Åge Hareide

Åge Fridtjof Hareide (23 September 1953 – 18 December 2025) was a Norwegian football player and coach. In his playing career, he played for Hødd and Molde in Norway as well as Manchester City and Norwich City in England. Hareide was capped 50 times playing for Norway. In his coaching career he managed multiple clubs, as well as the national teams of Norway, Denmark, and Iceland.

As a coach, Hareide won league titles in all of the Scandinavian countries, In Sweden with Helsingborgs IF in 1999 and with Malmö FF in 2014, in Denmark with Brøndby in 2001–02 and in his native Norway with Rosenborg in 2003. Hareide was in charge of the Norway national team from 2003 to 2008. While at Malmö during his first time in charge at the club, he notably took the team to the modern-day UEFA Champions League group stages for the first two times in the club's history. He coached Denmark to a round of 16 finish at the 2018 FIFA World Cup before appointed coach of Iceland in 2023. Following his time with Iceland, he announced his retirement from coaching.

Playing career During his playing career, Hareide played for Hødd, Molde, Manchester City and Norwich City. When Hareide made his debut for Manchester City on 24 October 1981, he became only the second Norwegian player (after Einar Aas) to play in the English top division.

He was also an active player for the Norway national team between 1976 and 1986, scoring five goals in 50 matches. and the 3–1 win against Yugoslavia in a 1983 European Championship qualifier where Hareide scored the third goal.

Coaching career As a coach Hareide has won three European countries' national league championships, namely that of Denmark, Sweden and his native Norway, making him the only coach to have won the league in three Scandinavian countries. Other coaches who have won league titles in three countries include fellow Scandinavians Trond Sollied and Sven-Göran Eriksson, while Ernst Happel, Giovanni Trapattoni, José Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti have won championships in four countries.

Early managerial career In the mid-1990s, Norwegian millionaires Kjell Inge Røkke and Bjørn Rune Gjelsten were reportedly interested in bringing Hareide back to Manchester City as manager if their bid to take over the club was successful, but the takeover bid failed and Hareide never returned to the club. When the pair tried to take over Leeds United around the same time, it was once again reported that Hareide would be installed as manager if the takeover bid succeeded, but this bid too failed and Hareide was never put in charge at Elland Road. However, the pair finally succeeded in a takeover bid for fellow English Premier League club Wimbledon in June 1997, and Hareide appeared all set to become the new manager of the club in a move that would have ousted the incumbent Joe Kinnear. But this never happened either.

Norway Hareide was employed as the coach of the Norway national football team at the end of 2003, replacing Nils Johan Semb, after one season as coach of Rosenborg. On 8 December 2008, after having failed to take Norway to any international tournaments, and having had a bad start to the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign, Hareide resigned from his position as national team coach of Norway. On 9 December 2008, Hareide announced that he was stepping down as coach of the Norway national team.

Viking On 10 June 2009, it was announced that he would be coaching Örgryte. On 1 December 2009, the former Norway national team head coach left the Swedish club to join Viking, from Stavanger to replace Uwe Rösler. and that Josep Clotet Ruiz would be hired as coach from the 2012-season onwards, similar to the organization English clubs and Molde have, with Ole Gunnar Solskjær as manager and Mark Dempsey as coach. Viking finished 9th in 2010, Hareide's first season, and 11th in 2011. With the team positioned on 10th place on 9 June 2012, Hareide was released by Viking because of the bad results.

Second spell at Helsingborg Following Conny Karlsson's resignation in Helsingborgs IF, the club hired Hareide, the last coach who won Allsvenskan with Helsingborgs IF, except Karlsson, as head coach until the end of the 2012 season.

Malmö FF Hareide was brought out of retirement from his managerial career by being appointed the new manager of the reigning Swedish champions Malmö FF on 9 January 2014. He had immediate success at the club as he led the team to defend their Allsvenskan title and qualify for the group stage of the 2014–15 UEFA Champions League in his first season. For this successful season Hareide was awarded Allsvenskan manager of the year. He was also nominated for coach of the year at Svenska idrottsgalan.

Denmark On 10 December 2015, Hareide was announced as the new manager of the Denmark national football team replacing Morten Olsen, who had stepped down following the UEFA Euro 2016 qualification. Hareide began his new job on 1 March 2016. In November 2017, he managed his Denmark team to qualification for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. This was achieved with a 5-1 aggregate play-off win over Ireland.

Hareide was the Danish coach at the 2018 FIFA World Cup. He managed Denmark to 2nd place in their group before they were eliminated in the round of 16 in a penalty shootout against Croatia.

Hareide continued as manager of in the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying. Under his leadership Denmark qualified for the UEFA Euro 2020. It was revealed that Kasper Hjulmand would replace him as manager of the Danish team following the tournament. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic the tournament was postponed, and Hareide's contract expired. When he left he had not lost in ordinary time for the last 34 games, and his last defeat was on 11 October 2016 against Montenegro.

Rosenborg In August 2020, he became the head coach of Rosenborg for a second tenure.

Malmö FF In September 2022, Hareide was announced as the new interim manager for Malmö FF.

Iceland On 14 April 2023, Hareide was announced as the new manager of the Iceland national football team. He resigned from his position on 25 November 2024. A day later, he announced his retirement from coaching.

Media career Hareide resigned as the Norway national team coach then worked as an expert Norwegian Premier League commentator for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation.

Death On 24 November 2025, it was revealed that Hareide had been diagnosed with brain cancer earlier in the year. Hareide later died on 18 December 2025, aged 72.

Career statistics

Club

International Scores and results list Norway's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Hareide goal.

+ List of international goals scored by Åge Hareide 14 April 202325 November 2024Total 1 Only competitive matches are counted. 2 For these earlier statistics, only league matches are collected.

Honours Manager Molde Norwegian Football Cup: 1994

Helsingborgs IF Allsvenskan: 1999 Svenska Cupen: 1997–98

Brøndby Danish Superliga: 2001–02

Rosenborg Tippeligaen: 2003 Norwegian Football Cup: 2003

Malmö FF Allsvenskan: 2014 Svenska Supercupen: 2014

Individual Allsvenskan Manager of the Year: 2014