Ane Stangeland Horpestad

Ane Stangeland Horpestad (born 2 June 1980 in Stavanger) as Ane Stangeland, is a woman footballer from South-West Norway who has captained the Norwegian national team for three seasons and plays for Klepp in the top Norwegian league, the Toppserien, as a central defender (football). She is from the seaside village of Orre and lives in the town of Sandnes near Stavanger. Before joining Klepp at the age of 16 she played football only in boys' teams.

In 2000 she attended university in the USA, where she was named 1st-Team NAIA All-American, All-Conference and All-Region while at the University of Mobile, Alabama. She also won Region XIII Player of the Year honours and helped lead the team to a trip to the NAIA National Tournament.

Since 2005 she has been the captain of Norway women's national football team, and in her first major tournament she led the team to second place in the 2005 UEFA Women's Championship which was played in England. In the semifinal of the tournament, against her team's traditional rivals, Sweden, a crowd of 5500 watched as she created a counter-attack in extra time which won the match by 3-2. In the Final, Norway lost 3-1 to Germany.

At the end of 2005 Ane Stangeland was included in the top 20 players in the annual FIFA World Player of the Year awards. For the 2006 season she moved to Oslo to play for Kolbotn, helping them to reach the semifinals of the UEFA Women's Cup 2006-07 by beating 1. FFC Frankfurt in the quarter-finals. In June 2006 Ane Stangeland married Steffen Horpestad, and she has attached his name to hers.

At the end of 2006 Stangeland Horpestad returned to Norway's West Coast to play again for Klepp, where she trains twice a week with the men's team in addition to normal training. She continued to lead Norway to further successes at the FIFA Women's World Cup 2007 in China, where she played in all Norway's matches and scored two goals. The team reached fourth place behind Germany, Brazil and the USA. She has played 89 international matches and scored 4 goals (end of 2007), in addition to 29 matches and two goals in age-limited national teams.

Stangeland Horpestad is known for sporting play and has received only two yellow cards in her career in Norway's senior national team. She has a bachelor's degree in economics and administration, and works for Klepp Sparebank (savings bank) as a customer adviser. One of her hobbies is salmon-fishing.

She has announced that she is considering retiring from football at the end of 2008 to have more free time and perhaps start a family [ [http://fotball.aftenbladet.no/kvinner/article93300.ece 100% Fotball ] ] .

On 9 June 2008 she was named to the Norwegian roster for the 2008 Summer Olympics to be held in Beijing, China. [ [http://www.fotball.no/t1.aspx?p=51831&x=1&a=228434 Drømmen gikk i oppfyllelse] ]

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