Bjørn Otto Bragstad

Bjørn Otto Bragstad
Personnel
birthday	5th January 1971
place of birth	Trondheim ,  Norway
size	194 cm
position	Central defender
Juniors
Years	station
1982-1990	Rosenborg Trondheim
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1989-2000	Rosenborg Trondheim	195 (26)
2000-2002	Derby County	12 0(0)
2001-2002	→  Birmingham City  (loan)	3 0(0)
2002-2004	SW Bregenz	41 0(2)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1999-2000	Norway	15 0(0)
1 Only league games are given.

Bjørn Otto Bragstad (born January 5, 1971 in Trondheim ) is a former Norwegian football player .

Club career

Rosenborg Trondheim

Bragstad started his career with his hometown club Rosenborg Trondheim in the youth academy. In 1989 he made his professional debut in the Tippeligaen . With Rosenborg he won the championship ten times and the Norwegian Cup three times. For a defender he developed an above-average goal instinct due to his good behavior in standard situations, which is reflected in his 26 championship goals. Due to strong performances in the Champions League , he also attracted international attention, whereupon he attracted the interest of several European clubs.

Move to England

In the summer of 1999, Racing Santander , who had previously signed Sigurd Rushfeldt for the equivalent of € 5 million from Rosenborg, announced that the transfer from Bragstad was fixed. He was supposed to replace Olof Mellberg , who had migrated to Aston Villa . A short time later, Rosenborg denied this message and announced that they could not agree on the transfer fee with Santander. But there are two interested parties from the Premier League . These were Aston Villa and Derby County . It later became known that AS Saint-Étienne had also made a specific offer, which the player rejected. Bragstad, who called a move to England his lifelong dream, decided on Derby and signed a four-year deal. The transfer fee was € 3 million. As a result, Bragstand struggled with several minor injuries in England and went completely out of shape. Derby, which was in constant relegation battle, then decided to award him to the English First Division at Birmingham City for the 2001/02 season . Bragstad was seriously injured at the beginning of the season and was only able to play 3 league games for Birmingham. Derby was relegated from the Premier League this season and had to save money without the high TV monies. As a result, his contract was dissolved by Derby.

Career conclusion in Austria

For the 2002/03 season, Bragstad was signed by the Austrian Bundesliga club SW Bregenz . In his first season his injury misery continued and Bragstad only played seven championship games for Bregenz. He was able to contest the following season injury-free and became a great support in the Bregenz team's defensive, which had been rather weak to date. The 2003/04 season was concluded by Bregenz with fifth place in the table, which was the club's best placement in the Austrian league. After this extremely successful season, Bragstad surprisingly announced his retirement at the age of 33. Without Bragstad Bregenz could no longer stabilize its defense in 2004/05 and conceded 80 goals. At the end of the season, they were relegated 15 points behind the Bundesliga.

National team

Bragstad made his debut on January 20, 1999 for the Norwegian national soccer team against Israel . He took part in the European Championship in 2000 , but where the Norwegians were eliminated in the preliminary round. He played all three preliminary round matches.

He made a total of 15 international matches for Norway.

successes

• 10 × Norwegian champions: 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001
• 03 × Norwegian Cup winners: 1992, 1995, 1999

Web links

• Player profile on the official website of the Norwegian Football Association
• Bragstad in the Ronsenborg Trondheim Archives
• Bragstad at Sporting-Heroes.net

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rams face Bragstad battle (English)
2. ↑ It has always been a dream for me to play in the Premier League (English)