Caroline Graham Hansen

Caroline Graham Hansen

Graham Hansen playing for Wolfsburg in 2015.
Personal information
Full name	Caroline Graham Hansen[1]
Date of birth	(1995-02-18) 18 February 1995
Place of birth	Oslo, Norway
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Playing position	Right winger
Club information
Current team	Wolfsburg
Number	26
Youth career
	Lyn
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2010–2013	Stabæk	71	(32)
2013	Tyresö	7	(3)
2014	Stabæk	9	(2)
2014–	Wolfsburg	30	(13)
National team‡
2011–	Norway	32	(12)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 14:00, 23 March 2016 (UTC). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 8 May 2014

Caroline Graham Hansen (born 18 February 1995) is a Norwegian footballer who plays as a winger for German Bundesliga club VfL Wolfsburg and the Norway women's national football team. She spent the second part of the 2013 Damallsvenskan season in Sweden, playing for Tyresö FF. Hansen represented Norway at youth international level, and made her debut for the senior team in 2011. In 2013 she was a part of the Norwegian team that won silver at the 2013 UEFA Women's Championship.

Club career

Playing for Tyresö in 2013

Born and brought up in Oslo,^[2] Hansen played for Lyn up to age 15, and was a part of the team that won the under-16 girls' class in the Norway Cup.^[3]

She transferred to Stabæk in August 2010, and made her Toppserien debut the same week, as a 73rd-minute substitute in the match against FK Donn. Hansen made an assist as Stabæk won 3–0.^[4] Stabæk won the league title later that year with a 3–0 home win over Trondheims-Ørn.^[5] She was a part of Stabæk's 2011 Norwegian Women's Cup winning team, who beat Røa on penalties after extra time. Hansen assisted Katrine Pedersen's equalizer during the extra time, but was the only Stabæk player to miss in the shoot out.^[6]

In August 2013 Hansen signed for Swedish Damallsvenskan champions Tyresö FF.^[7] In the second half of the season she started five of her seven league appearances and scored three goals.^[8] She also helped Tyresö qualify for the 2013–14 UEFA Women's Champions League quarter finals.

Hansen returned to Stabæk in January 2014 to complete her high school education, as she did not get the grades necessary to do so in Sweden. She continued to be monitored by several leading European clubs and intended to move away again after finishing school in June 2014. Realising that female footballers do not earn enough money to retire on, Hansen was planning for her career after football. At Stabæk she arranged to play Toppserien matches for the women's team while training with the male youth teams.^[9]

On May 8, 2014 the German club VfL Wolfsburg announced that it had signed a two-year contract with Hansen.^[10] Norwegian media stated her annual salary as around £100,000.^[11]

International career

In 2011, 16-year-old Hansen was a part of the Norwegian under-19 team who finished as runners-up in the 2011 UEFA Women's U-19 Championship, after losing the final against Germany. Hansen was also included in the Norwegian squad for the 2012 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Japan, where the team reached the quarter-final.^[12]

She made her senior debut for Norway against Belgium in November 2011.^[13] In June 2012 Hansen scored her first senior international goal in an 11–0 rout of Bulgaria, a match in which she also assisted more than half of Norway's goals.^[14]

Hansen was named in Norway's squad for UEFA Women's Euro 2013 by veteran coach Even Pellerud.^[15] Winger Hansen and fellow teenager Ada Hegerberg at centre forward were important players in the Norwegian team which reached the competition final.^[16][17] In the final at Friends Arena, Hansen won a 61st-minute penalty after drawing a foul from Saskia Bartusiak, but Germany's goalkeeper Nadine Angerer made her second penalty save of the match. Anja Mittag's goal gave the Germans their sixth successive title.^[18]

She was ruled out of the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup after failing to recover from a serious knee injury in time for the competition.^[19]

Career statistics

Statistics accurate as of 24 July 2016

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Caroline Graham Hansen.

• NFF profile
• Stabaek profile
• Wolfsburg profile

Norway squad – UEFA Women's Euro 2013 Runners-up
1 Hjelmseth 2 Lund 3 Christensen 4 Stensland 5 Akerhaugen 6 Mjelde 7 Rønning 8 Gulbrandsen 9 Thorsnes 10 Hansen 11 Kaurin 12 Vesterbekkmo 13 Bjånesøy 14 Ims 15 Berge 16 Hegland 17 Mykjåland 18 Ryland 19 Isaksen 20 Haavi 21 Hegerberg 22 Dekkerhus 23 Gjøen Coach: Pellerud