Helge Haugen

Early life

Haugen was born in Bergen and grew up in Åsane, where he played for Åsane Fotball. He did also compete in orienteering during his youth, becoming a medallist in the Norwegian youth orienteering championship. Haugen represented Norway at youth international level, where he made eight appearances without scoring a goal between 1998 and 2000. He played for Åsane's first team in the 2. divisjon in 2001, when the team won promotion to the 1. divisjon. After the season, he transferred to the Tippeligaen team Brann.

Brann

Haugen made his debut for Brann against Bodø/Glimt in May 2002, and made two appearances in Tippeligaen in his first season with the club. After the 2002 season, where Brann had to play play-off matches against Sandefjord, the head coach Teitur Thordarson stated that Haugen and five other players did not have a future with the club. While four of the players were released from their contracts, Thordarson wanted to send Haugen on loan to another club. Ahead of the 2003 season, Mons Ivar Mjelde replaced Thordarson as Brann's head coach, and Mjelde wanted to keep Haugen at the club, and he subsequently made his break-through at the first team during the second half of the season and was also called up to the Norwegian under-21 team for the first team. He made his only appearance for the under-21 in the match against Scotland U21 on 19 August 2003. After a poor start to the 2003 season for Brann, Mjelde decided to use Haugen along with…

Tippeligaen: 2007 Norwegian Cup: 2004