Erik Hagen was born on July 20, 1975 in Veme, Norway and plays professional football at the international and club levels. He is married to Brigitte and they have a daughter named Marthe. He has a twin brother, Rune Hagen who is also a professional football player.
At the international level, Erik Hagen represents his home-country Norway and made his debut for his national side on October 9, 2004 in a 1-0 away win over Scotland. After this impressive performance, he has featured regularly at the Norwegian central-defense position and has won 24 international caps for his national side. In 2004, Erik Hagen was the winner of the highest individual award for Norwegian football players, the Kniksen award, in the Defender of the Year and Kniksen of the Year categories.
Erik Hagen has scored two international goals and his debut goal for Norway happened on October 17, 2007 in a 2008 Union of European Football Association (UEFA) European Championship qualifier win over Bosnia and Herzegovina. A month later, he netted his second goal at Ullevaal Stadion in Oslo in another qualifying match against Turkey. Erik Hagen has earned the nickname “Panzer”, which is a loanword from the German language referring to a battle tank.
Erik Hagen began his football career by playing in the Jevnaker’s youth team and graduated to the senior team in 1996. He played for Jevnaker during the 1996-1997 season and scored six goals from forty two appearances. In 1998, he joined the Liv/Fossekallen football club, which is now known as Hønefoss Ballklubb, and spent that season in the club playing 24 games. Erik Hagen made a move to Vålerenga, where he played for four years starting from 2000 and made 113 appearances with four goals to his credit. He was a part of the team that emerged as the winners in Cup of Norway that was held in 2002.
Erik Hagen also became the first Norwegian player to play for a Russian club, when he was sold to Zenit St. Petersburg in 2005. That year, he appeared in twenty eight games for the club and was elected vice-captain by the team in January 2006. He has scored three goals from the sixty seven games he played for this club.
Erik Hagen was sent to Wigan Athletic as a loan player in the first month of 2008 and made one appearance for the Latics in a match against Portsmouth. On July 28, 2008 it was announced that he would be making a comeback to the Valerenga Football club after he signed a two-and-a-half-year contract with them.
Erik Hagen spends his free time by playing computer games, and he likes listening to country music.
