Hege Riise

Hege Riise (born 18 July 1969) is a Norwegian football coach and former midfield^[3] player. She is considered one of the best footballers of her generation, having won the FIFA Women's World Cup, the Olympic Games, and the UEFA Women's Euro with the Norway women's national football team.^[4]

Hege Riise

Riise in 2017
Personal information
Full name	Hege Riise[1]
Date of birth	(1969-07-18) 18 July 1969 (age 55)
Place of birth	Lørenskog, Norway
Height	5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)[2]
Position(s)	Midfielder
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1989–1995	Setskog/Høland
1995–1997	Nikko Securities Dream Ladies
1997–1999	Setskog/Høland
2000	Asker	18	(3)
2001–2003	Carolina Courage	39	(12)
2004–2006	Team Strømmen	52	(9)
International career
1990–2004	Norway	188	(58)
Managerial career
2007–2008	Team Strømmen
	Norway U23
2009–2012	United States (assistant)
2012–2016	LSK Kvinner (assistant)
2016–2020	LSK Kvinner
2021	England (interim)
2021	Great Britain Olympic
2021–2022	Norway U19
2022–2023	Norway
Medal record Women's football Representing  Norway Olympic Games 2000 Sydney Team competition 1996 Atlanta Team competition FIFA World Cup 1995 Sweden Team UEFA European Championship 1993 Italy Team
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Playing career

Club

Riise started playing football at age six and played on a boys' team until age 14. She won the Norwegian Cup competition with Setskog-Høland in 1992. In late 1995 along with four other Norwegians she joined Nikko Securities Dream Ladies football club in Japan. Nikko won the Japanese league and cup competitions in 1996 and the cup in 1997, after which Riise moved back to Norway to play again with Setskog-Høland.

She joined Asker FK, in 2000, and again won the cup competition with Asker the same year. Drafted by the Carolina Courage in the Women's United Soccer Association 2000 foreign draft, Riise was the team's MVP two times and led the Courage to a WUSA Founders Cup title in 2002, before her involvement was curtailed by an anterior cruciate ligament injury.^[2] In 2003 the Norwegian Football Association named Riise the best female Norwegian footballer ever.

Returning to Norway in 2005 Hege Riise joined Team Strømmen of Oslo and became the club's playing assistant trainer in 2006. She played her last top-level match with Team Strømmen on 28 October 2006 aged 37 and retired from football as a player.

International

Riise made her international debut with the Norwegian national team in 1990. Norway won the UEFA Women's Championship in 1993. Two years later with Norway she won the Women's World Cup and was awarded the Golden Ball after the competition.

Riise's biggest achievement with Norway was winning the gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, to become one of only three women in the world to win the Olympics, the World Cup and the European Championship (with Gro Espeseth and Bente Nordby).

She retired from international football in September 2004 with 188 caps and 58 goals.^[5]

