Julie Blakstad (born 27 August 2001) is a Norwegian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for

Hammarby IF Hammarby Idrottsförening ("Hammarby Sports Club"), commonly known as Hammarby IF or simply Hammarby ( or, especially locally, ), is a Swedish sports club located in Stockholm, with a number of member organizations active in a variety of differe ...

and the Norway national team.

Club career

She is originally from

Ottestad Ottestad is a village in Stange Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The village centre is located about north of the village of Stangebyen and about south of the village of Bekkelaget, Innlandet, Bekkelaget. The whole northern part of Stan ...

Stange is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Hedemarken. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Stangebye ...

and started her senior career in

Ottestad IL Ottestad Idrettslag is a Norwegian sports club from Ottestad in Stange, founded on 28 May 1918. It has sections for association football, team handball, cross-country skiing and cycling. The men's football team have been playing in the Third Div ...

in the 3rd division.

FL Fart

In the summer of 2018, she went to

FL Fart Fotballaget Fart is a Norwegian football club based in Vang outside Hamar. The club is most noted for their women's team which played in Toppserien in 2008, 2012 and 2019. Their home matches are played at Fartbana. Norway international footballe ...

in the 1st division and was very involved in the club moving up to 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 ...

that autumn. She continued to impress greatly at the top level. After turning down offers from around half of the clubs in the Toppserien, as well as requests from foreign clubs, it was announced in September 2019 that she was ready for LSK Kvinner on loan. The

Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world an ...

received a complaint about the loan agreement from another club, and after looking at the transfer once more, it was cancelled. Blakstad thus completed the season in Fart and was voted Young Player of the Year in the Toppserien. Before the 2020 season, there was great excitement about what would be the next step in Blakstad's career. LSK Kvinner still wanted to secure the great talent, and she trained with the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

big club

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Rosenborg

In June 2020, the news came that she had signed for Rosenborg. She made her mark immediately and made history with a goal in the series premiere against LSK Kvinner, the first goal after Trondheims-Ørn became Rosenborg. It was a great season for both Blakstad and Rosenborg, who went undefeated through the season and took silver in the series. 19-year-old Blakstad was nominated for Player of the Year in Toppserien 2020. The nomination committee stated, "The super talent has impressed for several seasons... She is fearless, explosive, and has offensive qualities at international level. Going forward on the field, she is Rosenborg's most important player and has been involved in over a third of Trønder's goals this season." In January 2021, she was picked on

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

's list of ten footballers to watch out for in 2021. At the same time as she continued her big game in 2021, more and more noticed the great talent. Football commentator Kasper Wikestad stated that she is perhaps the greatest talent he has seen live. During the season, she emerged as one of the Toppserien's absolute best players at the same time as she had established herself on the senior Norway national team. She was once again nominated as Player of the Year and won the Young Player of the Year award in Toppserien 2021.

Manchester City

In January 2022, Blakstad signed for the English Women's Super League club

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

in what was referred to as the biggest transfer from Norwegian football ever. Just days later, she made her debut in the 3-0 win over

Tottenham Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Waltham ...

in the semi-finals of the League Cup.

BK Häcken (loan)

On 31 March 2023, Blakstad signed for 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 ...

side BK Hacken on loan until mid-June 2023.

Hammarby IF

On 20 January 2024, Blakstad signed for the Champions of

side

. Blakstad was presented on a contract expiring 31 December 2025.

National team career

Blakstad has international matches for U15, U16, U17, U19, and the Norwegian national team. In 2019 she was part of the under-19 squad that played the 2019 U19 European Championship. She played the three matches in her group but was eliminated when they were third place. In March 2020 she was also part of the under-19 team that participated in the La Manga tournament. In September 2020, she was selected for the senior national team for the first time. The debut came on 27 October 2020 away to

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 ...

, in the match where Norway secured a ticket to the European Championship in England 2022. On 16 September 2021 Blakstad scored her first international goal in the 10-0 win against

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as part of the 2023 World Cup qualification. In the 2022 Euro, she scored her team's first goal in the championship, in the opening match against

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. In the first game after the European Championship, the deciding game to win the group in qualifying for the 2023 World Cup against

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, which was won 1-0, whereby the Norwegians qualified for the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

, Blakstad was in the starting lineup. On 19 June 2023, she was included in the 23-player Norwegian squad for the

FIFA Women's World Cup 2023 The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup is scheduled to be the ninth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup competition, the quadrennial international women's football championship contested by the women's national association football teams organised ...

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

Manchester City *

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 ...

: 2021–22 Individual * Toppserien 2019: Breakthrough of the year * Toppserien 2020: Nominated for Player of the Year * Toppserien 2021: Young Player of the Year, nominated for Player of the Year * UEFA 2021: 10 footballers to watch out for in 2021

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blakstad, Julie 2001 births Living people People from Stange Norwegian women's footballers Norway women's youth international footballers Norway women's international footballers FL Fart players Rosenborg BK Kvinner players Toppserien players Women's association football midfielders Footballers from Innlandet UEFA Women's Euro 2022 players Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in England Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Norwegian expatriate women's footballers Expatriate women's footballers in England Expatriate women's footballers in Sweden Women's Super League players 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup players