Frode Johnsen (born 17 March 1974) is a Norwegian former professional footballer who played for Odd and Rosenborg in the Tippeligaen and for Nagoya Grampus and Shimizu S-Pulse in Japan.
In his final season for Odds BK in 2015, Johnsen won the Kniksen's Honour Award for his long career as a footballer.
Johnsen previously studied to be a police officer during his time in Odd Grenland, but quit school to play for Rosenborg.
As they finished third, they advanced to the UEFA Cup where they crashed out in the first round to Alavés, Johnsen scored the goal in the 1–1 away leg, but could not prevent Rosenborg from losing 3–1 at home.
In his first full season he became joint top-scorer with 17 goals (shared with Thorstein Helstad and Clayton Zane), playing in all games but one.
In the Champions League, Rosenborg and Johnsen failed to reach the group stage, losing narrowly to Deportivo in the qualifiers.
They finished third in a group which contained Real Madrid, Lyon and Olympiacos, but was eliminated in the first UEFA Cup round against FC Zenit St. Petersburg.
Johnsen could not resist the chance of going to play abroad and after serving Rosenborg faithfully for a number of years, they let him go and sold him in July 2006.
He signed an 18-month contract and started his Nagoya career by scoring twice in an away match against JEF United Chiba on 29 July 2006.
[3] On 18 November 2008, Frode Johnsen announced that he would be leaving Nagoya after this season, and that he was only a medical away from securing a move to another Japanese club.
The long flight distance between Europe and Japan was cited as one of the reasons why he did not play in more games after joining Nagoya Grampus.
On 1 September 2013, Johnsen was recalled to the national team squad, more than six years after his last cap, ahead of the 2014 World Cup qualifying matches against Cyprus and Switzerland.
In the match against Slovenia on 11 October 2013, Johnsen came on as a late substitute, becoming the oldest player ever to play for the Norwegian national team.