Kristin Blystad-Bjerke (born 7 July 1980) is a Norwegian

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 played as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

for Kolbotn of 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 ...

and Norway women's national football team.

Club career

Blystad-Bjerke started her career playing for Kolbotn in 1997. Later on, she moved to Denmark to play for Idrætsklubben Aalborg Freja for a couple of years, then to return eventually to Kolbotn in 2002. After over 200 games and around 60 goals, she was released in 2008, the same year when she was the club's top scorer with 13 goals.

International career

Blystad-Bjerke played for the Norway women's team, in which she got a silver medal after finishing second in the UEFA Women's Euro 2005, coming at 87th minute in the final against Germany.

Personal life

In January 2009, Blystad-Bjerke married national team-mate

Trine Rønning Trine Bjerke Rønning (born 14 June 1982) is a former Norwegian footballer. She has previously played for Trondheims-Ørn and Kolbotn. Since making her Norway women's national football team debut in October 1999, she has won over 150 caps. Rønni ...

, shortly after

same-sex marriage in Norway Same-sex marriage in Norway has been legal since 1 January 2009 when a gender-neutral marriage law came into force after being passed by the Storting in June 2008. Norway was the first Scandinavian country, the fourth in Europe, and the sixth coun ...

was made legal.

References

1980 births Living people Norway women's international footballers Norwegian women's footballers Kolbotn Fotball players Toppserien players Norwegian LGBT footballers Women's association football forwards {{Norway-women-footy-bio-stub