Miia-Maarit Niemi (born 9 July 1983) is a Finnish former

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 in the Norwegian

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 ...

for

Amazon Grimstad Amazon Grimstad FK is a Professional Norwegian women's football club from Grimstad. It is named after the Amazons of Greek mythology. It was founded in 1999 when the women's football section split from FK Jerv. The senior team currently plays i ...

and

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 ...

, as well as HJK in her home country. After making her debut for the Finland women's national football team in 2003, Niemi accrued 46 caps and played at UEFA Women's Euro 2009.

Club career

A versatile defender, Niemi won two

Naisten Liiga The Kansallinen Liiga ('National League') is the premier division of women's football in Finland. It was previously called the Jalkapallon naisten SM-sarja ('Women's Football Finnish Championship Series') during 1974 to 2006 and the Naisten Lii ...

titles with HJK in 2001 and 2005, as well as a Naisten Cup in 2002. She was also part of the HJK team which reached the semi-finals of the inaugural UEFA Women's Cup in 2001–02. Having moved to Norway for the 2008 season, Niemi played for

then retired after an injury-disrupted final season with

in 2011.

International career

She made her debut for the senior Finland team on 9 March 2003; playing 17 minutes as a substitute 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 ...

in Eskilstuna. Niemi was left out of the squad for UEFA Women's Euro 2005, but featured in one of Finland's matches at UEFA Women's Euro 2009, a 1–0 defeat to Ukraine. Niemi's final appearances for the national team came at the

2010 Algarve Cup The 2010 Algarve Cup was the seventeenth edition of the Algarve Cup, an invitational women's football tournament held annually in Portugal. It took place between 24 February and 3 March 2010. It was won by the United States who defeated World and ...

, versus Denmark.

References

External links

*
Profile
at

Football Association of Finland The Football Association of Finland ( fi, Suomen Palloliitto, abbr. SPL; sv, Finlands Bollförbund) is the governing body of football in Finland. It was founded in Helsinki on 19 May 1907. The SPL organises the men's and women's national footb ...

Engaged to Rolf Manuel Nese Skadsem 1983 births Living people Finnish women's footballers Finland women's international footballers Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi (women) players Kansallinen Liiga players Expatriate women's footballers in Norway Finnish expatriate women's footballers Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Norway Toppserien players Women's association football defenders Place of birth missing (living people) {{Finland-women-footy-bio-stub