Juventus have Sara Gama longtime injured by now and lately they even recurred to recycling Martina Rosucci from holding midfielder to Center-Back. Now, it's not a given that they want to invest on that right now, considering that they just went out of Champions' League, but they sure need ad additional CB. Milan could need a CB also, if they finally decide to pass from their disaster of a 3-women-line to a defense-line made of 4 players.
Bergens Tidende reports that Brann have turned down Roma's €100k offer for Lisa Naalsund. The midfielder stays for now. Brann have sold a few key players already, so keeping Naalsund is vital for next season. But who knows... Roma might improve the bid..
Manchester United have now joined the race for Lisa Naalsund. According to Bergensavisen, the offer is roughly €200k and negotiations are going on with Brann at the moment.
Not a super known or important player but I saw that Marija Aleksic left Arna Bjornar, any idea why and where she might be heading?
Andrine Hegerberg signs a two-year contract with Brann This is the first "big name" signing for Toppserien this winter. She is injury prone and probably past her prime, but brings experience to Brann after ten years abroad which counts for something.
An update on the transfer market this winter in Toppserien: Arna Bjørnar IN: Sofie Bjørnsen (mf, Klepp) OUT: Marte Hjelmhaug (df, LSK Kvinner), Meryll Abrahamsen (mf/fw, Stabæk), Yuuka Kurosaki (mf, unknown dest.), Marija Aleksic (mf, unknown dest.), Madeleine Veivåg (mf, Åsane), Ingrid Jåstad (mf, Avaldsnes), Martine Midtbø (fw, Røa), Karoline Haugland (mf, Brann) Avaldsnes IN: Ingrid Jåstad (mf, Arna Bjørnar), Ingvild Høvring (df, FK Haugesund) OUT: Sara Pavlovic (mf, unknown dest.), Emma Rolston (fw, Wellington Phoenix) Brann IN: Natasha Anasi (df, Breiðablik), Nanne Ruuskanen (df, KUPS), Karoline Haugland (mf, Arna Bjørnar), Andrine Hegerberg (mf, Häcken) OUT: Tuva Hansen (df, Bayern Munich), Therese Åsland (mf, Madrid CFF) Guro Bergsvand (df, Brighton & HA), Svava Ros Gudmundsdottir (fw, unknown dest.) LSK Kvinner IN: Marte Hjelmhaug (df, Arna Bjørnar), Thea Kyvåg (fw, West Ham Utd), Tonje Pedersen (mf, Kolbotn), Camilla Huseby (df, Vålerenga) OUT: Klara Rybrink (df, unknown dest.), Andrea Wilmann (fw, Kolbotn), Fiona Worts (fw, Adelaide United). Ingrid Spord (mf, retiring), Ina Gausdal (df, OH Leuven) Lyn IN: OUT: Cathinka Tandberg (mf/fw, Linköping), Christina Osnes-Ringen (mf, Kolbotn) Rosenborg IN: OUT: Sara Fornes (fw, Hammarby) Røa IN: Julie Hoff Klæboe (fw, Kolbotn), Martine Midtbø (fw, Arna Bjørnar) OUT: Mia Huse (mf, unknown dest.), Nadia Pinto (fw, Øvrevoll Hosle), Vårin Ness (fw, unknown dest.) Stabæk IN: Malene Dunsby (mf, Øvrevoll Hosle), Grace Garrad (df, West Ham), Meryll Abrahamsen (mf/fw, Arna Bjørnar) OUT: Kim Sundlöv (df, unknown dest.), Linn Huseby (mf, unknown dest.), Maiken Bjørndalen (fw, Hønefoss), Maren Hauge (df, retiring), Siri Nordeide Grønli (df, retiring) Vålerenga IN: Felicia Rogic (fw, Eskilstuna Utd), Linn Vickius (mf, Eskilstuna Utd) OUT: Dejana Stefanovic (mf, Brighton), Camilla Huseby (df, LSK Kvinner) Åsane IN: Kaja Karlsen (fw, Klepp), Anette Jensen (df, Klepp), Madeleine Veivåg (mf, Arna Bjørnar) OUT: Footnote: Siri Nordeide Grønli retires after 14 seasons and 345 matches at Stabæk. She was the only player left from the great Stabæk teams which featured players such as Ingvild Stensland, Trine Rønning, Caro Hansen and Ada Hegerberg. At Barcelona, Caro Hansen extended her contract to 2026 and Ingrid Engen to 2025.
