Jan Åge Fjørtoft

Notably, this marked Norway's return to the World Cup stage for the first time since 1938.

His nickname was Fjøra.

Jan Åge Fjørtoft (born 10 January 1967) is a Norwegian former professional footballer.

A powerful centre forward with goalscoring ability, he played professionally in Norway, Austria, England and Germany.

In total, he scored 308 goals in 614 games in these four different countries.

He made 71 appearances for the Norwegian National Team, captaining the squad in 15 of them, and scored 20 goals for the Norway national team.

Fjørtoft started his senior career at Hødd (2. league Norway) as a 17-year-old, scoring 9 league goals in 17 matches in the 1984 season.

In the 1985 season, he scored 25 league goals in 22 games.

Between 1986 and 1996, Fjørtoft collected 71 caps for the Norway national team, being part of the nation's squad in the 1994 FIFA World Cup, where he appeared as a starter against Mexico (1–0) and Italy (0–1).

After retiring from professional football, Jan Åge Fjørtoft transitioned into various roles within the football industry and beyond, including broadcasting, front office, strategic consultancy, government advisory, ambassador roles, philanthropy and educational initiatives, and podcasting.

After starting in Norway with Hødd, HamKam and Lillestrøm and spending four seasons in the Austrian Bundesliga with Rapid Wien – where he became only the second foreigner to be Player of the Year in 1989 – Fjørtoft spent several seasons in England during the 1990s.

He joined Swindon Town in the summer of 1993 following their promotion to the Premiership, costing the Wiltshire club a record £500,000.

He had a slow start to his career at Swindon and endured a poor start to their first-ever top-division campaign, failing to win any of their first 16 games.

A pinnacle moment in his national team career was the qualification and participation in the 1994 World Cup held in the USA.

Fjørtoft failed to find the net until after Christmas but scored 13 goals from his final 17 games, including a hat-trick in a 3–1 win against Coventry City on 5 February 1994.

However, it was not enough to prevent Swindon from going down in bottom place with a mere five league wins having conceded 100 league goals.

Fjørtoft continued to score frequently during the 1994–95 season and helped Swindon reach the League Cup semi-finals, but their league form was disastrous once more and he transferred to Middlesbrough on 23 March 1995 for £1.3 million.

By this stage, he had scored 25 goals in all competitions for the Robins and was one of the highest scorers in the English league that season.

Meanwhile, Fjørtoft was a regular player for Middlesbrough as soon as he joined the club, and helped them finish the season as First Division champions.

Due to a restructuring of the league, they were the only team to gain automatic promotion to the Premiership in 1995.

He was a regular player throughout the 1995–96 campaign and, as the Norwegian partnered Brazilian playmaker Juninho, Boro finished in a respectable 12th place; although they had occupied fourth place in late autumn, a disastrous run of form coinciding with an injury crisis during mid-season sabotaged their hopes of European qualification or a title challenge.

Fjørtoft had scored six goals from 26 Premier League games.

However, the arrival of Italian forward Fabrizio Ravanelli pushed him down the pecking order for the 1996–97 season, and he was sold to First Division promotion chasers Sheffield United for £700,000 on 31 January 1997.

In his final game for Middlesbrough Fjørtoft scored a crucial goal against Hednesford Town in the fourth round of the FA Cup.

Boro would go on to reach the final after his departure.

After the Blades lost to Crystal Palace in the playoff final, he played at United until 15 January 1998, when he joined newly promoted Barnsley to have another crack at the Premiership.

He was unable though, to prevent Barnsley's only season at Premier League level ending in relegation, although scoring a respectable six goals in 15 Premiership games.

He left Barnsley in November 1998 to join Eintracht Frankfurt, calling time on his five-year spell in England.

Fjørtoft's next stop came in Germany with Eintracht Frankfurt, where he spent three years (25 November 1998 – 31 May 2001).

He became a cult hero for the club, scoring a decisive 89th-minute goal in the final game of the 1998–99 season, saying to himself melancholically: "probably the best goal this season", keeping Eintracht up.

Both at the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2002, Jan Åge worked as a pundit for NRK in Norway.

He returned home to Norway with Stabæk, and finished his career with Lillestrøm in 2002, retiring at the age of 35.

After he retired in 2002, he signed with NRK, becoming the first full-time pundit on Norwegian TV.

During this period, he also pursued his coaching badges, stating, "Not because I want to be a coach, but because I want to systematize what I have learned and experienced throughout my career. Whatever path I choose, this sort of education will help me."

In 2004, he assumed the Director of Football position at Lillestrøm (LSK), where he served for four and a half years until the end of the 2008 season.

While undertaking the position of Director of Football at Lillestrøm Sportsklubb, he concurrently joined Viaplay in 2004.

Serving as both host and pundit, he contributed to their Champions League, FA Cup, League Cup, and World Cup broadcasts.

Presently, he maintains an active role at Viaplay, as a senior pitch-side reporter for their Premier League broadcasts.

This included two cup final appearances (lost in 2005, won in 2007), three consecutive top-four league finishes, and a Royal League final appearance.

While playing in England, Jan Åge Fjørtoft was a guest and worked regularly for Sky as they were developing a new way of presenting football on TV.