– It is special. This is an active choice I am making to think more long-term, says Haugen to the newspaper.
Haugen is not going to give up football completely, of course, but his career will continue in the divisions below the top three in Norway (Eliteserien, OBOS league and Postnord league).
Haugen tells Bergens Tidende that he will work for Olympiatoppen as a football coach at the top sports line in Tertnes. In addition, he will be an expert for BT.
Key player for Brann
The Bergen native has 268 matches in the Eliteserien, as well as 68 matches in the OBOS league. 276 of the matches in the Norwegian top divisions came for Brann. Only five players have more games for the club than Haugen.
Haugen was a key player in the team that won league silver in 2016 and bronze in 2018.
– The best memories are perhaps from when I came up to the Løv-Ham stable as a very young person. So there has been a lot of good things in Brann, both individual matches and good periods that turned into medals, he says to BT.
Foreign offer
In 2020, Haugen left the club and tried his hand abroad. But the stay at the Cypriot club AEK Larnaca did not go as desired. He only got nine games for the club
He returned to Norwegian football and Stabæk in autumn 2021. He moved on to Aalesund before another stint in Stabæk last season.
The contract with Bærumsklubben expired in January and now the midfielders have chosen to scale back their football efforts.
But he tells BT that he had the opportunity to continue at the top level and had offers from Norwegian clubs and in “various foreign leagues, where it was perhaps better financially than it was sportingly interesting”, according to himself.
Haugen has age-specific international matches for all cohorts from U15 up to U21, but he never got a match for the A national team.
