Eirik Johansen

Eirik Holmen Johansen (born 12 July 1992) is a Norwegian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Brann.

Johansen played for Teie IF in his native Norway before joining the Manchester City Academy system at the age of 16.

Johansen has represented Norway at youth international level.

Hailing from Nøtterøy outside Tønsberg, Johansen made his debut for Teie IF in the 4.

Divisjon at the age of 14.

After training with the Tippeligaen sides Sandefjord and Odd Grenland, he was invited on a trial with Manchester City.

After Johansen got a fracture in the foot before his trial, his family managed to get a trial with his brother Tobias instead, who also plays as a goalkeeper.

Tobias impressed in the trial and got a contract with Manchester City.

Johansen later got a new trial with City, and when he joined the Manchester City Academy in August 2008, their mother and two younger brothers also moved to England.

Tobias returned to Norway and Kongsvinger in 2010, leaving him alone in England.

Johansen was training regularly with City's first team in the 2010–11 season, and signed a new two-year contract with the club in May 2011.

Johansen made his debut for the first team when he played seven minutes of the friendly match against League of Ireland XI on 30 July 2011.

After playing regularly for the reserves during the 2011–12 season, Johansen signed a professional contract with the club in July 2012, signing a three–year contract extension.

Johansen played a number of pre-season friendlies ahead of the 2012–13 season, and started the season on the bench during Manchester City's FA Community Shield win against Chelsea.

He spent most of the season playing in the reserve team for the next seven months.

But after Slocombe returned from injury, he returned back to Scunthorpe United’s remaining matches of the 2012–13 season.

At the 2012–13 season, Johansen went on to make eight appearances in all competitions.

Following his loan spell at Scunthorpe United, Johansen remained as the club’s fourth choice goalkeeper and signed a three–year contract extension.

On 7 March 2013, Johansen joined League One side Scunthorpe United on a one month loan deal as cover for the injured number one 'keeper Sam Slocombe, who was out for six weeks with a torn thigh muscle.

Two days later on 9 March 2013, he made his debut for the club, starting the whole game, a 1–2 home defeat against Coventry City.

Johansen then started in the next seven matches for Scunthorpe United.

On 2 April 2013, his loan spell with the club was extended for the rest of the season.

On 20 January 2014, he joined Norwegian club Sandefjord on a six-month loan-deal, reuniting with his old goalkeeping-coach from Teie, Hans Petter Olsen and the club stated that they wanted him as their new first-choice goalkeeper, as the first-choice in the previous season, Iven Austbø, had transferred to Viking.

Prior to the move, Johansen was also linked with a move to Scottish Premiership side Ross County, but the move fell through.

Having not started in goal for the first two league matches, he made his debut for Sandefjord, starting the whole game, in a 2–2 draw against Atla on 20 April 2014.

Since joining the club, Johansen quickly established himself as the Sandefjord’s first choice goalkeeper.

This led to him extending the club extending his loan spell for the rest of the season.

At the end of the 2014 season, he went on to make twenty–nine appearances in all competitions.

Following this, Johansen returned to his parent club when his loan spell at Sandefjord ended.

On 31 March 2015 Johansen signed with Major League Soccer club New York City.

He was loaned to NYCFC's United Soccer League affiliate club Wilmington Hammerheads on 11 May 2015.

Johansen made one appearance for the side before returning to his parent club.

Johansen made his NYCFC debut on 17 June 2015, starting in a US Open Cup 2(3) - 2(4) loss on penalty kicks against the New York Cosmos.

This turns out to be his only appearance in the 2015 season.

Johansen made his second appearance for the club, in a 1–0 loss in the US Open Cup against the New York Cosmos, on 15 June.

Having been placed on the substitute bench behind Josh Saunders, it wasn’t until on 23 October 2016 when he made his first league appearance, starting in a 4–1 win over Columbus Crew, in the season finale.

After the match, Johansen said: "I haven’t seen through too many of the clips yet but to get the start with the first save down to my left was good. When you haven’t played in a long time regularly, you can be a bit edgy because obviously you want to go out and impress. Sometimes that leads to you chasing the game which can lead to bad decisions and mistakes. That save settled me down early into the game and then it was good. On a personal note, it was a pretty decent game for me."

Six days later on 30 October 2016, he started NYCFC's first ever playoff, in a 0–2 loss to Toronto in the first leg.

Johansen, once again, started in the club’s return leg play–off against Toronto, as the club lost 5–0.

At the end of the 2016 season, he went on to make four appearances in all competitions.