Egil "Drillo" Olsen

Olsen grew up in football mad Fredrikstad, which boasted Norway's best team in the 1950s. However, Olsen never played for FFK. Instead, he began his career at another Fredrikstad team, Østsiden. He quickly made his mark at the team, which played in the second division at the time. In 1964, he was involved in a bizarre transfer. He moved to Oslo that summer, and joined Vålerenga. He never played for Vålerenga in the league that season, but played against Everton in the UEFA Cup and made his international debut later that year as a member of VIF. Then, he made a surprising U-turn and rejoined Østsiden for the 1965 season, thus missing out on Vålerenga's championship winning season. In 1966, he once again rejoined Vålerenga, and spent two years making life miserable for opposing right-backs. Strangely, he did not win any more caps while at the club.

In 1968, "Drillo" moved to Sarpsborg where he spent four seasons and won 12 more caps, including the 1970 friendly against Denmark, which coincided with a World Bank summit in Copenhagen. The day before the game, Olsen and fellow radical Per Pettersen took part in a large demonstration against the "capitalist pigs", and were chased away with water cannons. The next day, the pair helped Norway get a rare away win against the Danes. In 1972, Olsen moved back to Oslo again, this time joining Frigg, where he spent the last two seasons of his playing career.

However, despite being a very good player in his day, "Drillo" is better known in Norway and the rest of the world as a coach. He got his Master's degree from the Norwegian Academy of Sports with a thesis about match analysis. His results would also form the backbone of his philosophy as a coach. He spent the rest of the '70s and '80s trying out his ideas as head coach of Lyn and Aalesund, and also worked as a lecturer at the Academy of Sports. In 1988, Olsen was appointed coach of the Norwegian U21 team, where he achieved excellent results with a team that included future internationals such as Henning Berg, Lars Bohinen, Stig Inge Bjørnebye, Roger Nilsen and Øyvind Leonhardsen. And when Ingvar Stadheim resigned as coach of the senior national team in September 1990, Olsen was appointed interim coach for the rest of the year.

Olsen's first match in charge was a friendly against Cameroon. He called up several of the U21 players for the match, including Leonhardsen, Nilsen and Bohinen. The match was an overwhelming success - Norway won 6-1, their biggest win in years (it must be said that the freezing temperature probably played a part). In the next match, Norway won away against Tunisia and then beat Cyprus 3-1 in a Euro 92 qualifier. Those results earned him the job on a permanent basis.

Olsen's first task as full-time coach was attempting to reach Euro 92. Norway didn't qualify, but still managed to make an impression with a win and a draw against Italy. Next was the qualifying campaign for the 1994 World Cup. Drawn against England, Holland, Poland and Turkey, qualification seemed like an impossible task. Before the qualifying got started, Olsen had recalled two seemingly forgotten men to the national team - former Molde star Kjetil Rekdal who had disappeared off the radar screen playing in Belgium, and giant striker Jostein Flo who was banging in goals for Sogndal, but not considered skilled enough to play for the national team. With Rekdal and Flo in the side, Norway's qualifying campaign got off to a spectacular start with a 10-0 rout against San Marino. That victory was followed by a surprising home win against Holland and an equally surprising 1-1 draw against England at Wembley, which meant Norway topped the group as 1992 drew to a close. And when England were soundly beaten in Oslo, and a rather lucky draw in Holland, the entire country had World Cup fever. Qualification was secured after an impressive 3-0 away win against Poland. Norway had reached the World Cup for the first and only time since 1938 - and Olsen was a national hero.

At the 1994 World Cup, Olsen added to his reputation. In the first match, Norway defeated Mexico - our first-ever World Cup victory. That result was followed by a 1-0 defeat against Italy and a goalless draw against the Republic of Ireland, giving Norway four points. Remarkably, that was not enough to qualify for the second stage. All four teams finished equal on points, and Norway were knocked out because they had scored the fewest goals. Even so, and despite criticism from the foreign media about our style of play, there were few critical voices in Norway. Next up was qualification for Euro 96. Norway once again did very well, and seemed certain qualifiers midway through the campaign. However, they faded down the stretch and failed to qualify.

Olsen and Norway would get their revenge. The team went undefeated in the France 98 qualifiers, and also defeated Brazil 4-2 in a friendly at Ullevaal. As luck would have it, Norway were drawn against Brazil in the World Cup finals, and after two lackluster draws against Morocco and Scotland, Norway had to win against Brazil to reach the second stage - another seemingly impossible task, that looked even more impossible when Brazil took the lead early in the second half. But Norway came back, thanks to a fantastic goal by Tore André Flo, and then won a penalty late in the game, which The Iceman himself - Kjetil Rekdal - converted. Norway had qualified for the second phase by beating Brazil! And although Norway were knocked out in another lackluster effort against Italy, Olsen was still a national hero. He then decided to go out on top, stepping down as national coach at the end of the tournament.

A few months after leaving the national job, Olsen returned to coaching with his old club Vålerenga. Then, in the summer of 1999, he was appointed manager of Wimbledon. However, his year in South London was a disaster. The team underachieved and were relegated at the end of the season - but by then, Olsen had already been sacked. Since leaving Wimbledon, Olsen has spent much of his time back at the Academy of Sports and working as a TV pundit - and his opinions about how football should be played have not changed. He was also briefly head coach of Fredrikstad in 2005, but quit the job due to health reasons.

NOTE: Matches in red are not recognized as full internationals by FIFA.

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