Tom Nordlie

Tom Nordlie (born March 2 1962) is a Norwegian football coach who manages Kongsvinger IL.

Playing career

Nordlie was not a footballer himself, but he did play for the national water polo team.

Managing career

Nordlie is one of the most recognized coaches in Norway, and because of his body size, he was nicknamed "Keiko". His football philosophy is to be "insane but in control" and to "give a 100%, but also focus on one's tasks".

Nordlie has experienced both ups and downs in his career. In 1998, he led Odd Grenland to promotion to the Norwegian Premier League, and to a respectable seventh place the next season. In 2000, he took over big club Vålerenga, but were fired after a disastrous season, that led to Vålerenga's relegation from the Norwegian Premier League. After working as a football expert in TV 2 for a while, Nordlie was hired as coach of Sandefjord. He led the club to the play-off in both 2002 and 2003, but lost both times. In 2004 he took over the struggling Start, and in his first season in charge, Start won the First Division and were promoted. In their return to Tippeligaen, Start had a great spring season, and took home the silver medals, only beaten by one goal by Vålerenga. Nordlie won the Kniksen award as coach of the year.

However, in 2006 Nordlie experienced a new down. Start had a catastrophic season opening and on 14 July 2006, Nordlie was fired from his job in Start. The reason was speculated to be working problems between Nordlie and his players. After working in TV 2 for a short period, Nordlie signed as the new manager of Viking on 14 September for the rest of the 2006 season, and he got the honor for saving Viking from being degraded to the First Division, when Viking beat Brann 5-0 in the last match of the 2006-season.

After Lillestrøm SK fired Uwe Rösler Nordlie was hired on 16 November. In his first season (2007) at Lillestrøm Nordlie achieved a fourth place in the league, but won the domestic cup. LSK's first real trophy in 18 years. The following 2008 season startet catastrophical for Nordlie and LSK, and after 8 matches, and only 6 points, Nordlie resigned his position on the 29 May. In August the same year he was hired as manager for struggling second-tier side Kongsvinger IL.

List of clubs

*1988: Skedsmo (women)
*1989: Løvenstad
*1990-1991: Strømmen
*1992: Bærum
*1993-1994: Lørenskog
*1995-1996: Strømmen IF
*1997: Skjetten
*1998-1999: Odd Grenland
*2000: Vålerenga
*2002-2003: Sandefjord
*2004-2006: Start
*2006: Viking
*2006-2008: Lillestrøm
*2008-present: Kongsvinger IL

Private life

Nordlie has two children.

References

*cite news |author= |title=Siste skudd-veksling |url=http://fotball.bt.no/eliteserien/article20532.ece |work= |date=29 October 2005 |accessdate=2007-10-02