Leni Larsen Kaurin (born 21 March 1981) is a 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 ...

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 has made almost 100 appearances for 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 ...

. Kaurin represented her country in the

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

and

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

editions of the

UEFA Women's Championship The UEFA European Women's Championship, also called the UEFA Women's Euro, held every four years, is the main competition in women's association football between national teams of the UEFA confederation. The competition is the women's equivalent ...

, as well as the

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

and

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

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. She also played at the

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

Olympic Football Tournament Football at the Summer Olympics, referred to as the Olympic Football Tournament, has been included in every Summer Olympic Games as a men's competition sport, except 1896 (the inaugural Games) and 1932 (in an attempt to promote the new FIFA Wo ...

. At club level she played for domestic teams Fortuna Ålesund,

Asker Asker ( no, Asker), properly called Askerbygda in Norwegian, is a district and former Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Akershus, Norway. From 2020 it is part of the larger administrative municipality Asker, Viken (also known as Greate ...

Team Strømmen LSK Kvinner Fotballklubb is a Norwegian women's football club from Lillestrøm. They currently play in Toppserien, the top division of Norwegian football. The club was founded as Setskog/Høland Fotballklubb on 10 October 1989. History The cl ...

, Stabæk and Fløya. She also played for German

Frauen-Bundesliga The Frauen-Bundesliga (German for ''Women's Federal League''), currently known as the FLYERALARM Frauen-Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of league competition for women's association football in Germany. In 1990 the German Foo ...

clubs

Turbine Potsdam 1. Frauenfußballclub Turbine Potsdam 71 e. V., commonly known as 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam (or Turbine Potsdam outside of Germany), is a German women's football club located in Potsdam, Brandenburg. They are one of the most successful women's footb ...

FFC Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt is a German women's association football club based in Frankfurt. Its first team currently plays in the German top flight, Frauen-Bundesliga. From 1998 to 2020, the club was known as 1. FFC Frankfurt. Eintracht have won se ...

and

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 ...

as well as a short stint in the North American W-League with Ottawa Fury.

Club career

Kaurin was born in

Ålesund Ålesund () sometimes spelled Aalesund in English, is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal County, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Sunnmøre and the centre of the Ålesund Region. The town of Ålesund is the administrative ...

, West Norway. She began her career in the youth team at

Skarbøvik IF Skarbøvik Idrettsforening is a Norwegian sports club based in the outermost part of Ålesund, Møre og Romsdal. The club have teams in both football and handball. The first team in football plays in the Third Division. Skarbøvik has in the ...

, along with male footballer

John Arne Riise John Arne Semundseth Riise (born 24 September 1980) is a Norwegian professional football manager and former player who played as a left back and a left midfielder. He is currently the manager of Toppserien club Avaldsnes. With 110 caps, Riise is ...

, who was in the year above her at school. LeniLarsenKaurin

She joined

1. FFC Turbine Potsdam 1. Frauenfußballclub Turbine Potsdam 71 e. V., commonly known as 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam (or Turbine Potsdam outside of Germany), is a German women's football club located in Potsdam, Brandenburg. They are one of the most successful women's footb ...

from

, at the end of 2007. She was then the only Norwegian woman footballer playing in Germany. On 2 February 2010 she announced that she would transfer to

1. FFC Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt is a German women's association football club based in Frankfurt. Its first team currently plays in the German top flight, Frauen-Bundesliga. From 1998 to 2020, the club was known as 1. FFC Frankfurt. Eintracht have won sev ...

in order to have more match-time in the German top women's division and maintain her international career. Shortly afterwards she transferred again to VfL Wolfsburg. After four-and-a-half years in Germany, Kaurin decided to return to Norway and accepted a contract from Stabæk. She played for Ottawa Fury in the North American W-League during July 2012, to get match practice ahead of Stabæk's

UEFA Women's Champions League The UEFA Women's Champions League, previously called the UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009), is a European women's association football competition. It involves the top club teams from countries affiliated with the European governing body UEFA. The ...

campaign. When Kaurin was released by Stabæk after the 2013 season, she alleged that the team's male coach had

sexually harassed Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promises of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions fro ...

her which caused her to play badly. In 2014, she played for and coached Fløya, who were battling

relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

from the 1. divisjon. In 2016 she came out of retirement to sign for minnows

Bærum SK Bærum Sportsklubb is a Norwegian association football club founded on 26 March 1910. The men's team is currently playing in the Norwegian Second Division, after being relegated from the 1. divisjon in 2015. The club comes from Sandvika, the a ...

