- Marit Fiane Christensen
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Marit Fiane Christensen Personal information Full name Marit Fiane Christensen Date of birth 11 December 1980 Place of birth Vestby, Norway Height 1.76 m (5 ft 9 in) Playing position Central Back Club information Current club Røa Number 19 Youth career Halsen IF Senior career* Years Team Apps† (Gls)† 2000-2002 Larvik 2003 Asker 2004- Røa National team‡ 1996-1997 Norway J16 13 (2) 1997-1999 Norway J18 10 (0) 2000 Norway K21 5 (1) 2007 Norway 62 (7) * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 20 January 2009 (UTC)Marit Fiane Christensen (born December 11, 1980 in Vestby) is a Norwegian football central back. She currently plays for Røa in Norway's Toppserien league. She is member of the Norwegian Women's National Football Team, having made her debut for the senior team on March 16, 2003, in a match against USA.[1]
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Club career
She started her career in Halsen IF, a local club in Larvik. As the women's teams of Halsen and rival club Nanset IF joined into one club, FK Larvik, Marit Fiane Christensen became one of the key players of the club. Both she and the club made a Toppserien debut in 2000. Marit Fiane Christensen scored one goal, but could not help the club avoid relegation. In 2002, Larvik and Fiane Christensen returned to Toppserien. Even though Larvik survived their second encounter with Toppserien, Fiane Christensen changed team to Asker. The stay in Asker was short, as only one year later Fiane Christensen continued her way east and ended up in Røa, where she still plays today. Marit Fiane Christensen proved to be vital to the club. In her first season in Røa, her team won the Double, both the league and the cup. Over the next years, Røa with Fiane Christensen has won the league and the cup twice each.
National team
Fiane Christensen also became an important part of the national team. When she played her (currently) last match for the national team, Marit Fiane Chistensen had made 62 appearances, scoring 7 goals. She scored her first goal for Norway on July 24, 2004 in a match against Sweden.[2]
She was part of the squad for the European Championships, in which Norway claimed silver, falling to Germany 3-1 in the championship match. She was also part of the team for the 2003 Women's World Cup, 2007 Women's World Cup and the 2008 Summer Olympics held in Beijing, China.
On October 21, 2008 Marit Fiane Christensen and four other Røa players—Marie Knutsen, Guro Knutsen, Lene Mykjåland and Siri Nordby—made headlines when they announced in a press release that they would not be returning to the national team due to issues the five had with the national team leadership.[3] While the press statement never mentioned coach Bjarne Berntsen's name, it was assumed that he was instrumental in their decision to retire from the team. The retirement, which came off in many newspapers as a boycott, created widespread media attention.
Somewhat involuntarily, Marit Fiane Christensen became the spokesperson for the five players, especially in a TV-debate with the Norwegian Football Association and coach Bjarne Berntsen. As of January 2009, the issue seemed far from soluble, but with Bjarne Berntsen's retirement and the arrival of a new chief trainer for the national team, Eli Landsem, Christensen was recalled to the side in December 2009 for training matches against China and England in La Manga, Spain in January 2010.
Personal
Marit Fiane Christensen is a qualified lawyer and works as a legal adviser to NISO, the Norwegian players' organisation. In August 2008 she married Norwegian international speed-skater Øystein Grødum, having met him in 2006.[4]
Honors
References
External links
Categories:- 1980 births
- Living people
- People from Vestby
- Norwegian women's footballers
- Norway women's international footballers
- Footballers at the 2008 Summer Olympics
- Olympic footballers of Norway
- Røa IL players
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