Nora Gjøen-Gjøsæter (born Nora Neset Gjøen; 20 February 1992) is a Norwegian

football goalkeeper The goalkeeper (sometimes written as goal-keeper, abbreviated as GK, keeper, keeps, or goalie) is a position in association football. It is the most specialised position in the sport. The goalkeeper's main role is to stop the opposing team from ...

who plays in the

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 ...

league for

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 ...

. She plays for the

Norway women's national football team The Norway women's national football team () represents Norway in international Women's association football, football, and is controlled by the Norwegian Football Federation. The team is former European, World and Olympic champions and thus one ...

. Gjøen first came to national attention in December 2007 as a 15-year-old when she escaped with her life after being trapped by smoke and flames in a fire that destroyed her family home on the island of

Sotra Sotra or Store Sotra is the name of a large island in Øygarden Municipality in Vestland county, Norway, located just west of the city of Bergen. It is part of a pair of islands called ' Sotra' and ' Litlesotra' ('small Sotra') that are part of ...

in the space of only a few minutes, by jumping from a third-floor window at a height of over seven metres. Her goalkeeper's instincts were said to have helped her to survive the fall with a relatively minor injury, a broken vertebra without nerve damage (no one else was injured). The press coverage was summarised in English.

Club Football

After making a full recovery she returned to top-level football a year later, as a junior keeper for

, and in December 2009 she joined

LSK Kvinner FK LSK Kvinner Fotballklubb is a Norway, Norwegian women's football (soccer), 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 ...

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

as the club's reserve keeper. She made her Toppserien debut on June 12, 2010 against the Norwegian champions,

Røa Røa () is a neighbourhood and a former administrative borough of the city of Oslo, Norway. In 2004 the borough of Røa was merged with neighbouring Vinderen to become Vestre Aker borough. Røa is a suburb of Oslo, located approximately 7 kilome ...

, and then went on to play every match for LSK Kvinner during 2011. In 2012, she moved back to Bergen as first-keeper for

IL Sandviken Idrettslaget Sandviken is a Norwegian sports club from the neighborhood of Sandviken in Bergenhus borough, Bergen. It has sections for basketball, football and handball. It was mostly known for its women's football team that played in the Topp ...

, a club her family had been involved with for many years. With Gjøen as their keeper Sandviken finished the 2012 Toppserien season in sixth place, their best for many years. At the end of the season she announced she would spend the spring semester of 2013 at the University of Florida at Gainesville, from where she returned to play in the Toppserien for

Kolbotn Kolbotn is an Urban areas in the Nordic countries#Urban areas in Norway, urban area in Norway's Nordre Follo municipality in Akershus county. Kolbotn is in the centre of the traditional district, Oppegård. The population is about 6,000. Kolbotn ...

from 5 May until 15 June. At the end of 2013 Gjøen signed a contract to play for LSK Kvinner.

International Football

Gjøen was Norway's first-choice goalkeeper in the

2012 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup The 2012 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup was the 6th edition of the tournament. The tournament was played in Japan from 19 August to 8 September with sixteen national football teams and marked the first hosting of a FIFA women's tournament in the co ...

competition, held in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

during August and September, 2012. She played in all Norway's matches. The team beat

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

and

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

in the group stage but lost to

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

, finishing in second place in the group. In the quarter-finals they were beaten by the eventual beaten finalists,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. From summer 2007 until 16 July 2012 Nora Gjøen played 27 matches in goal for Norway's international youth teams from Under-15 to Under-23. The four matches with the Under-20s in Japan in August referred to above bring the total to 31. In September 2012 Norway qualified 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 ...

by beating Belgium and Iceland, and the team produced a short video in which Gjøen rapped the story of the team's qualification campaign in Norwegian and English. Gjøen joined the Norwegian squad that travelled to Sweden to play in the Euros as the third goalkeeper, but she became the first reserve after the second keeper suffered an injury, and Gjøen sat on the bench as Norway's reserve goalkeeper in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

Friends Arena Nationalarenan, known as Strawberry Arena since 2024 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 largest stadi ...

, which Norway lost 1–0 to

References

External links

* *
Norwegian national team profile

Florida Gators profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gjoen, Nora Neset 1992 births Living people People from Hordaland Norwegian women's footballers 21st-century Norwegian sportswomen Women's association football goalkeepers Arna-Bjørnar players Toppserien players LSK Kvinner FK players SK Brann (women) players Kolbotn Fotball players Norwegian expatriate women's footballers Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Norway women's international footballers Florida Gators women's soccer players Norway women's youth international footballers Footballers from Vestland