Jan Åge Fjørtoft
Born: 10.01.1967 in Ålesund
Position: Forward
Caps: 71
Goals: 20
Profile
It was evident from an early age that Jan Åge Fjørtoft had a big future in football, but he was never among the most popular players in the country because of his cocky, sometimes arrogant demenour. Nor did the fact that he had a tendency to dive in the area win him any friends. However, nobody can deny that in his prime, Fjørtoft was an excellent striker - and one of the best Norwegian players of his generation.
Fjørtoft's story began in the unlikeliest of places. He grew up in the small island community of Gursken, off the west coast of Norway, where he wreaked havoc in the local youth leagues. When he was 16, Fjørtoft joined second division Hødd, the small club from Ulsteinvik that had played in the top division against all odds in the early 1970s, and now played at the second level. Despite his young age, Fjørtoft wasted no time making his name at Hødd, and his scoring exploits soon made him a Norwegian youth international, and alerted the interest of bigger clubs.
After three successful seasons at Hødd, Fjørtoft was signed by Hamarkameratene ahead of the 1986 season, as Ham-Kam was about to return to the top flight after a two-year absence. Before he had played a single game for his new club, the 19-year-old Fjørtoft got his full international debut against Grenada. In his first season at Ham-Kam, Fjørtoft scored seven goals, and also found the net on a regular basis for the Norway U21's. The next season, he upped his tally to 10 goals, but was unable to prevent Ham-Kam from being relegated. Playing in the second division was out of the question for the ambitious Fjørtoft, so at the end of the 1987 season, he joined Lillestrøm.
At Lillestrøm, Fjørtoft cemented his name as one of the best strikers in the league, and became a regular in the national side. He scored 14 goals in his first season at ÅrÅsen, as Lillestrøm finished second in the league behind Rosenborg. He also scored his first international goal in the friendly against Brazil, where Norway got an impressive draw. The next season he did even better, scoring six goals in just 11 games, sending Lillestrøm well on the way to their eventual league title, before being signed by Austrian champions Rapid Wien in the summer of 1989.
Fjørtoft soon became a fan favorite at the Gerhard Hanappi Stadium. He scored on his debut, and finished the 1989/90 season as the team's top scorer with 17 goals. On the national team, Fjørtoft was now first-choice striker alongside Gøran Sørloth, but the pair were unable to shoot Norway to the 1990 World Cup. Fjørtoft kept his place in the team for the start of the Euro 92 qualifiers, but found himself the odd man out when national coach Egil Olsen, having initially used a 3-5-2 formation, changed his tactics to 4-5-1, and preferred Sørloth as the lone striker. And so, Fjørtoft began the 1994 World Cup qualifying campaign on the bench, but took advantage of Sørloth's injury absence with goals in the friendly against Qatar and the subsequent World Cup qualifier against Turkey. From then on, Fjørtoft was the first-choice striker. At club level, Fjørtoft left Vienna in 1993 after four successful seasons in the Austrian league. Overall, he scored 62 goals in 128 games for Rapid. His next stop: England and newly-promoted Premiership side Swindon.
Swindon were playing their first-ever season at the highest level, and it soon became evident that the side was by no means good enough for the Premiership, and Fjørtoft early-season drought did not help the struggling club. Fjørtoft failed to find the net for his new club in the first 20 matches, and by then Swindon were rock-bottom of the league. However, when he eventually did find the net, the floodgates opened wide. In the final 16 games of the 1993/94 season, Fjørtoft scored 12 goals, but it was not enough to prevent Swindon from returning to Division One.
Things went better in the national team, where Norway sensationally qualified for the World Cup. Fjørtoft scored Norway's second goal in the away win against Poland that clinched the World Cup spot. However, the World Cup finals were a disappointment for Fjørtoft. He struggled big-time in the games against Mexico and Italy, where he hardly got a single scoring opportunity as the lone striker. Part of the reason was that he didn't get much support from his teammates, but the fact remains that Fjørtoft had a poor World Cup experience, and was dropped in the last group match against the Republic of Ireland.
