He is considered a legend in Norwegian handball after his widely successful time with Stavanger IF. After his playing career, Espen Karlsen has owned a pizza franchise, plus he became a bank director. GoHandball has spoken to the 60-year-old former goalkeeper, who has done it all.
Espen Karlsen won the Norwegian league four times with Stavanger IF. The team also won the playoffs and the Norwegian Cup during a period still considered one of the most successful in Norwegian men’s handball. Karlsen represented the Norwegian national team 204 times from 1983 to 1990 and ranks high among the greatest goalkeepers ever in Norway.
He had amazing success during his active career, no doubt about it. But Espen Karlsen has led an even more interesting life once he stopped playing handball – he has owned a pizza franchise, been a municipal council, worked as a physiotherapist, and is now a bank director. Certainly, a man who has done it all.
– I guess I have done a great mix of things during my life after handball. And I have had a lot of fun during these years, Espen Karlsen says to GoHandball.
Espen Karlsen has been a huge figure in Norwegian handball after he stopped playing, as well. He sat on the board of the Norwegian Handball Federation from 2003 to 2015 and was the supervisor of the national teams from 2009 to 2015. Nowadays he is a board member in Bergen Håndball and is helping the goalkeepers at the club.
GoHandball asked the 60-year-old to take a walk down memory lane. And more specifically the varied working life he has led for the past 20 years.
– When I played at Stavanger I studied at business school at the same time. After I was done with handball I worked as a supervisor at the club for two years before I was headhunted to a British consulting firm that works with organizational development. From there I ended up at a communications agency as a strategic advisor. Then I left to become a bank director at a bank in Stavanger. The years I am describing were from 1997 to 2003. In 2003 I moved away from Stavanger to become a physiotherapist and then I worked in that industry for three years, Karlsen explains.
Owned a pizza franchise
When a new bank job opened up Karlsen returned to that industry and has been there ever since. The former goalkeeper has helped establish offices in Oslo and Bergen, where he leads the development of the banks.
All of this sounds great. But doesn’t everyone want to hear about how owning a pizza franchise became a reality for him? GoHandball asked him about it.
– I had completely forgotten about that, Karlsen laughs.
– It was not big business for us, but two friends and I but a pizza franchise that we wanted to help expand. We were in it for two years but I think we lost more than we gained during that period. But it was a lot of fun – when we started it was just one restaurant but it grew to be huge in takeaway, and we sold the pizzas at gas stations and so on. And we were the first ones in Norway that did it.
And during all of this, you have also had time to engage in politics, more specifically as a municipal council?
– I had forgotten about that as well. But yes, that’s right. In Stavanger for four years, and then two periods in Hallingdal, meaning eight years.
– I am a very socially interested person. When I finished my playing career I did not want to just be sad about being done about handball – I wanted to do something and create something outside of handball. I wanted to be known for something else than being a goalkeeper. That was how it started. And then in Hallingdal I could help mainly with the school system and athletics that I had experience in.
Karlsen tells us that he travels a lot. And that means he doesn’t have the time to be as involved in the handball world as he used to be. But he follows the World- and European Championships.
– I love my life and I feel blessed to work with development and to create new things. I enjoy spending time with my children and my wife. I have no plans to retire, my plan is to work as long as I am allowed to. I love the challenges in my life and I continue to enjoy it, says Espen Karlsen.