Frida Leonhardsen Maanum (born 16 July 1999) is a Norwegian 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 le ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

or defender for

FA WSL The Women's Super League (WSL), currently known as the Barclays Women's Super League (BWSL) for sponsorship reasons, is the highest league of women's football in England. Established in 2010, it is run by the Football Association and features t ...

club

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

and the Norway national team.

Club career

2014–2016: Lightning

Maanum played youth football for Bærumløkka, Stabæk, and eventually

Lyn Ubisoft Montpellier is a French video game developer and a studio of Ubisoft based in Castelnau-le-Lez. Founded in 1994 as Ubi Pictures, it is best known for developing the ''Rayman'' and ''Beyond Good & Evil'' series. At 350 employees as of Se ...

. She was part of a talented age-specific team in Lyn, together with

Heidi Ellingsen Heidi Elisabeth Ellingsen (born 28 July 1998) is a Norwegian footballer who plays as a midfielder for Damallsvenskan club Linköping Linköping () is a city in southern Sweden, with around 105,000 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the seat of Lin ...

and Andrea Wilmann, among others. The team won both the

Dana Cup The Dana Cup, one of the world's largest football tournaments, takes place every year in the North Jutland town of Hjørring in Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , ...

and the

Norway Cup The Norway Cup is an international youth football tournament in Oslo, Norway. It has been held annually since 1972, with the exception of 1976 (due to a conflicting arrangement), 2020 and 2021 (due to the COVID-19 Pandemic). It is the world's l ...

in 2014. In the autumn of 2014, she made her debut for Lyn's A team in the 1st division. As a 16-year-old, in 2015 she was on a training stay at the big

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

club

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg () or Wolfsburg, is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of W ...

, where she received very good feedback.

2017: Stabæk

In the winter of 2017, she went to Stabæk in 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 1 ...

. She played all the games for Stabæk in the spring season, before it became known in August that she announced a transfer to

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

Linköpings FC Linköpings Fotboll Club is an association football club from Linköping, Sweden. The club was established in 2003 when Kenty DFF women's football club decided to merge with the premier division ice hockey club Linköpings HC under the new name L ...

after only half a season in Stabæk.

2017–2021: Linköping

She joined Linköpings FC in Sweden in 2017, at the age of 18. She would win the

2017 Damallsvenskan The 2017 Damallsvenskan was the 29th season of the Swedish women's association football top division, Damallsvenskan. It began on 16 April 2017, and ended on 12 November. Linköpings FC were the defending champions, having won the competition in 20 ...

title in her first season with the club. In her first season in Linköping, she helped win the series championship in the

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 ...

. She became a key player in the Swedish top club. She scored three goals in ten games during the 2021 Damallsvenskan season, serving as the club's captain. She scored in her final game for the club in June 2021, a 4–1 victory over

Örebro Örebro ( , ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, sixth-largest city in Sweden, the seat of Örebro Municipality, and capital of the Örebro County. It is situated by the Närke Plain, near the lake Hjälmaren, a few kilometers in ...

. Before the 2021 season, at the age of 21, she was named the team's captain. When the local newspaper ''Corren'' in May 2021 named the 30 best Linköping players of all time, they placed Maanum in 14th place.

2021–: Arsenal

On 27 July 2021 it was announced that Maanum had signed a deal to join English

side

. She quickly established herself in the first team of her new club, and Arsenal coach Jonas Eidevall stated, "I knew she was good, but she was better than I expected." On 5 October 2021, she scored her first goal for Arsenal in a Champions League match against

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

. Despite a very good start at his new club, there was significantly less playing time the following spring. She was nevertheless nominated as "young player of the year" in the Women's Super League 2021/22.

National team career

Maanum has national matches for U16, U17, U19, U23, and the Norwegian senior national team. At the age of 17, she was selected for the squad at the UEFA European Championship 2017 in Netherlands. At this point, she had only played 10 matches at the top level in Norway. She made her debut on the senior national team on 11 July 2017, when she started the dress rehearsal before the Euro against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. Less than a week later on her 18th birthday, 16 July 2017, she started Norway's opening match at the Euro against the host country the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. In October 2020, she scored the game-winning goal against

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

to qualify Norway for the 2022 Euros. She was also in Norway's squad for the World Cup in France 2019 and the Euro in England 2022. In November 2022 she was again part of Norway's team who held England to a draw with her equaliser. England's Lionesses had been unbeaten in 2022 and this friendly was their last match of the year.

Personal life

Maanum is in a relationship with Swedish footballer

Emma Lennartsson Emma Lennartsson (born 23 April 1991) is a Swedish football midfielder who plays for Linköpings playing in Sweden's Damallsvenskan. Honours ;Linköpings FC Winner * Damallsvenskan: 2016, 2017 * Svenska Cupen (2): 2013–14, 2014–15 Runner- ...

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Norway's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Maanum goal.''

Honours

Linköping *

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

Arsenal *

FA Women's League Cup The FA Women's League Cup is a league cup competition in English women's association football. The competition was originally open to the eight teams in the FA WSL, but since the WSL's restructuring to two divisions, it has featured 23 teams. Pri ...

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Norway *

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 ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maanum, Frida 1999 births Living people Sportspeople from Bærum Norwegian women's footballers Norway women's international footballers Stabæk Fotball Kvinner players Linköpings FC players Women's association football defenders Women's association football midfielders 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup players Damallsvenskan players Expatriate women's footballers in Sweden UEFA Women's Euro 2022 players Norwegian LGBT sportspeople LGBT association football players Lesbian sportswomen 21st-century Norwegian LGBT people UEFA Women's Euro 2017 players