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Random 1990s Footballer Tuesday: #43 Egil Ostenstad

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Daniel Storey
 @ October 30th, 2012

Name: Egil Ostenstad

In his 90s prime for: Southampton, Blackburn

Lowdown: Ostenstad began his career with Viking Stavanger, where he became an instant favourite of the fans by helping them to league title in 1991, and scored 88 goals in six seasons at the club.

Graeme Souness signed the striker for £800,000 for Southampton, and in just his third game he got his first goals in his club’s famous 6-3 win over Manchester United. Initially credited with a hat trick, one of the goals was taken away and judged to be a Phil Neville own goal.

He was voted the fans’ player of the season, and amazingly the Saints turned down bids from Liverpool and Newcastle, wanting £7million. That turned out to be pretty greedy as during the next few seasons his goalscoring prowess waned and he was used mainly as a substitute.

After the 1998/99 season, he moved to Blackburn Rovers where he stayed for another four seasons, being part of a glamorous swap deal with Kevin Davies. Rovers were in Division One at the time but he still only scored 12 league goals for the club at less than one every five games, even moving onto Manchester City on loan. How times have changed.

Although being very popular back home, Ostenstad only made 18 appearances for Norway, scoring six goals. He was taken to the 1998 World Cup but given only a few minutes as a substitute.

Now: Ostenstad joined Rangers from Blackburn in 2003, but his time there was dreadful, and he retired in 2005 after returning to his first club Viking Stavanger in Norway, after saving the club from relegation with his goals. He became Director of Football at the Norwegian club but stepped down in 2011. Wikipedia informs that he was the subject of a book called Mannen som elsket Yngve, so there you go.

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