Bjørn Hansen

Bjørn Hansen (15 January 1939 – 25 April 2018) was a Norwegian football player and coach. Hansen was head coach for Rosenborg BK in part of the 1985 season and assistant coach 1988-89 and 1991–96. The club dominated Norwegian football at this time, winning the premier league most seasons, as well as the Norwegian cup in several of them. He was also assistant coach for Norwegian national team from 1994 to 1998, including at the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

Career Born in Trondheim, Hansen played soccer as a midfielder for FK Kvik in the 1960s. He played for the club when they were promoted to 2.divisjon which was Norway's second highest level at the time and subsequently played for the club in that division. He also played a couple of matches for Sandefjord BK in 1.divisjon, the highest level. In addition he played for Oppdal.

Educated as a teacher and working in school, he started coaching teams after his active playing career, including local Trøndelag clubs like Stjørdals-Blink og Strindheim. During his career he also coached Flatås, the Norwegian U15, U16, U17, U18, U19 and teams.

After this, he was out of RBK for a couple of seasons, but came back as assistant coach to Nils Arne Eggen in 1988. His main focus was on defense. This was the start of the most successful time in Rosenborg's history. Under Eggen and Hansen, the club won both the serie and cup in 1988 and followed up by placing second in the serie in 1989. Hansen has a pause when the club repeated the double in 1990, but came back for the 1992 season when the club again took the double. Hansen continued to 1996 and the club won the championship all these years, and in 1995 also won the cup.

He thereafter worked two years from 1998 to 2000 coaching the U21 as well as working with developing player skills for RBK.

In 2017, he was ranked as Norway's 25th most important male soccer coach through all times by Knut Espen Svegaarden in Verdens Gang.

Hansen went through heart surgery in 1997 after a heart attack. He was diagnosed with cancer for the first time in 2002. He died on 25 April 2018 at the age of 79.

Rosenborg players will play with black armbands in his honour in the match against Lillestrøm on 26 April 2018.