Player Profile

After Leonhardsen was voted the Player's Player of the Year in 1994 while at Rosenborg he moved to Wimbledon where he impressed during his two and half year's stay and was twice voted the club's Player of the Year. Fiorentina and Newcastle were hot on his trail when Leonhardsen rejected a new contract offer from Wimbledon. He needed little persuasion to join his boyhood idols in the summer of 1997. It made the transition easier that he joined fellow Norwegian internationals Stig Inge Bjørnebye and Bjørn Tore Kvarme at Liverpool. They had also been his teammates at Rosenborg. Leonhardsen was delighted: "I supported Liverpool as a kid. We saw English games on Norwegian TV every week, and Liverpool were always on because they were the best. My heroes were Kevin Keegan and later Kenny Dalglish. I had Liverpool posters on my bedroom wall. I had some great times at Wimbledon but they are only a small club. I said when I first signed for them that one day I wanted to go to a big club and they said they understood." 

Roy Evans liked Norwegians because of their work ethic and claimed: "The Scandinavian players in the Premiership often don't have a great deal of flair but Øyvind probably has the most." Leonhardsen was an industrious midfielder with an eye for a goal as proved in his first season at the club when he scored six goals in 36 matches. He wasn't though first-choice when his second season started once Gérard Houllier had moved in by Evans' side and he only played regularly at the end of the season. He didn't convince Houllier that he would be of any value to his side and he sold him to George Graham's Tottenham. He stayed at Spurs for three years, playing 72 games and scoring 11 goals, being frozen out of the first team following Glenn Hoddle's arrival before the 2001/02 season. "Leo" moved to Villa on a free in 2002 but only lasted a year there before he moved back to his homeland in 2004 and joined Lyn in Oslo. A year later Leonhardsen joined Strømsgodset where he won the Norwegian first division. He retired in 2007 at the age of 37 and set up Teamplayer, a company that focuses on mentoring sporting talents to achieve their goals.