Ane Stangeland Horpestad

Who is Ane Stangeland Horpestad?

Ane Stangeland Horpestad as Ane Stangeland, is a woman footballer from South-West Norway who has captained the Norwegian national team for three seasons and plays for Klepp in the top Norwegian league, the Toppserien, as a central defender. She is from the seaside village of Orre and lives in the town of Sandnes near Stavanger. Before joining Klepp at the age of 16 she played football only on boys' teams.

In 2000 she attended university in the USA, where she was named 1st-Team NAIA All-American, All-Conference and All-Region while at the University of Mobile, Alabama. She also won Region XIII Player of the Year honours and helped lead the team to a trip to the NAIA National Tournament.

Since 2005 she has been the captain of the Norwegian women's national football team, and in her first major tournament she led the team to second place in the 2005 UEFA Women's Championship which was played in England. In the semifinal of the tournament, against her team's traditional rivals, Sweden, a crowd of 5500 watched as she created a counter-attack in extra time which won the match by 3-2. In the final, Norway lost 3-1 to Germany.

At the end of 2005 Ane Stangeland was included in the top 20 players in the annual FIFA World Player of the Year awards. For the 2006 season she moved to Oslo to play for Kolbotn, helping them to reach the semifinals of the UEFA Women's Cup 2006-07 by beating 1. FFC Frankfurt in the quarterfinals. In June 2006 Ane Stangeland married Steffen Horpestad, and she has attached his name to hers.