Andreia Alexandra Norton (born 15 August 1996) is a Portuguese

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for Benfica in the Campeonato Nacional Feminino. She first played for her country in an under nineteen match in 2012 and debuted for the senior team four years later.

Career

Club

Norton started to play

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

at the age of two in her native city. When Norton was seven, she went to play for the "Furadouro Sports Club", an amateur club in

Ovar Ovar ( or ) is a city and a municipality in Aveiro District, Baixo Vouga Subregion in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 55,398, in an area of 147.70 km2. It had 42,582 eligible voters (2006). The municipality includes two cities: Ovar (16 ...

, where she was the only girl in the team. She used to play as a defender, then she started to play in the midfield and finally settled down as a forward. At the age of 12, she was forced to leave the team, because Portuguese law forbids mixed teams above the age of 12. In 2009, aged 13, Norton went to play for U.D. Oliveirense, at that time a team playing in the Portuguese First Division. Due to her young age she only played a few matches, but scored a goal against

Leixões S.C. Leixões Sport Club (), commonly known as Leixões, is a Portuguese sports club from Matosinhos. It is organised into several departments for many sports, such as athletics, boxing, football, futsal, handball, karate, swimming, volleyball, wat ...

U.D. Oliveirense was relegated that season, and later folded. Like most players from Oliveirense, she went to F.C. Cesarense, where she spent three years. In 2013, Norton signed with Clube de Albergaria. There, she was twice voted the league's best player, at 17 and 18 years of age. In 2015, Norton was offered a contract with

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

. In one of the final matches of the season, against Club de Albergaria, she suffered a serious injury in her left knee, which forced her to undergo surgery twice. As the contract with Barcelona was already signed, she went to

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

but was unable to play any matches for the club. After one year in Spain, she decided to return to Portugal and signed with S.C. Braga in order to get more playing time and therefore recover her previous form. On 19 March 2018 Norton was included by the "Quinas de Ouro" award among the "11 Best Players" in the Portuguese women's league. The award is annually organized by the

Portuguese Football Federation The Portuguese Football Federation ( , FPF) is the governing body of Association football, football in Portugal. The federation was formed in 1914 as Portuguese Football Union (, UPF) by the three existing regional associations of Lisbon Footbal ...

together with the "Associação Nacional dos Treinadores de Futebol" and the "Sindicato dos Jogadores Profissionais de Futebol". In May 2018, German Frauen-Bundesliga club SC Sand announced that they had signed Norton. In August 2019, Italian club Inter Milan announced that they had signed Norton. On 13 February 2020 Portuguese club Sporting Clube de Braga announced the come back of Norton after her departure in 2018 after 2 years in the portuguese club. On 1 July 2022 Portuguese club Sport Lisboa e Benfica announced the signing of Norton with a contract until 2025.

International

Norton debuted for Portugal U19 in a match against Wales U19 on 13 March 2012. She was part of the team that reached the semi-finals in the

2012 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship The UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship, UEFA Women's U-19 Championship 2012 Final Tournament was held in Antalya, Turkey between 2 and 14 July 2012. Players born after 1 January 1993 were eligible to participate in this competition. Tournament s ...

, when they lost 1–0 against Spain in the semi-finals. Norton played with the U19 team until 2015, recording 25

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

with nine goals scored. On 15 October 2016, at the age of 20, Norton debuted for the Portuguese senior team in a tie against

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

. In her debut she scored the goal that enabled Portugal to qualify for a European Women's Championship for the first time. On 6 July 2017 Francisco Neto asked Norton to represent Portugal at the UEFA Women's Euro 2017. She did not play any matches as Portugal was eliminated in the group stage. On 30 May 2023, she was included in the 23-player squad for the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023.

International goals

Personal life

Norton is the daughter of

journeyman A journeyman is a worker, skilled in a given building trade or craft, who has successfully completed an official apprenticeship qualification. Journeymen are considered competent and authorized to work in that field as a fully qualified employee ...

Brazilian

, Valdecir Ribeiro da Silva (known as "Pingo"), who played for A.D. Ovarense in the 1995/1996 season. She never met her father, and was raised by her grandmother, aunt, and uncle.

Honours

Benfica * Campeonato Nacional Feminino: 2022–23, 2023–24, 2024–25 *

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; ) is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Generali Tranquilidade since the 2024–25 seaso ...

: 2023–24 *

Taça da Liga The Taça da Liga (), known outside Portugal as Portuguese League Cup, is an annual club football competition organised by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (LPFP) for teams competing in the top two tiers of Portuguese football – the ...

: 2022–23, 2023–24, 2024–25 * Supertaça de Portugal: 2022, 2023 Braga *

: 2019–20 *

: 2021–22

References

External links

* * *
Player's Profile at S.C. Braga
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Norton, Andreia 1996 births Living people Andreia Norton Andreia Norton Women's association football forwards Campeonato Nacional Feminino players S.C. Braga (women) players FC Barcelona Femení players Liga F players Expatriate women's footballers in Spain Expatriate women's footballers in Germany Frauen-Bundesliga players SC Sand players Inter Milan (women) players Serie A (women's football) players Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Spain Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Germany People from Ovar Portuguese people of Brazilian descent Sportspeople of Brazilian descent Clube de Albergaria players Footballers from Aveiro District UEFA Women's Euro 2022 players UEFA Women's Euro 2017 players 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup players 21st-century Portuguese sportswomen