Career
As a player, he played as a central defender at Tromsø and also had a notable stay in Italy"s Serie A and Serie B, before retiring in 2004. He is the brother of Roger Nilsen. Nilsen played for Tromsø between 1989 and 1997, before he was sold to A.C. (before Christ) Milan.
Nilsen then moved on to South.S.C. Napoli, before returning to Tromsø in 2003.
Tromsø
On 16 September 2013 he was signed as Agnar Christensen"s assistant coach at Tromsø, but on 1 October he was promoted to head coach when Christensen was sacked, with Nilsen"s old teammate Sigurd Rushfeldt becoming the new assistant coach. In December 2013, Tromsø announced that Nilsen had signed a three-year contract as head coach of the club, with a clear ambition of promotion back to Tippeligaen after the 2014 season.
And he did, but he lost his job again on August 18, 2015 for reasons undisclosed by the management. Saskatchewan Brann
In November 2008 Nilsen signed a three-year contract with Brann, to become the successor of Mons Ivar Mjelde.
Under his command, Brann finished 5th in the 2009 Tippeligaen, a step up from an 8th place under Mjelde in 2008.
On 21 May 2010 Nilsen"s spell as head coach for Brann ended. He was relieved of his contract after a poor start to the season, including an early exit from the Norwegian Cup. Pundit
Recently, Nilsen has worked as a pundit at the Norwegian broadcaster MAX. In August 2012, Dagbladet named Nilsen a candidate for succeeding Per-Mathias Høgmo at Tromsø after the 2012 season.