| Erik Johannessen | |
| Fullname: | Erik Hjorth Johannessen |
| Birth Date: | 20 March 1952 |
| Birth Place: | Stavanger, Norway |
| Position: | Goalkeeper |
| Years1: | 1971–1983 |
| Clubs1: | Viking |
| Caps1: | 245 |
| Goals1: | 0 |
| Totalcaps: | 245 |
| Totalgoals: | 0 |
| Nationalyears1: | 1968–1970 |
| Nationalteam1: | Norway U-19 |
| Nationalcaps1: | 11 |
| Nationalgoals1: | 0 |
| Nationalyears2: | 1972–1975 |
| Nationalteam2: | Norway U-21 |
| Nationalcaps2: | 8 |
| Nationalgoals2: | 0 |
| Nationalyears3: | 1975 |
| Nationalteam3: | Norway |
| Nationalcaps3: | 6 |
| Nationalgoals3: | 0 |
Erik Johannessen (born 20 March 1952) is a Norwegian former footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Viking between 1971 and 1983. He won the Norwegian league six times and earned six caps while playing for Norway. Johannessen has later been a part of Viking coaching-staff as a goalkeeping-coach.
Johannessen was born in Stavanger[1] and started his career in Viking in 1971, where he soon became Sverre Andersen's successor as the first-choice goalkeeper.[2] Johannessen was a part of Viking's golden generation that won four consecutive Norwegian league championships between 1972 and 1975,[3] and he was voted Viking-player of the year in both 1974 and 1975.[4] Johannessen also kept a clean sheet for 672 minutes in the 1974 1. divisjon.[5] As of the end of the 2012 season, this is still the record in the top league of Norway, with Kenneth Udjus 557 minutes from 2011 and 2012 as the second-longest clean sheet.[6]
Johannessen also won the league with Viking in 1979 and 1982, and is with his six championship the most-winning Viking-player of all times. His last match for Viking was the 2–9 loss against Brann in the last match of the 1983 season. He played 245 league-matches for Viking between 1971 and 1983,[1] and with 501 matches for Viking, including friendlies, he is the Viking-player with third most appearances for the club, behind Svein Kvia and Sigbjørn Slinning.[7]
Johannessen played 11 matches for the Norway under-19 team between 1968 and 1970, before he played 8 matches for the under-21 team between 1972 and 1975. He made his debut for the senior team against Finland on 15 May 1975, and was capped a total of 6 times playing for Norway.[8]
Johannessen was working as Benny Lennartsson's goalkeeping-coach at Viking in 1989 and 1990. He later worked as goalkeeping-coach at Hinna before he was coaching Viking's youth-team.[9] He was also working as a teacher at Kristianlyst Ungdomskole, but left this job when he replaced Kurt Hegre as Viking's goalkeeping-coach ahead of the 2007 season.[10] He quit the job in the coaching staff after the 2010 season, and joined Viking's administrative staff before he returned to his teacher-job from 1 January 2012 and became Jørn Øvrebø's assistant coach at Hinna in the 3. divisjon.[11]
Johannessen had two daughters, Josefine and Martine, and was married to Brit Tone who died from cancer in 2011. Four days after his wife's burial, he got a large rift in the aorta. The doctors claimed he had a 50% chance of surviving, but Johannessen recovered after a ten-hour-long surgery at Haukeland Sykehus.[12]