Espen Johnsen

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Espen Johnsen is a Norwegian goalkeeper. He is actually at Rosenborg, but is headed to Strømsgodset IF from January 2007. He was born December 20, 1979 in Kristiansand, Norway. His parents are Jan and Reidun Johnsen. His brother is up-and-coming football player Marius Johnsen, currently playing for I.K. Start, from Kristiansand.

[edit] Football

Espen was discovered early as an enormous talent playing football, and after a few years playing for IK Start, he was brought to Rosenborg in Trondheim, who won the Norwegian series 13 times in a row since 1992. He was mostly benched his first two years there because of the very talented Icelandic goalkeeper Arni Gautur Arason, who left Rosenborg in 2003 to try his luck for Manchester City in the United Kingdom. Espen performed to a very high level of goalkeeping in his first matches as the first keeper of Rosenborg, and established himself on the National Team of Norway. In a match against the Spanish national team in November 2003, he performed so exceptionally that he was declared an international talent overnight. His famous tongue-gesturing towards Spanish superstar Raúl when he miraculously tricked him to miss on a huge opportunity to score, proved his enormous self-confidence and talent. Although he was injured during the match, he refused to leave and played the whole match, clearly reduced but stubbornly skilfully continued to perform excellently. Unfortunately, the injury set him out of the sport for the next six months, and he had some problems performing up to the exceptionally high standard he himself sat through that game and the season play for Rosenborg leading up to that in 2003. However, he is currently fully fit, but is now the second choice in the Norwegian national team after Thomas Myhre. After also becoming second choice in Rosenborg after the purchase of Lars Hirschfeld, Espen Johnsen made it very clear that he was not satisfied with his "demotion", and on October 6th, 2006, Strømsgodset IF announced that he had agreed to join them on a permanent basis starting January 2007.

[edit] Education and faith

Espen is studying to be an M.D. at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway. When he lived in Kristiansand, he studied at the Agder University College, taking his exam in Christian studies. He has also received attention for talking publicly about his religious faith and has been publicly recognized for his respectful and open conversations concerning religious and ethical topics. He is, like the rest of his family, an active member of the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church of Norway, although since his move to Trondheim, he has also visited and attended other churches and congregations.

Rosenborg BK - Current Squad
1 Johnsen | 2 Koppinen | 5 Basma | 6 Strand | 7 Berg | 10 Riseth | 11 Solli | 13 Hirschfeld | 14 Iversen | 15 Skjelbred | 16 Essediri | 17 Storflor | 19 Tettey | 21 Stensaas | 23 Jamtfall | 24 Koné | 25 Braaten | 26 Kvarme | 27 Sapara | 28 Lund Hansen | 33 Dorsin