Julie Rydahl Bukh (born 9 January 1982) is a

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

former football

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 ...

who most recently played for Brøndby IF and the Denmark national team. As well as teams in her native Denmark, Rydahl Bukh played for clubs in Sweden, Australia, and the

United States 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 primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. She was described by

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 ...

as a technically gifted and creative left-sided attacking midfielder.

Club career

Rydahl won six successive

Elitedivisionen The Danish Women's League ( da, Danmarksturneringens Kvindeliga, Kvinde-DM Liga or Kvindeligaen) is a semi-professional top-flight league for women's football in Denmark. It is organised by the Danish Football Association (DBU) as part of the ...

championships with Brøndby IF, before moving to Swedish club Linköpings FC alongside her girlfriend Cathrine Paaske in November 2008. She was recovering from a serious knee injury and did not play until March 2009. Rydahl and Paaske left three games before the end of Linköpings' championship-winning season for contracts with Sydney FC in the Australian W-League. Rydahl struck the winning goal in Sydney's 3–2

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. S ...

win over

Brisbane Roar Brisbane Roar Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Brisbane, Queensland and has won the domestic title on three occasions, as well as holding the longest unbeaten record of 36 league matches without defeat. Brisba ...

. After leaving Sydney FC, Rydahl and Paaske had expected to join the American

Women's Professional Soccer Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) was the top-level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded six teams for the 2011 sea ...

(WPS) league, having signed contracts with

Los Angeles Sol The Los Angeles Sol was an American professional soccer club that was based in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, California that participated in Women's Professional Soccer. The team was co-owned and operated by Blue Star, LLC and AEG, a subsidia ...

. When the Sol went into liquidation Rydahl returned to Denmark and joined Brøndby's sworn rivals

Fortuna Hjørring Fortuna Hjørring is a women's association football team from Hjørring, Denmark. The club was formed in 1966 and play in green and white. Their biggest achievement in European football was reaching the 2002–03 UEFA Women's Cup final where they ...

instead. In January 2011, she rejoined Brøndby, after a short interlude with

Pali Blues Pali Blues was an American women's association football, soccer team, which played from 2008 to 2014. The team was a member of the United Soccer Leagues USL W-League, the second tier of women's soccer in the United States and Canada. The team pl ...

International career

In March 2001 Rydahl Bukh made her senior international debut against

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. She scored her first goal in her second appearance, the Danes' 2–1 defeat to

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

in their opening group game at UEFA European Championship 2001. Injury kept Rydahl Bukh out of UEFA European Championship 2005, but she returned to the team for the 2007 FIFA World Cup and the UEFA European Championship 2009. She was named in national

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

Kenneth Heiner-Møller Kenneth Heiner-Møller (born Kenneth Heiner Christiansen; 17 January 1971) is a Danish football manager and former player. He is the former manager of the Canadian women's national team. In 1994–1995 he played for Ferencvárosi TC in Hungary, ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

squad for UEFA European Championship 2013. In November 2013 Rydahl Bukh announced that she had retired from football.

Honours

With Brøndby IF: * Elitedivisionen: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013 * Danish Women's Cup: 2004, 2005, 2007, 2011, 2012, 2013 With

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 ...

: * Damallsvenskan: 2009 * Svenska Cupen: 2009 With Sydney FC: * W-League Premiership: 2009 * W-League Championship: 2009 With

: * Elitedivisionen: 2010

References

External links

Danish Football Union (DBU) statistics
1982 births Living people Danish women's footballers Pali Blues players Sydney FC (A-League Women) players Expatriate women's soccer players in Australia Denmark women's international footballers Expatriate footballers in Sweden Fortuna Hjørring players USL W-League (1995–2015) players Linköpings FC players Damallsvenskan players Brøndby IF (women) players Danish expatriates in Australia 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup players Women's association football midfielders {{Denmark-women-footy-bio-stub