Bente Dalum Nordby (born 23 July 1974) is a former Norwegian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

, who last played for

Olympique Lyonnais Olympique Lyonnais (), commonly referred to as simply Lyon () or OL, is a men and women's French professional football club based in Lyon in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The men play in France's highest football division, Ligue 1. Founded in 1950, th ...

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

, France. She played with the

Norway women's national football team The Norway women's national football team is controlled by the Football Association of Norway. The team is former European, World and Olympic champions and thus one of the most successful national teams. The team has had less success since the ...

from 1991 to 2007.

Career

Nordby is the second-most capped player ever for Norway with 172 international appearances.Bente Nordby profile
on the NFFwebsite Only

Hege Riise Hege Riise (born 18 July 1969) is a Norwegian football coach and former midfield player who is coaching the Norway women's national football team. One of the best footballers of her generation, she won the FIFA Women's World Cup, the Olympic Game ...

has more, with 188. She appeared in the first five

FIFA Women's World Cup The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association ( FIFA), the sport's international governing bo ...

s, an achievement that only

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

player

Kristine Lilly Kristine Marie Lilly Heavey (; born July 22, 1971) is an American retired soccer player. She was a member of the United States women's national team for 23 years and is the most-capped football player in the history of the sport (men's or wome ...

shares. Nordby is also the second most-capped international women's goalkeeper of all time. On 24 January 2008 Nordby announced her retirement from the national team.

Club career

A native of

Raufoss Raufoss is the administrative centre of Vestre Toten Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The village is located about south of the larger town of Gjøvik. The village area is located along the municipal border with the neighboring Gjøvi ...

, Nordby began her club career with Raufoss/Vind. She later joined

SK Sprint-Jeløy Sportsklubben Sprint-Jeløy is a Norwegian football club from Jeløya in Moss. The club was founded in 1926 when both ''Jeløy IF'' and ''SK Sprint'' was formed. The two clubs merged into Sportsklubben Sprint-Jeløy on 11 October 1940. The women ...

of Norway's

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 1 ...

where she played until the end of the 1995 season. Ahead of the 1996 season, the team Sprint-Jeløy was replaced by

Athene Moss FK Athene Moss was a Norwegian women's football club from Moss. It is named after Athena in Greek mythology. It was founded in 1996, replacing SK Sprint-Jeløy which was a former successful club from Moss. Athene Moss played in the Toppserien u ...

, where she played until 2000. Nordby, paired with fellow Norwegian

, was the first pick in the 30 October 2000 WUSA Foreign Player Allocation Draft, having been chosen by the

Carolina Courage Carolina Courage was a professional soccer team that played in the Women's United Soccer Association. The team played at Fetzer Field on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus in 2001, and then at the soccer-specific SAS Stadium in Cary, North Carolina i ...

. Nordby played the first half of the 2001 season for the Courage, but was later traded to the

San Diego Spirit The San Diego Spirit was a professional soccer team that played in the Women's United Soccer Association. The team played at Torero Stadium on the campus of the University of San Diego in San Diego, California. The team began play in 2001. The l ...

. In July 2001, the Spirit released Nordby due to the league's salary cap. In total, she played 14 matches of a 21-match season for the two clubs, earning a 1.73 Goals Against Average for the season. After returning to Norway, Nordby joined

Kolbotn Kolbotn is an urban area in Norway's Nordre Follo county. Kolbotn is in the centre of the traditional district, Oppegård. The population is about 6,000. Kolbotn has several elementary schools, four middle schools and a high school. Town is loca ...

in 2002, where she went on to win the Norway league that same year. She continued to play with Kolbotn until the end of the 2004 season. She then signed with Asker FK in December 2005. While playing with Asker, she won the Norwegian Cup in 2005, her only time with the club. In early 2006, Nordby signed a 2-year contract with Djurgården/Älvsjö in Sweden's

Damallsvenskan The Damallsvenskan, Swedish for ''ladies all-Swedish'' and also known as OBOS Damallsvenskan for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of women's football in Sweden. It is also referred to as the women's Allsvenskan. The term Allsvenskan ...

league. In 2007, Nordby won the Damallsvenskan Goalkeeper of the Year Award. On 27 November 2007, it was announced that Nordby would be signing an 18-month contract with Olympique Lyonnais as cover for their regular goalkeeper, Véronique Pons, who was out with a long-term injury. In June 2009 the Norway national team trainer

Bjarne Berntsen Bjarne Berntsen (born 21 December 1956) is a Norwegian football coach and former player. He is the elder brother of fellow football coach Alf Ingve Berntsen. Playing career Bjarne Berntsen began his football career at local club Figgjo IL. He ...

announced that Bente Nordby had retired from Olympique Lyonnaise and would not be joining Norway's squad for the 2009 European Cup tournament. After retiring she joined

Lillestrøm SK Lillestrøm Sportsklubb is a Norwegian professional football club from the city of Lillestrøm, just outside of the capital Oslo. Lillestrøm SK is a Norwegian football club based in Lillestrøm, playing in Eliteserien. The club was founded in 1 ...

as the team's goalkeeper coach.

International career

Nordby represented only Norway in international competition. She made her debut for the national team on 30 August 1991, in New Britain, Conn. posting a 1–0 shutout against the U.S. In 1991, Nordby was the national team reserve keeper at the 1991 Women's World Cup in China; Norway won a silver. She was on the squad that won the 1993 European Championship and the

Algarve Cup The Algarve Cup is an invitational tournament for national teams in women's association football hosted by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF). Held annually in the Algarve region of Portugal since 1994, it is one of the most prestigious and ...

in 1994. Nordby replaced long-time GK

Reidun Seth Reidun Seth (born 9 June 1966) is a Norwegian footballer, world champion and olympic medallist, a football goalkeeper and a goalkeeper trainer. She debuted for the Norwegian national team in 1984, and played 71 matches for the nat ...

starting goalkeeper in 1995. In the 1995 Women's World Cup, she allowed only one goal in six matches, leading to the first-ever Women's World Cup title for Norway, defeating Germany 2–0. In 1996 she was on the Bronze medal squad at the Atlanta Summer Olympics. Nordby was the starting keeper for Norway as they won the Algarve Cup in 1996, 1997 and 1998. In the 1999 Women's World Cup, Norway placed fourth overall, having lost to China in the semifinals, 5–0, then to Brazil in the Bronze Medal match. She was on the Olympic Gold squad at the Sydney Summer Olympics on 28 September 2000. Nordby retirement from international football in late 2002, then returned when she was named to the roster of the squad for the 2003 Women's World Cup. Despite losing 1–0 to the U.S. in the quarterfinals, Nordby won the Player of the Match Award, after stopping a penalty kick taken by

Mia Hamm Mariel Margaret Hamm-Garciaparra (; born March 17, 1972) is an American retired professional soccer player, two-time Olympic gold medalist and two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion. Hailed as a soccer icon, she played as a forward for the U ...

. Norway finished the tournament seventh overall. Due to their low placement in the World Cup, Norway failed to qualify for the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics. In 2005, Nordby was the starting keeper as Norway claimed silver in the

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

, falling to Germany 3–1 in the finals. She was named to the FIFA Women's World Stars squad in April 2007, as the starting goalkeeper and co-captain with U.S. player,

. The match was an exhibition match to open the draw for the 2007 Women's World Cup in China. At the

2007 Women's World Cup The 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup, the fifth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, was an international association football competition for women held in China from 10 to 30 September 2007. Originally, China was to host the 2003 edition, but t ...

in China, Norway placed fourth in the tournament, losing to the U.S. in the third-place match. After the tournament, Nordby was named to the FIFA All Star Team. She has also been nominated for the FIFA Women's World Player of the Year Award in 2001, 2004, 2005 and 2007. Nordby's final match for the Norway Women's National Team was on 27 October 2007 in Stavanger, Norway. In that match, Norway defeated Russia 3–0, in a European Championship qualifier. She officially announced her retirement from the national team in January 2008.

Personal

Nordby is openly

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

coming out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

in a ''

Se og Hør ''Se og Hør'' (; "See and Hear") is a TV guide and celebrity journalism magazine published in three independent versions in Denmark, Norway and Sweden (where it is called ''Se & Hör'' ) by the Danish company Aller Media. The Danish version is ...

'' article in 2005. She currently resides in Lillestrøm with her partner, Dorte Dalum Jensen, a Danish teammate in Olympique Lyonnais. Her hometown is

, Norway and she has an older brother and younger sister.

Honours

Individual

* Swedish Goalkeeper of the Year (1): 2007

Footnotes

References

External links

Olympique Lyonnais Ladies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nordby, Bente 1974 births 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup players 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup players 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup players Women's association football goalkeepers Expatriate women's footballers in France Expatriate women's footballers in Sweden Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States FIFA Century Club Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Living people Norway women's international footballers Norwegian expatriate footballers Norwegian women's footballers Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in France Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Olympic footballers of Norway Olympic medalists in football Olympic gold medalists for Norway Olympique Lyonnais Féminin players Athene Moss players Toppserien players Asker Fotball (women) players Kolbotn Fotball players People from Vestre Toten People from Lillestrøm Lesbian sportswomen LGBT association football players LGBT sportspeople from Norway FIFA Women's World Cup-winning players Djurgårdens IF Fotboll (women) players Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for Norway UEFA Women's Championship-winning players Division 1 Féminine players SK Sprint-Jeløy (women) players Damallsvenskan players Sportspeople from Gjøvik 21st-century LGBT people