After the World Cup, Fjørtoft continued to score on a regular basis for Swindon, which helped him get a move to Middlesbrough in March 1995. However, he now struggled to find the net for Norway, and although he kept his place in the team throughout the Euro 96 qualifying campaign, he was now starting to feel youngsters Solskjær and Flo breathing down his neck. And when Norway failed to reach the European Championship, the writing was on the wall for Fjørtoft's international career. He won his last cap against Georgia in September 1996, and finished his international career with 20 goals - which put him in 5th place on Norway's all-time scoring list at the time.
Fjørtoft left Middlesbrough in early 1997, and later had spells with Sheffield United and Barnsley, before joining German side Eintracht Frankfurt in 1999. At Frankfurt, he started finding the net on a regular basis again, and became a fan favorite. He went from fan favorite to terrace superhero when he scored the goal that saved Frankfurt from relegation in 2000. He spent one more season at the Waldstadion before returning home to play for Stabæk in 2001. The spell at Stabæk was not particularly successful, and he left at the end of the season after a very public spat with his coach. He spent the 2002 season as a bit-part player at his old club Lillestrøm, before retiring at the end of the season. He now works as a television pundit.
National Team Appearances
| # | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Goals | Competition |
| Hamarkameratene | ||||||
| 1 | 26.02.1986 | St. George's | Grenada | 2-1 | ||
| 2 | 14.11.1987 | Sofia | Bulgaria | 0-4 | Olympic Games Qual. | |
| 3 | 18.11.1987 | Ankara | Turkey | 0-0 | Olympic Games Qual. | |
| Lillestrøm | ||||||
| 4 | 26.04.1988 | Katrineholm | Sweden (Olympic) | 0-0 | ||
| 5 | 28.07.1988 | Oslo | Brazil | 1-1 |
|
|
| 6 | 09.08.1988 | Oslo | Bulgaria | 1-1 | ||
| 7 | 14.09.1988 | Oslo | Scotland | 1-2 |
|
World Cup Qualifier |
| 8 | 22.02.1989 | Athens | Greece | 2-4 | ||
| 9 | 02.05.1989 | Oslo | Poland | 0-3 | ||
| 10 | 21.05.1989 | Oslo | Cyprus | 3-1 | World Cup Qualifier | |
| 11 | 31.05.1989 | Oslo | Austria | 4-1 |
|
|
| 12 | 14.06.1989 | Oslo | Yugoslavia | 1-2 |
|
World Cup Qualifier |
| Rapid Wien (Austria) | ||||||
| 13 | 23.08.1989 | Oslo | Greece | 0-0 | ||
| 14 | 05.09.1989 | Oslo | France | 1-1 | World Cup Qualifier | |
| 15 | 11.10.1989 | Sarajevo | Yugoslavia | 0-1 | World Cup Qualifier | |
| 16 | 25.10.1989 | Kuwait City | Kuwait | 2-2 |
|
|
| 17 | 15.11.1989 | Glasgow | Scotland | 1-1 | World Cup Qualifier | |
| 18 | 04.02.1990 | Valetta | South Korea | 3-2 | ||
| 19 | 07.02.1990 | Valetta | Malta | 1-1 |
|
|
| 20 | 27.03.1990 | Belfast | Northern Ireland | 3-2 | ||
| 21 | 08.06.1990 | Trondheim | Denmark | 1-2 | ||
| 22 | 22.08.1990 | Stavanger | Sweden | 1-2 | ||
| 23 | 12.09.1990 | Moscow | Soviet Union | 0-2 | European Champ. Qual. | |
| 24 | 10.10.1990 | Bergen | Hungary | 0-0 | European Champ. Qual. | |
