Hege Riise: Who is Team GB's new women's football coach?

10 March 2021

Team GB's women's team will have a new coach for this year's Olympic Games when they take place in Tokyo this summer.

Hege Riise was officially named the new coach on Wednesday, but who is she and what chances do the British team have for gold with her in the hot seat?

Read on to find out...

Who is Hege Riise?

Hege Riise is a Norwegian football coach who won just about everything during her career as a player.

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Riise (in red) is still the most capped Norwegian player ever

She was an outstanding midfielder who made a staggering 188 appearances for her national team.

She started playing football when she was six years old, playing in a boys' team until the age of 14.

Her professional career started in Norway before she moved to Japan to play for Nikko Securities Dream Ladies FC.

There, she helped the team win the Japanese league and cup competitions in 1996 and the cup again in 1997.

She moved back to Norway where she played for Setskog-Høland for a short time, until 2000 when she was picked by Carolina Courage - a team in the hugely popular National Women's Soccer League in the United States.

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MVP! Riise was named the 'most valuable player' for Carolina Courage twice during her time with the American side

She was named the team's Most Valuable Player twice and in 2003 the Norwegian Football Association named Riise the best female Norwegian footballer ever.

She is still considered a Norwegian legend as she helped the team win various major competitions including the 1993 Uefa Women's Euros, the 1995 Fifa World Cup (where she won the golden ball for being the tournament's top goal scorer), and the Olympic gold in 2000 in Sydney.

She retired at the age of 37 in 2006 and remains one of only three female players to win the World Cup, the European Championship and the Olympic gold.

What about her coaching career?

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Riise is part of the current Lionesses coaching team.

After retirement, Riise immediately went into coaching, firstly in Norway before becoming the United States' assistant coach in 2009.

Here she was part of the coaching set-up that led the USA to Olympic gold in London 2012.

She eventually became head coach at LSK Kvinner - a Norwegian side in the top division.

Under Riise, the team became unbeatable, winning six Norwegian league titles in a row!

So it's safe to say Team GB are going to be in great hands!

She is currently the England women's interim (temporary) head coach, after permanent boss Phil Neville left to lead Beckham's new team in Miami.

What has she said about becoming the new Team GB boss?

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"I know first-hand as a former player just how huge the Olympics are as a tournament," she said.

"I am enormously proud to have this opportunity to lead the GB squad into the Games. We will go there to give everything we have to be successful and I hope we can also use the power of the Games to help women's football continue to grow in popularity."