Gunhild Følstad
Personal information
Full name Gunhild Bentzen Følstad
Date of birth (1981-11-03) 3 November 1981
Place of birth Namsos, Norway[1]
Height 1.72 m (5 ft 8 in)
Position(s) Defender
Youth career
Overhalla IL
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2000–2008 Trondheims-Ørn
International career‡
2002–2008 Norway 76 (1)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 6 September 2008

Gunhild Bentzen Følstad (born 3 November 1981) is a Norwegian former football defender from Overhalla near Namsos. The daughter of a football trainer, she played for Trondheims-Ørn and the Norway women's national football team, making 76 appearances. She is a qualified physiotherapist and her hobbies are skiing, reading and music.

Følstad captained Norway in one match against China in the Four-Nations Tournament in Guangzhou in January 2006. In a match played in pouring rain China won 3-1.

She played as a central defender for her club and was a strong, quick and reliable player who played equally well at right- or left-back in the national team. Her throw-in to the six-yard box from the sideline was a useful weapon.

At the 2007 Women's World Cup in China in September 2007 Følstad played in matches watched by 50,000 spectators. Norway finished the tournament in 4th place.

On 9 June 2008 she was named to the Norwegian roster for the 2008 Summer Olympics to be held in Beijing, China.[2] On 6 August 2008, as a left-back in an attacking position, she provided the pass for the 1–0 goal by Leni Larsen Kaurin in Norway's 2–0 defeat of the United States in Qinhuangdao, which was then the quickest goal in the history of the tournament. The team reached the quarter finals where they lost to Brazil.

Gunhild Følstad announced her retirement from football at the end of 2008 to pursue her career as a physiotherapist in Namsos. Her partner is Hallvard Wågheim; their first child, a son, was born in Skage on 16 May 2010.[3]

International goals

Scores and results list Norway's goal tally first.[4]
#DateVenueOpponentResultCompetitionScored
110 May 2006Storstadion, Sandefjord Serbia3–02007 FIFA World Cup Qual.1

References

  1. ↑ "Gunhild Følstad". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 4 February 2014. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  2. ↑ Drømmen gikk i oppfyllelse
  3. ↑ Announcement in Namdals Avisa Archived 2011-07-22 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ↑ Fardal, Eirik (11 May 2006). "Norge lekte med Serbia" (in Norwegian). Aftenposten. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 21 September 2014.


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