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Fullname: Vidar Riseth
Born: 21 April 1971
Birthplace: Frosta, Norway
Signed: Sep 1998
Internationals: Norwegian
International Caps 51
International Goals 4
Celtic squad number 30

Biog

Riseth was essentially a squad player, and though his debut under Dr Venglos was at the left of midfield, he was soon found versatile enough to be moved around to all sorts of different positions on the park, and on the subs bench as well. He scored an own goal against St Johnstone, and was the first to score in the 2000 league cup final against Aberdeen. MON however, saw him as surplus to requirements and moved him on to Munich 1860 almost as soon as he came to Celtic.

Norwegian utility player Vidar Riseth was signed by Jozef Venglos in September 1998 for £1.5million from LASK Linz. He was Dr. Jo's first signing for Celtic. He was signed to give some options both at the back and right hand side, with his ability to play full back, centre half and defensive midfield. He played his first games at left midfield and was then asked to play in a number of positions due to injuries elsewhere and never made himself look in the best light because of his adaptability, being unable to settle down in a position and become more experienced in that.

• An elaborate hoax was perpetrated on the Daily Record over Riseth's signing. The Record had picked up on the possibility of Riseth becoming a Celtic player when he was spotted at Celtic Park and duly printed the story in the paper and in the sister-paper The Sunday Mail on the day of the Rangers-Celtic game on 20 Sep 98. The other chip-wrappers followed suit. They then attempted to confirm their hunch by contacting LASK Linz and Riseth's girlfriend. Linz denied any contact and said that he had a further two years on his contract. His girlfriend speaking directly to the Record from Austria said that the only place he might be headed was the local hospital, then persuaded a friend to act as Riseth, saying that he had been in bed for the last three days with 'flu. He was in fact in a London hotel watching the derby game on TV. He duly signed on the following night at Celtic Park with the usual photographs and press attendamce (and Fergus boobing by introducing him as "Vidmar"). The Record, seing itself seriously out-trumped published a story of wronged indignation on how they had been deliberately lied to. Quite why this should have occurred is anybody's guess but it might have had something to do with the stream of ant-Celtic articles that The Record had chosen to front since the arrival of Dr Josef Venglos as Head Coach and their "Dud Czech" article. The whole thing turned into a full blown 'hissy fit' when the Record published 'Jock Brown told us to lie" which brought a £250,000 writ down on them from Jock Brown.
  

Not an easy time for the player to make himself a great name as Jo Venglos and then John Barnes struggled for their various reasons. Riseth though was a fair player even amongst the troubles.

His greatest achievement was helping to finally put a smile on our faces after a dreary season for Celtic, by scoring in the League Cup Final win over Aberdeen in 2000. A high mark after the managerial dramas under predecessor John Barnes.

He ended up seeing out both Dr. Jo Venglos and John Barnes but then he found himself getting little first team action in Martin O'Neill's first season, which saw the writing on the wall for him soon enough.

He went on loan in November 2000 to TSV 1860 Munich, the loan becoming a permanent deal in March 2001 for £1 million and a 3 year contract with the Bundesliga side.

He left them to rejoin Rosenborg in 02/03 after failing to win a starting place with the Munich side that season. This second spell with the Norwegian champions proved extremely successful establishing himself as a commanding centre half and he was made captain of the side. He became the Norwegian side’s playmaker in the middle of the park and was extremely highly rated by the club. In January 2008 he took an option in his contract and moved on a free transfer to Lillestrom with a contract to 12/08 where he continues to command the back line.

We hope him all the best.

Playing Career

Club	From	To	Fee	League		Scottish/FA Cup		League cup		Other
Rosenborg	01/01/2003		Signed	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	14 (1)	1
1860 Munich	20/03/2001	01/01/2003	£ 975,000	15 (5)	2	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	6 (0)	1
1860 Munich	09/11/2000	19/03/2001	Loan	No appearance data available
Celtic	21/09/1998	20/03/2001	£ 1,500,000	54 (2)	3	4 (0)	0	5 (0)	1	7 (1)	1
ASK Linz	02/08/1996	21/09/1998	Signed	62 (0)	11	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Kongsvinger	01/04/1996	01/08/1996	Loan	14 (0)	5	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Luton	26/10/1995	02/08/1996	£ 110000	6 (5)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	1 (0)	0
Kongsvinger	01/01/1994	26/10/1995	Signed	42 (0)	15	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Rosenborg	01/01/1992	01/01/1994	Trainee	11 (0)	2	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0	0 (0)	0
Totals			£2,585,000	204 (12)	38	4 (0)	0	5 (0)	1	28 (2)	3
			goals / game	0.17		0		0.2		0.1
				Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals

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