She was pretty much injury-free in her short stint at Häcken. But she found it hard to get minutes in the second half of the damallsvenskan. Vilahamn restructured Häcken's play and several strong players were left by the wayside including former Man U player Lotta Ökvist (now Hammarby), Danish national team players Luna Gewitz (now Montpellier) and Mille Gejl Jensen (destination unknown) as well as Islandic national team player Agla Maria Albertsdottir (on loan to Breidablik).
Good news. The controversial league format with a top four championship play-off will be scrapped this upcoming season. In the future, Toppserien will go back to the round robin home/away format and increase the number of teams to 12 or 14, but during a few transition seasons with the current 10 teams, there will be a format where clubs play each other three times instead. Everything to stretch out the season.
Two tough away friendlies announced for April: April 6: Spain vs Norway (Palladium Can Misses, Ibiza) April 11: Sweden vs Norway (Gamla Ullevi, Gothenburg)
Guro Reiten is Player of the Year in Norway I guess it was between her and Caro Hansen. Ada Hegerberg, although she stepped up big time in the UWCL-final, played very little this year. Reiten has had a very strong all-round calendar year at Chelsea which supposedly tipped it in her favour.
🗣️ — Hør hva Guro Reiten har å si etter å ha vunnet Gullballen. 🌟 pic.twitter.com/0D663lknQ0— Norske Fotballkvinner (@NFKvinner) January 25, 2023
A bunch of Scandinavian clubs are in Spain on pre-season camp now. Two matches played today in Marbella: Vålerenga 3 - 1 Häcken Brekken, Sigurdardottir x 2 --- Larsen Brann 1 - 2 Hammarby Hegerberg --- Vinberg, Fornes
Friendlies played this weekend: Vålerenga 3 - 1 Hammarby Sævik, Tennebø, Sigurdardottir --- Cooney-Cross Åsane 3 – 0 Avaldsnes Kroken x 2, Mo LSK Kvinner 0 – 0 Røa Hønefoss 3 – 3 Lyn Nyhagen, Gooderham, Bjørkeslett --- Mjåseth x 2, Henriksen Stabæk 2 – 2 Øvrevoll Hosle Abrahamsen, Jönsson --- Berre x 2 KIL Hemne 0 – 9 Rosenborg Nautnes x 4, Andreassen, Skinnes Hansen, Rogde, Sørum, Nergård
Hege Riise has selected her Norway squad for Tournoi de France starting 15 February against Uruguay. Matches against Denmark and France follow later. GOALKEEPERS Guro Pettersen ............... 1991 ..... 6 / 0 .......... Vålerenga Aurora Mikalsen ............. 1996 ..... 6 / 0 .......... SK Brann Sunniva Skoglund ........... 2002 ..... 1 / 0 ......... Stabæk DEFENDERS Maren Mjelde ................. 1989 .... 160 / 20 ...... Chelsea (ENG) Tuva Hansen .................. 1997 ..... 23 / 1 ......... Bayern Munich (GER) Guro Bergsvand ............. 1994 ..... 19 / 4 .......... Brighton & Hove Albion (ENG) Sara Hørte ..................... 2000 ..... 3 / 1 ........... Rosenborg Mathilde Harviken ........... 2001 ..... 5 / 0 ........... Rosenborg Marit Bratberg Lund ........ 1997 ..... 2 / 0 ........... SK Brann Maria Thorisdottir .......... 1993 ..... 64 / 3 ......... Manchester United (ENG) Malin Brenn .................... 1999 ...... 0 / 0 ......... Como (ITA) Thea Sørbo .................,.. 2003 ...... 0 / 0 ......... Hammarby (SWE) MIDFIELDERS Frida Maanum ................. 1999 ..... 60 / 9 ........ Arsenal (ENG) Thea Bjelde .................... 2000 ..... 3 / 0 .......... Vålerenga Vilde Bøe Risa ................ 1995 ..... 55 / 2 ......... Manchester United (ENG) Emma Stølen Godø ......... 2000 ..... 0 / 0 .......... LSK Kvinner Emilie Joramo ................. 2002 ..... 2 / 0 .......... Rosenborg WINGERS / FORWARDS Guro Reiten ..................... 1994 ..... 75 / 17 ....... Chelsea (ENG) Celin Bizet Ildhusøy ......... 2001 ..... 11 / 5 ........ Tottenham Hotspur (ENG) Julie Blakstad ................. 2001 ..... 24 / 3 .......... Manchester City (ENG) Anna Jøsendal ................. 2001 ..... 6 / 0 ......... Rosenborg Amalie Eikeland .............. 1995 ..... 40 / 3 ........ Reading (ENG) Emilie Haavi .................... 1992 ..... 94 / 16 ..... AS Roma (ITA) Karina Sævik .................. 1996 ..... 34 / 4 ........ Vålerenga Emilie Nautnes ............... 1999 ...... 6 / 1 ........ Rosenborg A bunch of key players missing. Still no Ada Hegerberg or Caro Hansen. Ingrid Engen, Elisabeth Terland, Sophie Haug and Anja Sønstevold are also unavailable. But Maren Mjelde returns.
