Ingvild Stensland (born 3 August 1981) is a former Norwegian

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, from August 2022, is one of the assistance coaches on Norway women's national team. As a player she last played for Stabæk FK in the

Toppserien The Toppserien is the top level of women's association football in Norway. It was founded in 1984. History Women's league football was introduced on a county basis in 1977. These leagues acted as qualification for the regional (South) league in ...

. She played 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 ...

and was a member of, and for several years also the captain of, the Norway women's national team, making her debut in 2003. She has also played in the French Division 1 and the Swedish

Damallsvenskan The (; ), known as OBOS for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of women's football in Sweden. It is one of the best women's leagues in the world, and was founded in 1988. The division consists of a league of 14 teams. From 2013, t ...

for

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

and

Göteborg FC Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

Playing career

Stensland was born in

Farsund is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Lister Region, Lister. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Farsund (town ...

in the south of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

and grew up at nearby

Lyngdal is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Lister Region, Lister. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Alleen ...

showing her talent for football at an early age. She grew up in a footballing family. Her father was a coach, while her older sisters played at Lyngdal IL. As a youth, Stensland trained with her male counterparts at Lyngdal until she reached her teens. She had a successful career with Lyngdal before starring for clubs such as

FK Donn Fotballklubben Donn is a Norwegian football club from the neighbourhood Lund in Kristiansand, most notable for its women's football team. It was founded on 24 June 1909 and named after a dog. Donn Toppfotball The women's football team Donn Topp ...

, Athene Moss, and

Kolbotn Kolbotn is an Urban areas in the Nordic countries#Urban areas in Norway, urban area in Norway's Nordre Follo municipality in Akershus county. Kolbotn is in the centre of the traditional district, Oppegård. The population is about 6,000. Kolbotn ...

in her home country Norway, Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC in Sweden, and Lyon in France. In 2005, Stensland was named the

Player of the Year. She has also been nominated for the

FIFA Women's World Player of the Year The FIFA World Player of the Year was an association football award presented annually by the sport's governing body, FIFA, between 1991 and 2015 at the FIFA World Player Gala. Coaches and captains of international teams and media representative ...

award on four occasions. As a national team player, Stensland played in the 2005 European Championships guiding her team to a second-place finish after falling 3–1 to the

Germans Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...

in the final. Since making her debut in 2003, Stensland has become a regular in the team appearing at the

2007 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup, the fifth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, was an international football competition for women held in China from 10 to 30 September 2007. Originally, China was to host the 2003 edition, but the outbreak o ...

, the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

UEFA Women's Euro 2009 The 2009 UEFA Women's Championship, or just Women's Euro 2009, was played in Finland between 23 August and 10 September 2009. The host was appointed on 11 July 2006, in a UEFA Executive Committee meeting in Berlin and the Finnish proposal won over ...

and the

2011 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup was the sixth FIFA Women's World Cup competition, the world championship for List of women's national association football teams, women's national association football, football teams. It was held from 26 June to ...

. At the beginning of 2009, Ingvild Stensland signed a contract with top French club, Olympique Lyonnaise. At about the same time she took over as captain of the national team, an appointment that was confirmed by the new chief trainer, Eli Landsem, at the end of 2009. In 2011, she returned to Göteborg, with whom she won the

Svenska Cupen Svenska cupen (, ), also known as the Swedish Cup in English, is a knockout cup competition in Swedish football and the main Swedish football cup. ''Svenska cupen'' usually refers to the men's tournament, although a women's tournament is also ...

. After the end of the season she returned to Norway to play for Stabæk FK.

Coaching career

In January 2018, Stensland got hired as player developer in Stabæk. In 2022, she continued her career as coach of the Norway women under-23 national team. However, in August 2022, she became one of the assistance coaches for the Norway national team, together with

Monica Knudsen Monica Knudsen (born 25 March 1975) is a Norwegian football coach and former player who managed Toppserien club LSK Kvinner. As a player, Knudsen was a midfielder who won 87 caps for the Norway women's national football team between 1996 and 2 ...

, with

Hege Riise Hege Riise (born 18 July 1969) is a Norwegian Association football, football coach and former Midfielder (association football), midfield player. She is considered one of the best footballers of her generation, having won the FIFA Women's World ...

as the head coach.

Honours

Individual

* 2005 Toppserien Player of the Year * 2008 Norwegian Women's Player of the Year (NISO)Jeg er kjempestolt
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References

External links

Entry
in

Store norske leksikon The ''Great Norwegian Encyclopedia'' (, abbreviated ''SNL'') is a Norwegian-language online encyclopedia. It has several subdivisions, including the Norsk biografisk leksikon. The online encyclopedia is among the most-read Norwegian publishe ...

Kopparberg/ Göteborg player profile page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stensland, Ingvild 1981 births Living people People from Farsund People from Lyngdal Norwegian women's footballers 21st-century Norwegian sportswomen Women's association football midfielders Norway women's international footballers Olympic footballers for Norway Footballers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Expatriate women's footballers in France Athene Moss players BK Häcken FF players Olympique Lyonnais Féminin players Stabæk Fotball Kvinner players Expatriate women's footballers in Sweden FIFA Women's Century Club 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup players Première Ligue players Damallsvenskan players Sportspeople from Agder UEFA Women's Champions League–winning players