Johanna Maria Baltensperger Rasmussen (born 2 July 1983) is a former Danish professional

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 last played for

Linköpings FC Linköpings may refer to: *Linköpings ASS, Linköpings Allmänna Simsällskap is a Swedish swim team *Linköpings FC, an association football club *Linköpings FF, premier men's football team *Linköpings HC, Linköpings Hockey Club See also< ...

in the

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 ...

and the

Denmark women's national football team The Denmark women's national football team () represents Denmark and Greenland in international Women's association football, women's football. The team is governed by the Danish Football Association (DBU) and competes as a member of UEFA in var ...

. She was nominated for the Denmark Women's Player of the Year award in 2008. She played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

and wore the number 13 shirt for Denmark. Rasmussen has served as the assistant manager for

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

since 2021.

Club career

In February 2002 Rasmussen was reported to be joining

Texas Tech University Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public university, public research university in Lubbock, Texas, United States. Established on February 10, 1923, and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the flagship instit ...

on a soccer scholarship. Instead she moved to

Fortuna Hjørring Fortuna Hjørring is a women's association football team from Hjørring, Denmark. The club was formed in 1966 and play in green and white. Their biggest achievement in European football was reaching the 2002–03 UEFA Women's Cup final where the ...

in summer 2002. Rasmussen represented Fortuna Hjørring in both legs of the

2003 UEFA Women's Cup Final The 2003 UEFA Women's Cup Final was a two-legged football match that took place on 9 and 21 June 2003 at T3 Arena, Gammliavallen and Hjørring Stadium between Umeå IK of Sweden and Fortuna Hjørring of Denmark. It was the first final not to featu ...

, a 1–7 aggregate defeat to

Umeå IK Umeå IK () is a women's professional association football club based in the city of Umeå, in northern Sweden, and currently playing Damallsvenskan, the first tier of women's football in Sweden. They were one of the most successful football cl ...

of Sweden. After 125 appearances for Fortuna, Rasmussen signed a contract with Umeå IK ahead of the Swedish 2008 season. In 2010 Rasmussen followed Umeå teammates

Ramona Bachmann Ramona Bachmann (; born 25 December 1990) is a Swiss professional footballer who plays as a forward for National Women's Soccer League club Houston Dash and the Switzerland national team. Bachmann, who is from Malters, moved to Sweden aged 16 ...

and

Mami Yamaguchi is a Japanese football coach and former player. She is currently an assistant coach with the NWSL's Washington Spirit. She played for the Japan national team and last played for Detroit City FC. Club career Yamaguchi previously played for the ...

to the American

Women's Professional Soccer Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) was the top-level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded six teams for the 2011 ...

(WPS) league, playing the 2010 season with Atlanta Beat who finished last. She began the following campaign with

magicJack MagicJack, stylized as magicJack, is a service that allows people in the United States and Canada to make phone calls over the Internet. This type of phone service is called Internet-based telephone service (VoIP). Originally, MagicJack req ...

, but after scoring once in eight appearances negotiated a release from her contract to return to Europe. She signed with

Kristianstads DFF Kristianstads DFF () is a women's association football club from Kristianstad, Sweden. The club is affiliated to the Scania Football Association. History Wä IF was founded in 1935 and their women team played from 1990 to 1994 and again in 199 ...

in August 2011. Rasmussen moved to league champions

ahead of the 2017 season, but suffered a serious knee injury shortly afterwards.

International career

Rasmussen made her senior international debut in October 2002, in a 2–0 defeat to

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Ulm Ulm () is the sixth-largest city of the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with around 129,000 inhabitants, it is Germany's 60th-largest city. Ulm is located on the eastern edges of the Swabian Jura mountain range, on the up ...

. She went on to play at

UEFA Women's Euro 2005 The 2005 UEFA Women's Championship, also referred to as UEFA Women's Euro 2005, was a football tournament for women held from 5 June to 19 June 2005 in Lancashire and Cheshire, England. The UEFA Women's Championship is a regular tournament involvi ...

North West England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of 7,4 ...

, 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 ...

in China and

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 ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. Rasmussen won her 100th

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

for Denmark in March 2013. She was named in national

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

Kenneth Heiner-Møller Kenneth Heiner-Møller (born Kenneth Heiner Christiansen; 17 January 1971) is a Danish football manager and former player. He is the former manager of the Canadian women's national team. In 1994–1995 he played for Ferencvárosi TC in Hungary, ...

squad for

UEFA Women's Euro 2013 The 2013 UEFA Women's Championship, commonly referred to as Women's Euro 2013, was the 11th European Championship for List of women's national association football teams#UEFA, women's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament ...

. In Denmark's opening group match against hosts

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

Rasmussen featured in an eventful 1–1 draw.

Managerial career

Rasmussen was hired part-time as assistant coach for the

under head coach

Lars Søndergaard Lars Søndergaard (born 5 April 1959) is a Danish professional football manager and former player who last worked as manager of the Denmark women's national team. On 18 December 2017, it was announced by the Danish Football Association (DBU) t ...

in 2021. In 2022, the

Danish Football Association The Danish Football Association (; DBU) is the governing body of football in Denmark. It is the organization of Danish football clubs and runs the professional Danish football leagues, alongside the men's and women's national teams. Based ...

made the position full-time for the first time in the history of the Danish women's national team. She renewed her contract in September 2023 and became the assistant manager to

Andrée Jeglertz Andrée Alexander Jeglertz (born 14 February 1972) is a Swedish football coach and former professional player who is the manager of the Denmark women's national football team. Career Playing career A defender, Jeglertz played 25 games in the Al ...

when he succeeded Søndergaard the same year.

Personal life

Rasmussen was a childhood

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

champion.

References

External links

* * * * * 1983 births Living people Danish women's footballers Fortuna Hjørring players Danish Women's League players Danish expatriate women's footballers Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Denmark women's international footballers Atlanta Beat (WPS) players MagicJack (WPS) players FIFA Women's Century Club Kristianstads DFF players Linköpings FC players Damallsvenskan players Umeå IK players Danish expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Expatriate women's footballers in Sweden 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup players Women's association football wingers Women's association football forwards Footballers from Nykøbing Falster Women's Professional Soccer players Danish expatriate sportspeople in the United States 21st-century Danish sportswomen {{Denmark-women-footy-bio-stub