, Halvorsen was one of the figureheads of the Norwegian sports boycott. Practically all organized sport ceased its operations during the German occupation, and as a result, Halvorsen was arrested and placed in aconcentration camp.[8] He was imprisoned atMøllergata 19 for one day, then inGrini concentration camp from August 1942 to July 1943, then inNatzweiler-Struthof,Neckarelz andVaihingen an der Enz concentration camps.[9][10]
After the war, Halvorsen continued working for the NFF, with the title of Secretary General, until his death in 1955.[2] He was a board member ofNorsk Tipping from 1946,[11] and was decorated Knight of the SwedishOrder of Vasa. He died inNarvik in 1955,[2] as his health was permanently weakened by thetyphus which he caught at concentration camps.[12]
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Secretary general of theNorwegian Football Association 1935–1955 | Succeeded by |
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