Egil Olsen

Adrian Guajardo
Antonio Medina Technology 10/10/2012

Egil Roger Olsen (born 22 April 1942 in Fredrikstad), nicknamed Drillo, is a Norwegian football manager and former footballer. He is best known as a highly successful manager of the Norway national team. He has since been manager of the Iraqi national football team, his departure from which caused considerable attention. In January 2009, he made a comeback as manager for the Norwegian national football team. Olsen was a successful player with 16 caps for the national team, earning the nickname "Drillo" from his dribbling skills and technical ability. According to close friend Nils Arne Eggen, Olsen would have been awarded with more caps as a player, had it not been for the current Norway manager Willi Kment, who did not approve of Olsen's long hair and generally scruffy appearance, as well as his personal political views. Olsen was also a formidable bandy player, while playing football.

He managed the Norwegian team from 1990 to 1998, guiding them to World Cup final tournaments in 1994 and 1998, Norway peaking as number two on the FIFA ranking. He worked from 2005 to 2007 as an analyst for Vlerengens IF before joining Expekt.com. In 1995 as Norway manager Egil Olsen used one of his three votes to nominate Norwegian women's football star Hege Riise as the FIFA World Player of the Year. The first time a woman player had been nominated in what is seen as a men's football award.[5] In June 1999, the then 57-year-old Olsen made his appearance in English football, when he was named as manager of Wimbledon. He reportedly turned down an approach from Celtic, to take charge of the London club. Olsen has stated that his favorite player at the club was Welsh international Ben Thatcher. He remained in charge for less than a year, and was sacked just before the club slipped out of the Premiership, having been top division members since 1986. Robbie Earle said that "Olsen just didn't know how to get the best out of us". He has since returned to Norway. On 19 May 2007, Olsen rejected an offer to manage the Iraq national football team citing a busy schedule. However, the Iraqi football president vowed not to give up on his signature and on 17 September, Olsen signed a three-year contract. In February 2008, Iraq sacked Olsen without telling him. He had tried to contact them by several means, but received the message when a new manager was installed, this

action on the Iraqis part was very unexpected and their reason was said to be that they did not believe Olsen was strict enough. On 14 January 2009, it was announced that Olsen would once again manage the Norway national football team in an interim period until a successor for ge Hareide can be found. In their first game under his management, they beat Germany 01 in a friendly away game in Dsseldorf. It is the first time Norway has won against Germany, since the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. With Drillo as manager Norway rose from rank 59 in 2009 to rank 11 in 2011 on the FIFA rankings.