Lisa Fjeldstad Naalsund (born 11 June 1995) 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 ...

for

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of the English

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and the Norway national team.

Club career

Arna-Bjørnar

Naalsund began playing football at the age of 6 for local club Tertnes. She also played

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...

until secondary school. Ahead of the

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season, she joined

Arna-Bjørnar Arna-Bjørnar Fotball is a Norwegian football club from Arna, Bergen. It was founded in late 2000 as a merger between the football branches from ''IL Bjørnar'' and ''Arna T&IL'', and replaced Bjørnar IL in the league system from 2001. The w ...

. On 14 April 2012, Naalsund made her senior debut for the club when she started the season opener, a 1–1 draw with

Røa IL Røa IL is a Norwegian sports club from Røa in the borough of Vestre Aker, Oslo. It was founded on 11 November 1900, and has sections for football, gymnastics, bandy, and cross-country skiing. Football, bandy, and Nordic skiing have been domina ...

. She played 67 minutes before being substituted for fellow offseason arrival Vilde Bøe Risa, also making her senior debut. She scored her first senior goal on 9 June 2012 during a 2–0 win over

Klepp IL Klepp IL is a Norwegian sports club from the municipality of Klepp. It was founded on 1 October 1919, and has sections for football, handball and gymnastics as well as the less active sections for athletics and orienteering. Best known for t ...

. In her first season with the club, Naalsund played in all 22 Toppserien matches including 18 starts and scored four goals. During her first three seasons, Naalsund played in all but one league match as Arna-Bjørnar finished third in all three seasons, equalling the team's record highest finish position. In seven years, Naalsund was a mainstay of Arna-Bjørnar and made 157 appearances in all competitions.

Sandviken/Brann

Ahead of the 2019 season, Naalsund signed for

Sandviken Sandviken is a locality and the seat of Sandviken Municipality in Gävleborg County, Sweden with 39,234 inhabitants in 2019. It is situated about 25 km west of Gävle and lies approximately 190 km north of Stockholm. The rail journey t ...

(rebranded Brann in 2022). In 2020, Naalsund made 18 league appearances as she was named to the Toppserien Team of the Year. Having previously recorded a team-record best 4th-place finish the previous three seasons in a row, Sandviken won the

2021 Toppserien The 2021 Toppserien was the 35th season of the highest women's football league in Norway. The season started on 22 May 2021 and ended on 13 November 2021. Sandviken won their first Toppserien title. Rosenborg were the runners-up. Format The l ...

league title for the first time. Naalsund was once again named to the team of the season having made 18 appearances and scored five goals. In 2022, the team defended their league title and also won the

Norwegian Women's Cup The Norwegian Women's Cup ( no, Norgesmesterskapet i fotball for kvinner) is a knockout cup competition in Norwegian women's football. It has been organised annually since 1978. The final is usually played on a Saturday, the day before the men's ...

for the first time.

Manchester United

On 24 January 2023, Naalsund signed for English

club

on a three-and-a-half year contract. Having joined while working through fitness issues, Naalsund had to wait until 19 March 2023 to make her debut, starting in an FA Cup quarter-final against second division team

Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of ...

. She started the game but was substituted off after 25 minutes with a hamstring problem.

International career

Youth

Naalsund first represented Norway at under-15 level in 2010. She continued to progress as a youth international, participating in

2012 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship qualification The 2012 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship qualification were two rounds of qualifying tournaments for the 2012 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship, which was held in Switzerland. With the debut of Bosnia and Herzegovina a new record of 42 partic ...

and attended her first tournament finals stage at the

2013 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship The UEFA Women's U-19 Championship 2013 Final Tournament was held in Wales between 19 and 31 August 2013. Players born after 1 January 1994 were eligible to participate in this competition. It was the first time Wales played in the final tourname ...

. The following year she was recalled to the squad as Norway hosted the

2014 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship The UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship 2014 Final Tournament was held in Norway from 15 to 27 July 2014. The first qualification matches were played on 21 September 2013. A competition record of 48 participating nations was set. For the first time ...

Senior

In November 2017, Naalsund received her first senior international call-up for

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

for a friendly against

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

but was an unused substitute. Having yet to be capped, Naalsund was named as an injury replacement for

Emilie Haavi Emilie Bosshard Haavi (born 16 June 1992) is a Norwegian professional footballer who plays as a left midfielder who plays for Italian Serie A club AS Roma and the Norway women's national team. Haavi was according to Fjordabladet, elected ''Pl ...

for the

2019 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was the eighth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international Women's association football championship contested by 24 women's national teams representing member associations of FIFA. It ...

. However, due to squad regulations, Naalsund could not be registered and had to remain a training player ineligible to play in the tournament. Naalsund made her senior international debut for the Norway on 10 June 2021, coming on as a 80th-minute substitute for Vilde Bøe Risa in a frinedly 1–0 loss against

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. On 7 June 2022, Naalsund was named to the squad for

UEFA Women's Euro 2022 The 2022 UEFA European Women's Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Women's Euro 2022 or simply Euro 2022, was the 13th edition of the UEFA Women's Championship, the quadrennial international football championship organised by UEF ...

. However, she suffered a leg injury during a pre-tournament friendly against

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on 25 June and was replaced by Thea Bjelde.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Sandviken/Brann *

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 ...

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Individual *

Team of the Year:

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Naalsund, Lisa 1995 births Living people Footballers from Bergen Women's association football midfielders Norwegian women's footballers Norway women's youth international footballers Norway women's international footballers Arna-Bjørnar players SK Brann Kvinner players Manchester United W.F.C. players Toppserien players Women's Super League players Norwegian expatriate women's footballers Expatriate women's footballers in England Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in England