Erik Nevland is a professional football player who was born on November 10, 1977 in Stavanger, Norway. As of 2008, he plays for the Premier League side, Fulham Football Club, as a striker and wears the number 10 jersey.
He had represented Norway at the under-21 level and had won twenty two international caps. In 2001, Erik Nevland was graduated to the senior team, for which he made 4 appearances as of 2008.
Erik Nevland started his professional football career by playing with Viking Fotballklubb’s youth team, after which he graduated to this Norwegian club’s senior team in 1995 and played there till 1997. After his stint with Viking ended, Erik Nevland took part in a trial with Manchester United football club and scored hat-tricks in three successive games.
This impressive performance prompted them to consider him for their club, and in 1998, at the age of nineteen Erik Nevland signed to play with Manchester United. In a Worthington Cup match against Bury in 1999, he played for the club’s first team and scored his only goal for the club. In 1999, he was loaned to Viking and scored three goals from eight games. Following this short spell, Erik Nevland was sent to IFK Göteborg as a loan player in 2000 and featured in four games for this club.
In 2000, Erik Nevland returned to Viking Fotballklubb on a permanent contract and played 113 games for the club with fifty four goals to his credit. He helped his club in winning the Norwegian Cup final in 2001 and scored two important goals during Viking’s famous victory against Chelsea at the Union of European Football Association (UEFA) Cup in 2002.
In November 2004, FC Groningen signed Erik Nevland on a free transfer and he had become a popular player since then. He made sixteen goals in twenty matches during his first half-season at FC Groningen and also registered the first goal in the club’s Euroborg stadium after it was opened in 2006. On April 27, 2007 Erik Nevland signed a new three-year contract with the club and in December 2007, the television viewers in Groningen voted this striker as the 'Groninger of the Year', though he was an outsider by origin.
Erik Nevland was bought by Fulham football club on January 29, 2008 for a transfer fee of £1.85 million with an addition of £370,000 since the club holds its Premier League status. He made a Premier League appearance on February 3, 2008 in a match against Aston Villa that took place at Craven Cottage. On April 12, 2008, at Madejski Stadium, Fulham registered a 2-0 victory against Reading football club, in which Erik Nevland scored his maiden goal for the club. He followed it up with his second goal for Fulham in a convincing 2-0 win over Birmingham City football club. This victory helped the club to reach the seventeenth place in the table and put them in the safety zone for the first time in 2008.