International goals

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	29 July 1990	Winnipeg, Canada	United States	2–?	2–4	Friendly
2.	14 November 1990	Kristiansand, Norway	Hungary	1–0	2–1	UEFA Women's Euro 1991 qualifying
3.	26 May 1991	Skien, Norway	Soviet Union	1–0	2–0	Friendly
4.	1 September 1991	Medford, United States	United States	1–?	2–1
5.	19 November 1991	Guangzhou, China	New Zealand	4–0	4–0	1991 FIFA Women's World Cup
6.	23 May 1992	Modum, Norway	Switzerland	5–0	6–0	UEFA Women's Euro 1993 qualifying
7.	14 August 1992	Medford, United States	United States	2–1	3–1	Friendly
8.	26 September 1992	Kolbotn, Norway	Belgium	6–0	8–0	UEFA Women's Euro 1993 qualifying
9.				8–0
10.	10 October 1992	Oslo, Norway	Netherlands	2–0	3–0
11.	7 November 1992	Raalte, Netherlands	Netherlands	1–0	3–0
12.	18 March 1994	Vila Real de Santo António, Portugal	Denmark	2–1	6–1	1994 Algarve Cup
13.	4 June 1994	Budapest, Hungary	Hungary	4–0	4–0	UEFA Women's Euro 1995 qualifying
14.	10 February 1995	Kristiansand, Norway	Denmark	6–?	6–2	Friendly
15.	17 March 1995	Portimão, Portugal	Sweden	2–0	2–0	1995 Algarve Cup
16.	25 April 1995	Oslo, Norway	China	1–?	2–1	Friendly
17.	6 June 1995	Karlstad, Sweden	Nigeria	3–0	8–0	1995 FIFA Women's World Cup
18.	8 June 1995		England	2–0	2–0
19.	10 June 1995	Gävle, Sweden	Canada	2–0	7–0
20.	13 June 1995	Karlstad, Sweden	Denmark	3–0	3–1
21.	18 June 1995	Solna, Sweden	Germany	1–0	2–0
22.	2 August 1995	Philadelphia, United States	Chinese Taipei	2–0	12–1	1995 Women's U.S. Cup
23.				9–?
24.				11–?
25.				12–?
26.	19 September 1995	Ulefoss, Norway	Slovakia	15–0	17–0	UEFA Women's Euro 1997 qualifying
27.	2 February 1996	Tampa, United States	United States	2–2	2–3	Friendly
28.	4 February 1996	Jacksonville, United States	United States	1–0	2–1
29.				2–1
30.	11 March 1996	Silves, Portugal	China	3–1	4–1	1996 Algarve Cup
31.	13 March 1996	Vila Real de Santo António, Portugal	Portugal	2–0	3–0
32.	25 May 1996	Espoo, Finland	Finland	1–0	2–0
33.	6 July 1996	Kolbotn, Norway	Finland	3–0	7–0
34.	23 July 1996	Washington, D.C., United States	Germany	3–2	3–2	1996 Summer Olympics
35.	16 February 1997	Sundsvall, Sweden	Sweden	2–0	2–0	Friendly
36.	12 March 1997	Olhão, Portugal	Iceland	6–0	6–0	1997 Algarve Cup
37.	16 March 1997	Loulé, Portugal	China	1–0	1–0
38.	28 May 1997		Germany	1–0	3–0	Friendly
39.	1 October 1997	Oslo, Norway	Netherlands	3–0	6–1	1999 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification
40.	21 January 1998	Guangzhou, China	Sweden	2–0	2–1	1998 Four Nations Tournament
41.	17 March 1998	Loulé, Portugal	Finland	1–0	1–0	1998 Algarve Cup
42.	19 March 1998	Lagos, Portugal	United States	2–0	4–1
43.	17 June 1998	Ulefoss, Norway	Germany	2–0	3–2	1999 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification
44.	23 June 1999	Landover, United States	Canada	4–1	7–1	1999 FIFA Women's World Cup
45.	26 June 1999	Chicago, United States	Japan	1–0	4–0
46.	30 June 1999	San Jose, United States	Sweden	3–0	3–1
47.	6 February 2000	Fort Lauderdale, United States	United States	1–0	3–2	Friendly
48.	9 February 2000	Boca Raton, United States	United States	2–1	2–1
49.	17 September 2000	Canberra, Australia	Nigeria	2–0	3–1	2000 Summer Olympics
50.	19 June 2001	Honefoss, Norway	Canada	3–0	9–1	Friendly
51.	11 September 2001	Kongsvinger, Norway	Czech Republic	4–0	5–0	2003 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification
52.	1 March 2002	Ferreiras, Portugal	England	3–1	3–1	2002 Algarve Cup
53.	5 March 2002	Lagos, Portugal	United States	1–1	3–2
54.	17 February 2003	La Manga, Spain	Denmark	2–1	3–3	Friendly
55.	20 February 2003		Denmark	2–0	4–0
56.	14 March 2004	Guia, Portugal	Finland	2–1	4–1	2004 Algarve Cup
57.	16 March 2004	Olhão, Portugal	Italy	3–0	3–0
58.	20 March 2004	Faro, Portugal	United States	1–1	1–4

Coaching career

Riise retired as a player at the end of the 2006 season with 188 international caps to her credit,^[6] the record for all Norwegian footballers. In 2007, she became the chief trainer at Team Strømmen, in the Norwegian women's premier league, the Toppserien. In the 2008 season, Team Strømmen were runners-up in both the league and the Cup competitions.

