Katrine Søndergaard Pedersen (born 13 April 1977) is a Danish former

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 ...

and current coach who serves as the head coach of Canadian

Northern Super League The Northern Super League (NSL; ) is a Canada soccer league system#Women, top-division professional women's association football, women's soccer league in Canada. The league is owned and operated by Project 8 Sports, Inc., and includes six team ...

club

Ottawa Rapid FC Ottawa Rapid FC () is a professional women's soccer club based in Ottawa, Ontario. It competes in the Northern Super League, the highest level of the Canadian soccer league system. The club plays its home matches at the 24,000-capacity TD Plac ...

. She has played for and captained

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 ...

, for whom she accrued a national record 210

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 ...

. Pedersen is a member of the Danish Football Hall of Fame.

Club career

At club level, Pedersen spent the final years of her career with Norwegian club Stabæk, as a result of Stabæk taking over the bankrupt club Asker FK at the end of 2008. Most of Pedersen's club football has been played outside Denmark. During 2002–03 she played for the English professional club Fulham Ladies, where she won a

domestic treble A treble in association football is achieved when a club team wins three trophies in a single season. A continental treble involves winning the club's top-level domestic league competition, main domestic cup competition, and main continental tro ...

. When Fulham reverted to

semi-professional Semi-professional sports are sports in which athletes are not participating on a full-time basis, but still receive some payment. Semi-professionals are not amateur because they receive regular payment from their team, but generally at a cons ...

status several players left and Pedersen moved to Norway to join 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 ...

club IF Fløya based in

Tromsø Tromsø is a List of towns and cities in Norway, city in Tromsø Municipality in Troms county, Norway. The city is the administrative centre of the municipality as well as the administrative centre of Troms county. The city is located on the is ...

. After two seasons there she moved to spend the 2006 season playing in Stockholm, Sweden for 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 ...

club Djurgården/Älvsjö. For the 2007 season, she moved back to

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 ...

to play for Asker SK in Oslo, and stayed there during 2008. At the end of 2014, Pedersen joined Australian club

Adelaide United Adelaide United Football Club is a professional men's soccer club located in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. The club was one of the eight founding members of the A-League Men and have competed in it concurrently since its formation, u ...

International career

Pedersen made her senior international debut in September 1994; a 1–0 win over the Netherlands in

Hoogezand Hoogezand () is a town in the municipality of Midden-Groningen, in the province of Groningen in northeast Netherlands. History The name refers to a higher sanded ''(Hooge Sandt)'' place in the peatlands cut through when the Winschoterdiep Cha ...

. She was in her national team in the 2005 UEFA Women's Championship in

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 ...

, and was captain at the

FIFA Women's World Cup 2007 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. She also played in earlier World Cup competitions in

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

(as an 18-year-old) and

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

, as well as

UEFA Women's Championship The UEFA European Women's Championship, also called the UEFA Women's Euro, held every four years and one year after the men's UEFA European Championship first held in 1984, is the main competition in women's association football between nationa ...

s in

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

and

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

. When Pedersen was named in national coach Kenneth Heiner-Møller's 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 ...

she was the most experienced active player in Europe, with 203 caps. Pedersen was named Danish women's player of the year in 2007, 2011, and 2013. In November 2013, she announced her

pregnancy Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring gestation, gestates inside a woman's uterus. A multiple birth, multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins. Conception (biology), Conception usually occurs ...

and retirement while accepting the Danish Player of the Year award. Her total of 210 international appearances is 81 more than her countryman,

Peter Schmeichel Peter Bolesław Schmeichel (born 18 November 1963) is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. During eight seasons at English club Manchester United, he won 15 trophies including five Premier League titles, three FA C ...

. She was four games short of

Birgit Prinz Birgit Prinz (born 25 October 1977) is a German former footballer, two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion and three-time FIFA World Player of the Year. In addition to the German national team, Prinz played for 1. FFC Frankfurt in the Frauen ...

's record for European players.

Coaching career

In August 2015, Pedersen was named an assistant coach with the Denmark women's national team. In December 2020, it was announced that she would become the head coach of AGF Fodbold in the Danish Women's League beginning in the summer of 2021. In October 2024, she was announced as the first head coach of

in the Canadian

, ahead of the inaugural season in 2025. As of 10 October 2024, Pedersen was among four Danish women to have a UEFA Pro Coaching Licence.

Personal life

Pedersen works as a teacher and football trainer at a high school in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

, Norway. In May 2011, her autobiography "Katrine" was published in Denmark. Pedersen is in a relationship with fellow former football player, Maiken Pape.

References

External links

Profile at Asker club site

Profile at Stabæk club site
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pedersen, Katrine 1977 births Living people Danish women's footballers 21st-century Danish sportswomen Denmark women's international footballers 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup players 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup players FIFA Women's Century Club Expatriate women's footballers in England Expatriate women's footballers in Norway Expatriate women's footballers in Sweden Expatriate women's soccer players in Australia Fulham F.C. Women players Djurgårdens IF Fotboll (women) players Asker Fotball (women) players Stabæk Fotball Kvinner players Adelaide United FC (women) players Danish expatriate sportspeople in England Danish expatriate sportspeople in Norway Toppserien players Danish expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Danish expatriate sportspeople in Australia Women's association football central defenders Women's association football midfielders Damallsvenskan players Danish LGBTQ footballers Footballers from Horsens Danish lesbian sportswomen Northern Super League head coaches