, at the same time becoming their player developer.

International career

Kaurin scored 10 times in 37 international matches for Norway's age-limited teams before her debut in the senior national team, a 5–1 win over

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 ...

at the

2001 Algarve Cup The 2001 Algarve Cup was the eighth edition of the Algarve Cup, an invitational women's association football tournament. It took place between 11 and 17 March 2001 in Portugal with Sweden winning the event defeating Denmark, 3-0, in the final game. ...

. She was disappointed to be one of the last players to be cut from the

2003 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup was the fourth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial championship of women's national soccer teams organized by FIFA. It was held in the United States from September 20 to October 12, 2003, at s ...

squad. From the beginning of 2006 she began playing more regularly for Norway. In September 2007 Kaurin played a leading role on the right wing in Norway's campaign at the

FIFA Women's World Cup 2007 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 ...

tournament in China, where the team achieved fourth place. She is known for her ability to dribble past defenders and pass accurately into the

penalty area The penalty area or 18-yard box (also known less formally as the penalty box or simply box) is an area of an association football pitch. It is rectangular and extends 16.5m (18 yd) to each side of the goal and 16.5m (18 yd) in front of it. Wit ...

, and as a result she assists in scoring many goals. On 9 June 2008 she was named to the Norwegian roster for the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

to be held in Beijing, China. On 6 August 2008 she scored the first goal for Norway, playing in

Qinhuangdao Qinhuangdao (; ) is a port city on the coast of China in northern Hebei. It is administratively a prefecture-level city, about east of Beijing, on the Bohai Sea, the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea. Its population during the 2020 national ...

against 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 territorie ...

in the opening Olympics soccer match for both teams, a match Norway won 2–0. The goal, after 61 seconds, was also the fastest goal in Olympic soccer history, beating the former record of four minutes. But the record only lasted six days before being broken by the United States'

Heather O'Reilly Heather Ann O'Reilly (born January 2, 1985) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a midfielder for Irish club Shelbourne of the Women's National League. She played for the United States women's national soccer team (USWNT), w ...

. She played for Norway at

UEFA Women's Euro 2009 The 2009 UEFA Women's Championship, or just Women's Euro 2009, was played in Finland between 23 August and 10 September 2009. The host was appointed on 11 July 2006, in a UEFA Executive Committee meeting in Berlin and the Finnish proposal won over ...

, where the team reached the semi-finals. In May 2011 Kaurin was selected to join Norway's squad to go to the

FIFA Women's World Cup 2011 The 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup was the sixth FIFA Women's World Cup competition, the world championship for women's national association football teams. It was held from 26 June to 17 July 2011 in Germany, which won the right to host the event ...

in Germany in June–July 2011. She was called up to be part of the national team for

UEFA Women's Euro 2013 The 2013 UEFA Women's Championship, commonly referred to as Women's Euro 2013, was the 11th European Championship for List of women's national association football teams#UEFA, women's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament ...

. In the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

Friends Arena Nationalarenan, currently known as Friends Arena for sponsorship reasons, is a retractable roof multi-purpose stadium in Stockholm, Sweden. Located next to the lake Råstasjön in Solna, just north of the City Centre, it is the biggest stadium in ...

, Kaurin was an 85th-minute substitute.

Anja Mittag Anja Mittag (; born 16 May 1985) is a German football coach and player who plays as a striker. Mittag is currently a player-coach for RB Leipzig. In July 2020, Mittag announced that she will end her playing career after the women's Saxony Cup ...

's goal gave the Germans their sixth successive European title.

References

External links

* *
Stabæk club profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Larsen Kaurin, Leni 1981 births Living people Norwegian women's footballers Norway women's international footballers Footballers at the 2008 Summer Olympics 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam players Olympic footballers of Norway 1. FFC Frankfurt players 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup players Expatriate women's footballers in Germany VfL Wolfsburg (women) players Toppserien players IF Fløya players Stabæk Fotball Kvinner players Asker Fotball (women) players Fortuna Ålesund players LSK Kvinner FK players 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup players Sportspeople from Ålesund USL W-League (1995–2015) players Norwegian expatriate women's footballers Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Women's association football midfielders Frauen-Bundesliga players Bærum SK players Ottawa Fury (women) players Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Canada Expatriate women's soccer players in Canada