Malena Josephsen (born 3 January 1977) is a Faroese

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

captains Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

KÍ Klaksvík of the Faroese 1. deild kvinnur. From 2004 until 2015, she represented the

Faroe Islands women's national football team The Faroe Islands women's national football team represents the Faroe Islands in women's association football and is controlled by the Faroe Islands Football Association (FSF), the governing body of all football in the Faroe Islands. The FSF be ...

at senior international level.

Club career

Josephsen broke into the team at KÍ Klaksvík in 1994 and remained loyal to the club for two decades, during which she captained the team to a period of sustained dominance at domestic level. Speaking in 2005, following KÍ's sixth successive league title, she admitted to concerns about the level of competition: "We know when we go on the pitch that we will win the match, the only question is how much we will win. We are not getting any better by playing in this league." As of 2013–14, Josephsen has made 39 appearances and scored seven goals for KÍ in the

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 ...

, formerly known as the UEFA Women's Cup.

International career

The

Faroe Islands Football Association The Faroe Islands Football Association ( fo, Fótbóltssamband Føroya; da, Færøernes fodboldforbund), or FSF, is the governing body of all domestic football in the Faroe Islands, the highest level of which is the Faroe Islands Premier League. ...

(FSF) scrapped their women's team in 1996, following a fruitless

1997 UEFA Women's Championship qualification The qualification for the UEFA Women's Euro 1997 was held between September 17, 1995 & September 29, 1996. The first-placed of the group stage qualified directly. The second-placed and the third-placed teams played in two playoff matches for four o ...

campaign which culminated in a 9–0 defeat to

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. The association was unwilling to fund travel to away fixtures. When the senior women's national team was relaunched in 2004 after an eight-year hiatus, Malena Josephsen started their first match, a 2–1 friendly defeat to

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. The game was staged in Klaksvík on 12 October 2004, the day before the nations' senior men's teams met at

Lansdowne Road Lansdowne Road Stadium ( ga, Bóthar Lansdún, ) was a stadium in Dublin owned by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) that was primarily used for rugby union and association football matches. The stadium was demolished in 2007 to make way for ...

, Dublin. She featured as the Faroe Islands won the football tournament at the 2005

Island Games The Island Games (currently known as the NatWest International Island Games for sponsorship reasons) are biennial international multi-sports events organised by the International Island Games Association (IIGA). Competitor teams each represent d ...

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

. Josephsen's first matches in UEFA competition came in November 2006, at the

UEFA Women's Euro 2009 qualifying Qualifying for UEFA Women's Euro 2009 determined which 11 teams joined Finland, the hosts of the 2009 tournament, to play for the UEFA Women's Championship. Preliminary round 20 teams were divided into 5 groups of 4. The 5 group winners qualified ...

series. At a preliminary round mini-tournament held in

Strumica Strumica ( mk, Струмица, ) is the largest city2002 census results
in English and Macedon ...

, Macedonia, Josephsen's

injury time Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

goal in the Faroe Islands' first match was not enough, as they lost 2–1 to

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. The team was eliminated after another defeat, 1–0 to

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

. In the final match the Faroe Islands beat hosts Macedonia 7–0. Josephsen netted twice in a result which remains the Faroe Islands' record win. In 2012, Josephsen and her KÍ teammates

Randi Wardum Randi Skylvsdóttir Wardum (born 22 November 1986) is a Faroese former football goalkeeper who last played for KÍ Klaksvík in the Faroese 1. deild kvinnur. From 2004 to 2014 she represented the Faroe Islands women's national football team at ...

and Rannvá B. Andreasen simultaneously became the first Faroese players to win 25

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

. In June 2016 she announced that she would no longer play for the national team. She has played 41 matches and scored ten goals for the national team of the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

International goals

:''Scores and results list Faroe Islands' goal tally first.''

References

External links

Malena Josephsen
at Faroesoccer.com

at

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

.com
Malena Josephsen
at Kvinnufotbolt.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Josephsen, Malena 1977 births Living people People from Klaksvík Faroese women's footballers Faroe Islands women's international footballers Women's association football midfielders