| 25 | 31.10.1990 | Oslo | Cameroon | 6-1 |
|
|
| 26 | 14.11.1990 | Nicosia | Cyprus | 3-0 | European Champ. Qual. | |
| 27 | 17.04.1991 | Vienna | Austria | 0-0 | ||
| 28 | 23.05.1991 | Oslo | Romania | 1-0 |
|
|
| 29 | 28.08.1991 | Oslo | Soviet Union | 0-1 | European Champ. Qual. | |
| 30 | 25.09.1991 | Oslo | Czechoslovakia | 2-3 |
|
European Champ. Qual. |
| 31 | 30.10.1991 | Szombathely | Hungary | 0-0 | European Champ. Qual. | |
| 32 | 13.11.1991 | Genova | Italy | 1-1 | European Champ. Qual. | |
| 33 | 07.01.1992 | Cairo | Egypt | 0-0 | ||
| 34 | 29.04.1992 | Aarhus | Denmark | 0-1 | ||
| 35 | 26.08.1992 | Oslo | Sweden | 2-2 | ||
| 36 | 09.09.1992 | Oslo | San Marino | 10-0 | World Cup Qualifier | |
| 37 | 10.02.1993 | Faro | Portugal | 1-1 | ||
| 38 | 30.03.1993 | Doha | Qatar | 6-1 |
|
|
| 39 | 28.04.1993 | Oslo | Turkey | 3-1 |
|
World Cup Qualifier |
| 40 | 02.06.1993 | Oslo | England | 2-0 | World Cup Qualifier | |
| 41 | 09.06.1993 | Rotterdam | Netherlands | 0-0 | World Cup Qualifier | |
| Swindon (England) | ||||||
| 42 | 08.09.1993 | Oslo | United States | 1-0 | ||
| 43 | 22.09.1993 | Oslo | Poland | 1-0 | World Cup Qualifier | |
| 44 | 13.10.1993 | Poznan | Poland | 3-0 |
|
World Cup Qualifier |
| 45 | 10.11.1993 | Istanbul | Turkey | 1-2 | World Cup Qualifier | |
| 46 | 09.03.1994 | Cardiff | Wales | 3-1 | ||
| 47 | 20.04.1994 | Oslo | Portugal | 0-0 | ||
| 48 | 22.05.1994 | London | England | 0-0 | ||
| 49 | 01.06.1994 | Oslo | Denmark | 2-1 | ||
| 50 | 05.06.1994 | Stockholm | Sweden | 0-2 | ||
| 51 | 19.06.1994 | Washington | Mexico | 1-0 | World Cup | |
| 52 | 23.06.1994 | New York | Italy | 0-1 | World Cup | |
| 53 | 07.09.1994 | Oslo | Belarus | 1-0 | European Champ. Qual. | |
| 54 | 12.10.1994 | Oslo | Netherlands | 1-1 | European Champ. Qual. | |
| 55 | 16.11.1994 | Minsk | Belarus | 4-0 | European Champ. Qual. | |
| 56 | 14.12.1994 | Valetta | Malta | 1-0 |
|
European Champ. Qual. |
| 57 | 06.02.1995 | Larnaca | Estonia | 7-0 | ||
| 58 | 08.02.1995 | Nicosia | Cyprus | 2-0 | ||
| Middlesbrough (England) | ||||||
| 59 | 29.03.1995 | Luxembourg | Luxembourg | 2-0 | European Champ. Qual. | |
| 60 | 29.04.1995 | Oslo | Luxembourg | 5-0 |
|
European Champ. Qual. |
| 61 | 25.05.1995 | Oslo | Ghana | 3-2 |
|
|
| 62 | 07.06.1995 | Oslo | Malta | 2-0 |
|
European Champ. Qual. |
| 63 | 22.07.1995 | Oslo | France | 0-0 | ||
| 64 | 16.08.1995 | Oslo | Czech Republic | 1-1 | European Champ. Qual. | |
| 65 | 06.09.1995 | Prague | Czech Republic | 0-2 | European Champ. Qual. | |
| 66 | 11.10.1995 | Oslo | England | 0-0 | ||
| 67 | 15.11.1995 | Rotterdam | Netherlands | 0-3 | European Champ. Qual. | |
| 68 | 07.02.1996 | Las Palmas | Spain | 0-1 | ||
| 69 | 27.03.1996 | Belfast | Northern Ireland | 2-0 | ||
| 70 | 24.04.1996 | Oslo | Spain | 0-0 | ||
| 71 | 01.09.1996 | Oslo | Georgia | 1-0 | ||
NOTE: Matches in red are not recognized as full internationals by FIFA.