I was pleasantly surprised Ingen was left off, but then remembered something about her getting injured playing for Barca in January. Hegerberg's at least been on official OL vids going through private workouts, even showing her talking with Bompastor. No team/scrimmage drills, but she's been a ghost on any and all OL updates for a very long time now (which is odd) so seeing something official with her in it gives me hope she won't be out too much longer. As for Caro, I know she's injured anyway, but I thought she was done with the national team. Like for good. Or was it more of a 'wait and see' situation?
Hege Riise was asked by a reporter at the press conference today about Caro Hansen. Riise had a chat with her recently and apparently Caro is highly motivated to return to the national team again when she is fit to play.
Hansen took a break from the national team after the Euros because she said she was unable to manage both club and national team for the timebeing but she hasn't retired.
Tournoi de France - 1st match Norway 1 - 0 Uruguay Sævik 29 ----- Emilie Haavi ----------- Karina Sævik --------- Amalie Eikeland ------------ Guro Reiten -------- Vilde Bøe Risa ------ Frida Maanum Marit B. Lund ------- Mathilde Harviken --- Maren Mjelde ----- Tuva Hansen ------------------------------------- Sunniva Skoglund Substitutions: 46 mins: Guro Bergsvand for Maren Mjelde 66 mins: Malin Brenn for Tuva Hansen 66 mins: Thea Bjelde for Marit B. Lund 66 mins: Julie Blakstad for Guro Reiten 66 mins: Emma Godø for Frida Maanum 80 mins: Emilie Nautnes for Amalie Eikeland Norway started the French tournament with an unimpressive win in first ever encounter with Uruguay. February is usually the month when national teams are at their worst, and it showed tonight. Months have passed since the players last met and the link-up play was substandard, as was finishing. Norway clearly the better team in terms of creating half chances and ball possession, as you would expect against opposition some 50 places below on the FIFA ranking, but Uruguay were aggressive in defence and had fighting spirit which covered up a lot of that ranking gap. Vilde Bøe Risa could have been sent off early in the game when stopping a counter-attack while on a yellow card, but the referee let her go. It would have been interesting to see the team tested in numerical disadvantage in a game like this. Karina Sævik was match-winner in her first game starting as centre-forward in the absence of Hegerberg and Haug. I expected more from Haavi, Reiten and Maanum in this game, but they are excused if they shine against Denmark instead. Malin Brenn and Emma Godø won their first caps tonight coming on as subs in the second half.
For the most part I thought they played well given all the circumstances and the absentees except for that one awkward mistake in defense by Bergsvand in the second half which could have resulted in a Uruguay goal. Skoglund made some good saves and interceptions in what was her debut for the A team if I'm not mistaken. Denmark and France will both be bigger tests for sure.
Where they the only starters who were actually currently active, and in top-clubs of foreign leagues?