The Longside Reference

Name: Christian Kalvenes

D,O,B: 8th March 1977

Previous Clubs: Brann, Asane, Sogndal, Brann, Dundee United.

Position: Left Back  

Signed by Owen Coyle

Fee: Bosman Free.

Burnley Debut:

Last Game for Burnley:

Claret Stats:

International Honours:

Claret Honours: Member the the Play-off winners squad in 2009.

Christian is a Norwegian left signed as replacement for Jon Harley.  At 6 feet tall and a hard tackler he would seem to be exactly what we have been lacking.

Kalvenes who opted to leave Dundee United to take himself and his family home to Norway,  had a change of heart when a career in English Football beckoned. The offer was to tempting to turn down.

Craig Levine was magnanimous about the player he said: “Owen Coyle phoned me to ask about Christian and my reaction was to tell him to sign him straight away. He’s a great lad and a fantastic player so I’m thrilled for him to get a chance to play at that level. I can’t speak highly enough about him.

He left us last season to go back to Norway but things have changed and this opportunity has presented itself for him. I loved working with him and I’m sure he’ll be a great addition to their squad.”

(extracts taken from the press an Journal newspaper)

So it looks like Owen Coyle has struck gold again. Kalvenes hasn't played much first team football, featuring in just 171 games since 1995 - although 125 of those have come since 2000.

He started his footballing life at Brann where he only played once in two years then in 1998 Asane came in for him and he would start to play on a more regular basis, featuring in 47 games for the Norwegian team. Next up was Sogndal the Norwegian Premier League side where Tor Andre Flo started out, European nights and a further 67 League games during his stay there prompted Brann to take him back to Brann Stadion, Bergen but again he would find opportunities hard to come by. He would only play 11 times until on August 6th 2006 Dundee United came calling.

A quite modest fee of around £50k was enough to take the Norwegian Scotland where he made an immediate impact, scoring the equalising goal in a 2-2 draw at Ibrox.

January 2008 and with only 6 months of his contract remaining , Cristian decided to call time on his Scotland adventure and head home - until Coyle and Burnley came in.

Christian was handed the No 3 Shirt after signing a 2 year deal on the 26th June 2008.

On April 8th 2010, Christian and Burnley parted company when the remaining three months of his contract was severed by mutual consent, Kalvenes in his time at Burnley made up for his lack of pace with a his tackling, he was a good servant to the Clarets and will be remembered fondly.

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