Claus Lundekvam

Claus Lundekvam

Personal information
Full name	Claus Lundekvam
Date of birth	22 February 1973 (1973-02-22) (age 38)
Place of birth	Austevoll, Norway
Height	1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Playing position	Defender
Youth career
	Brann
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1993–1996	Brann	53	(1)
1996–2008	Southampton	357	(2)
Total		410	(3)
National team
1995–2005	Norway	40	(2)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Claus Lundekvam (born 22 February 1973) is a former Norwegian footballer, who spent most of his career at English side Southampton. He played for Southampton in the 2003 FA Cup Final against Arsenal (which was lost 1-0).

Playing career

Hailing from Austevoll, Norway, he joined Brann as a junior player with his senior debut coming in 1993. Lundekvam eventually gained a regular place as a central defender before being sold to English side Southampton in the autumn of 1996. He played over 350 Premier League matches for Southampton, which is more Premiership appearances than any other Norwegian. He was the team's first choice for captain for several years.

Lundekvam made his debut for Norway in November 1995, but did not become a regular until 2002. He was capped 40 times, scoring twice.^[1] His first international goal, against Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2002, was the 1,000th goal in the history of the Norwegian national team.

Claus scored only two goals during his Saints career. His first came against Wolves on 3 April 2004 in a 4–1 win,^[2] and his second against Cardiff in 2006^[3] – both teams managed at the time by former Saints manager Dave Jones.

In 2002-03, he contributed to what was undoubtedly Southampton's best season since the 1980s, when they finished eighth in the Premier League and reached the FA Cup final, where they only narrowly missed out on silverware as they lost 1-0 to Arsenal. This was during the management of Gordon Strachan, who famously joked when Lundekvam was stretched off injured in a game against Leicester City in the 2003-04 season that he "didn't have a clue" whether the player was unconscious as "that's what he's always like".[1]

Lundekvam remained at Southampton even after their relegation from the FA Premier League in 2005. He went off injured after five minutes of the first game of the 2006-07 season, away to Derby County on 6 August 2006 (being replaced in the centre of defence by Chris Baird) and missed the first two months of the season. He then enjoyed a long run in the team before another injury in March put him out for another month. In the game at St Mary's against Southend United on 6 May 2007,^[4] he fell awkwardly sustaining a serious ankle injury which has put him out of action until at least February 2008. On 18 March 2008 it was announced that his injury was such that his playing career was over.^[5]

He announced his retirement on 25 March 2008

Awards
Preceded by Peter Crouch	Southampton F.C. player of the season 2005-06	Succeeded by Chris Baird

References

1. ^ http://www.home.no/greenriver/players/lundekvam.html
2. ^ "Wolves 1-4 Southampton". BBC Sport. 2004-04-03. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/3571945.stm. Retrieved 2008-02-21. 
3. ^ "Southampton 3-2 Cardiff". BBC. 1 April 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_1/4842680.stm. Retrieved 1 September 2009. 
4. ^ "Southampton 4-1 Southend". BBC. 6 May 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_1/6602891.stm. Retrieved 1 September 2009. 
5. ^ "Claus set to quit". www.saintsfc.co.uk. 2008-03-18. http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/articles/article.php?page_id=9890. Retrieved 2008-03-18. 

External links

• Claus Lundekvam career stats at Soccerbase

Persondata
Name	Lundekvam, Claus
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	22 February 1973
Place of birth	Austevoll, Norway
Date of death
Place of death