Harald Martin Brattbakk

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Harald Martin Brattbakk (born February 1, 1971 in Trondheim) is a former Norwegian football player who has now retired and occasionally works as a soccer pundit on TV2 Norway.

He has played for Kolstad, Rosenborg BK, Celtic, F.C. Copenhagen and Bodø/Glimt(loan). Brattbakk has generally been regarded a failure when playing in Scotland and Denmark.

Brattbakk is most known for his goalscoring abilities for the Norwegian club Rosenborg BK where he has enjoyed three spells (1990-91, 1994-97 and 2001-06) scoring most of his goals which has helped him reach the top of the all-time goalscoring chart in the Norwegian Premier League.

At Celtic, where he played from 1998 to 2000, Brattbakk seemed overawed by the pressures of playing for one of Scotland's Old Firm clubs. Though he did enjoy some success with the club — including hitting the clinching goal against St Johnstone to help them win the SPL title on the final day of the 1997-1998 season, and scoring all four goals in a 4-0 win over Kilmarnock that same year — his spell in Glasgow was generally characterised by nervous performances and insufficient goals.

However, Brattbakk has been very successful in Norway. With 166 goals he is the highest-scoring player in the history of the Norwegian Premier League. Moreover, his record in the Champions League is an impressive one, and includes goals against such top sides as Real Madrid and Milan. In November 2001, he scored twice against his old club Celtic as Rosenborg defeated them 2-0 in a Champions League tie in Trondheim.

Brattbakk returned to Rosenborg after being on a loan to Bodø/Glimt in the last half of the 2005 season, but on February 20, 2006 it was announced that he had been relieved from his contract and he has now retired from the game.

Brattbakk played 17 times for Norway, scoring five goals.

On November 21 2006 Brattbakk announced on the Norwegian television channel TV3 that he intends to become an airline pilot after his retirement from professional football.

Preceded by: Mons Ivar Mjelde	Norwegian top scorer 1994-1996	Succeeded by: Sigurd Rushfeldt
Preceded by: Thorstein Helstad, Frode Johnsen, Clayton Zane	Norwegian top scorer 2002-2003	Succeeded by: Frode Johnsen