Maren Nævdal Mjelde (born 6 November 1989) 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 defender or

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

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

and captains the Norway national team. She previously played for Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC of the Swedish

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 ...

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 ...

of the

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 ...

and both

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 ...

and Avaldsnes IL of the Norwegen Toppserien.

Club career

Mjelde was born in

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...

. She joined the Norwegian club,

, as a 15-year-old in 2005. The club finished the 2012

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 ...

league in third place, earning the bronze medal that year. She transferred to the German club

before the 2013 season. She played all the club's matches in the latter part of the season, when they reached the runner-up position in the German Cup and League competitions. On 22 November 2016, Mjelde signed for Chelsea Ladies on a deal until 2018. On 16 November 2019, Mjelde scored the only goal in Chelsea Women's historic win versus Manchester United Women, the first game ever played between these two female teams in the WSL 1.

International career

In October 2007, Mjelde made her senior international debut 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 ...

against

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. She was selected for

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 ...

, and the

2011 FIFA Women's World Cup 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 even ...

. Mjelde scored her first goal for Norway against

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

in a qualifying play–off for the latter competition. Mjelde was Norway's vice captain during 2011 and 2012 through the team's qualification campaign for the

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 ...

and captained the side in many matches. In the tournament she played at right-back for the first time ever, and captained the team in their match in group B when Norway beat

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

1–0 on 17 July. Norway lost 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 ...

0–1 to Germany, and Mjelde was included in UEFA's Squad of the Tournament. Mjelde was selected in

Even Pellerud Even Jostein Pellerud (born 15 July 1953) is a Norwegian football coach and former player. Career Pellerud played for several clubs, including Vålerenga from 1974 to 1979 and Kongsvinger from 1983 to 1986. He was head coach for the Norway women ...

's squad for the

2015 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup was the seventh FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international soccer championship contested by the women's national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament was hosted by Canada for the ...

. She scored against Germany in a 1–1 draw in the group stage and played in Norway's second round defeat by

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Personal life

Mjelde's elder brother,

Erik Mjelde Erik Nævdal Mjelde (born 6 March 1984) is a Norwegian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Among his previous clubs are Sandefjord, Lillestrøm, SK Brann and Løv-Ham Fotball. Prior to joining Brann at the age of 16, he pl ...

, is a former footballer.

Career statistics

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

Honours

Chelsea *

FA WSL The Women's Super League (WSL), currently known as the Barclays Women's Super League (BWSL) for sponsorship reasons, is the highest league of women's football in England. Established in 2010, it is run by the Football Association and features t ...

: 2017–18, 2019–20,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, 2021–22 *

FA Women's Cup The Women's FA Challenge Cup Competition is the top annual cup tournament for women's clubs in English football. Founded in 1970, it has been named the WFA Cup, FA Women's Cup and now Women's FA Cup (Vitality Women's FA Cup for sponsorship reas ...

: 2017–18 *

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 ...

: 2019–20,

FA Community Shield The Football Association Community Shield (formerly the Charity Shield) is English football's annual match contested at Wembley Stadium between the champions of the previous Premier League season and the holders of the FA Cup. If the Premier Le ...

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

External links

*
NFF profile

Turbine Potsdam profile
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mjelde, Maren 1989 births Living people Norwegian women's footballers Norway women's international footballers Arna-Bjørnar players BK Häcken FF players Damallsvenskan players 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam players Norwegian expatriate women's footballers Expatriate women's footballers in Germany Expatriate women's footballers in England Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in England Footballers from Bergen Women's association football midfielders Women's association football defenders 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup players Avaldsnes IL players Chelsea F.C. Women players Toppserien players Women's Super League players Expatriate women's footballers in Sweden FIFA Century Club 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup players UEFA Women's Euro 2022 players UEFA Women's Euro 2017 players