Full name Ivar Ronningen Playing position Years Team Role Footballer Position Goalkeeper | Place of birth Lunner, Norway 0000–1993 Lunner Name Ivar Ronningen Height 1.90 m | |
 | ||
Date of birth (1975-02-13) 13 February 1975 (age 40) | ||
Ivar Ronningen (born 13 February 1975) is a Norwegian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Valerenga, Brann, Rosenborg and HamKam. He also spent time on loan with Walsall, GKS Katowice and Lillestrom. After playing professional football for almost 20 years, Ronningen retired after the 2012-season, and joined HamKam's coaching staff as a goalkeeper coach.
Contents
Early years
Ronningen was born in Lunner and played for the local club Lunner IL until he joined Valerenga in 1994. He made his debut for Valerenga in the 1997 Norwegian Football Cup match against Brann, and became the first goalkeeper to score a goal in an official match, when he scored from the penalty spot in the 6–0 victory against Eik-Tonsberg.
Ronningen did not get many chances for Valerenga, and in the spring of 1999 he was loaned out to English club Walsall and Polish club GKS Katowice without success. It was the goalkeeper coach at Valerenga, Tor Thodesen who arranged the deal with Katowice, but Ronningen returned from Poland because he didn't get the salary he was promised. When Ronningen returned to Norway, the only club who wanted to get Ronningen on loan was the Norwegian Third Division side Grindvoll. Lillestrom needed a goalkeeper-reserve in the fall of 1999, and Thodesen tipped the club that Ronningen was available for loan.
Brann
After Thodesen was hired as Teitur Thordarson's assistant in Brann ahead of the 2000 season, he brought Ronningen to the club. After a year as the second-choice goalkeeper, but got the chance when Magnus Kihlstedt was injured in the spring of 2001. Ronningen soon became the first choice at Brann, and in August 2001 he was called up to the Norwegian national team, two years after he was playing in the Third Division. Ronningen was never capped for Norway, but did play one match for Norway B against Romania in January 2002, in addition to two matches for the under-21 team and one match for the under-18 team.
Ronningen scored a goal from the penalty spot in the 4–1 victory against Hovding in the second round of the 2002 Norwegian Football Cup. Brann was leading 3–1 and had been awarded a penalty kick, which Ronningen converted. Ronningen remained a regular at Brann, even though he was competing with the talented youngster Hakon Opdal, and played a total of 95 matches for the club, until he in the summer of 2004 transferred to rivals Rosenborg.
Rosenborg
That he transferred to Rosenborg was quite a surprise, as they already had the goalkeepers Espen Johnsen and Alexander Lund Hansen . Ronningen was however not happy with the contract negotiation with Brann, and moved to Rosenborg where he received a bigger payment, even though he was supposed to be the third-choice goalkeeper. The young goalkeeper Lund Hansen was sent on loan to Fredrikstad FK so that he could play regularly, and Ronningen remained the second-choice goalkeeper at Rosenborg, but did however play the first round of the 2005 Norwegian Football Cup against Orkla, where he scored one of the goals from the penalty spot in the 11–0 victory.
HamKam
Ronningen moved to HamKam ahead of the 2006 season, and was the first-choice goalkeeper until Jon Masalin became the preferred goalkeeper half-way through the 2008 season. Ronningen wanted to leave HamKam, but after Masalin was injured Ronningen again became the first choice. Ronningen stayed at the club through two relegations, even though his payment was reduced from 1,2 M NOK at Rosenborg to 0,2 M NOK at the third tier. He scored a goal on a penalty when HamKam won promotion back to the second tier with a 6–0 victory against Lorenskog in the decisive match of the 2010 season.
According to the local newspaper Hamar Arbeiderblad, Ronningen was HamKam's best player in the 2011 season, and the 36-year-old decided to play for one more season, despite being called "father" by his younger team-mates. He was however injured in the beginning of the next season, and he believed he had played his last match for HamKam, but when his replacement Gary Hogan was injured, Ronningen was again playing. After playing for the club for seven seasons, Ronningen retired after the 2012 season and joined HamKam's coaching staff as a goalkeeper coach, where he was working the talented goalkeepers Lars Overnes and Emil Holst.