Mathias Widerøe Aas

Mathias Widerøe Aas was the older brother and teammate of Rolf Aas. Mathias played as right back for Mercantile in Kristiania (now Oslo) from 1906-12. He helped his club win the Norwegian Cup in 1907 and 1912.

In 1908 and 1910 he played in Norway’s first ever international matches, both ending in defeats against Sweden. After the match in 1908, Aas and one of his teammates reportedly got into a fight with the Swedes over the dissolution of the union between the two countries, which lasted from 1814-1905. At the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, he was an unused substitute in Norway’s two games. Mathias Aas initiated the construction of the Gressbanen stadium in Oslo in 1918, one of the first stadiums in Norway with a grass pitch.

After his football career, Aas started motor racing and owned a garage in Oslo. His business became the import agency for the Italian car brand Lancia as well as the British Lagonda in 1924. He married Gudrun Aagot Wang, with whom he had two sons and one daughter. One of his sons was the well-known Norwegian cartoonist and illustrator Ulf Aas (1919–2011).