On 28 January 2009, Riise was appointed Assistant Trainer to the U.S. women's national team.^[6]

Riise was appointed interim head coach of the England women's national football team in January 2021. Her tenure bridged the gap between the resignation of Phil Neville, who had originally agreed to see out his contract, and his already-agreed-upon replacement, the incumbent Netherlands head coach Sarina Wiegman due to start in September 2021.^[7] Due to the reduced international schedule as a result of the COVID-19, Riise only took charge of three friendlies: defeating Northern Ireland 6–0 in her debut before losing to France and Canada.^[8][9] On 10 March 2021, she was also announced as the manager for Team GB at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics.^[10] The team progressed as group winners with seven points in three games before being eliminated in the first knockout round by Australia 4–3 in extra-time.^[11]

After her stint in the United Kingdom, Riise fulfilled a prior agreement to take charge of the Norway women's national under-19 football team.^[12] In the 2022 UEFA Under-19 Championship, Norway won their group^[13] and came second overall, after being defeated 2-1 in the final by Spain.^[14]

On 3 August 2022, Riise was officially appointed as Norway head coach replacing Martin Sjögren.^[15] The rest of the coaching team consists of the assistant coaches Monica Knudsen and Ingvild Stensland, and the goalkeeping coach Jon Knudsen.^[15]

On 1 September 2023, Riise stood down from her role as Norway head coach following an unsuccessful 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup campaign. She subsequently moved into a different role at the Norwegian Football Federation (NFF).^[16]

Honours

Player

Norway

• FIFA Women's World Cup: 1995
• UEFA Women's Championship: 1993
• Summer Olympics gold medal: 2000
• Summer Olympics bronze medal: 1996

Individual

• FIFA Women's World Cup Golden Ball: 1995
• UEFA Women's Championship Golden player: 1993

Manager

LSK Kvinner

• Toppserien: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
• Norwegian Women's Cup: 2016, 2018, 2019

Norway Under-19

• UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship silver medal: 2022

References

1. "Women's Olympic Football Tournament Tokyo 2020: Squad list, Great Britain" (PDF). FIFA. 7 July 2021. p. 6. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
2. "10 - Hege Riise". Women's United Soccer Association. Archived from the original on 9 July 2003. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
3. "Hege Riise". SNL.no (in Norwegian). Store Norske Leksikon. 13 March 2009. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
4. "England: Hege Riise set to lead Lionesses on temporary basis". BBC Sport. 19 January 2021. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
5. "Norge Kvinner Senior A - Toppscorer, gule og røde kort" [Norway Women Senior A - Top scorer, yellow and red cards] (in Norwegian). Norwegian Football Association. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
6. "Women Football: Riise leaves for the US". Norway Post. Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation] & Verdens Gang. 30 January 2009. Archived from the original on 1 October 2017. Retrieved 31 January 2009.
7. "Hege Riise to lead Lionesses in February, with Rhian Wilkinson also joining". Football Association. 19 January 2021. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
8. "White hat-trick as England thrash NI". BBC Sport.
9. Flood, George (14 April 2021). "Riise laments lack of chances after England Women lose Canada friendly". Evening Standard. London.
10. Goh, ZK (10 March 2021). "Great Britain women name Hege Riise as Olympic Games head coach". Olympic Channel. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
11. Kemp, Emma (30 July 2021). "Team GB 3-4 Australia (aet): Olympics women's football quarter-final – as it happened". The Guardian.
12. Folvik, Herman; Syversen, Christina Paulos (19 January 2021). "Hege Riise ny England-trener: – En stor mulighet for meg" (in Norwegian). Aftenposten. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
13. UEFA.com. "WU19 EURO - Standings". UEFA.com. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
14. UEFA.com. "Spain-Norway | Women's Under-19 2022". UEFA.com. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
15. Madsen, Christer (3 August 2022). "Hege Riise ny landslagssjef" (in Norwegian). Norwegian Football Federation. Retrieved 3 August 2022.
16. Smith, Emma (1 September 2023). "Hege Riise: Manager leaves Norway job after tempestuous Women's World Cup". BBC Sport. Retrieved 10 January 2024.