Vålerenga Fotball Damer is the women's football branch of Vålerenga Fotball. Based in Oslo, the Toppserien, the top division of women's football in Norway.
The team first won promotion to Toppserien in 2011 after earning promotion from the First Division. This made Vålerenga the third Norwegian club with both a men's team and a women's team in the top-tier league, and the first club to have its own women's team win promotion to Toppserien, as the two other clubs, Stabæk Fotball and Lillestrøm SK, inherited another club's women's team.
In 2020, the club made history by winning the Toppserien and the NM Kvinner, their first major titles after finishing runners-up at the previous editions.
History Founded in 1913, Vålerenga established a women's team for the first time in 1982. After several seasons in lower divisions, Vålerenga decided to make a restart in 1991. They temporarily put down their women's first team, and focused on building youth teams for the next five years. Based on the players coming through their youth teams, they restarted their women's first team in 1996 at the fifth tier of Norwegian football. They were promoted several times the following years, and played at the second tier in the 2000 season.
After spending years at the second and third tier, The team won promotion from the First Division to Toppserien in 2011. This made Vålerenga the third Norwegian club with both a men's team and a women's team in the top-tier league, and the first club to have its own women's team win promotion to Toppserien, as the two other clubs, Stabæk Fotball and Lillestrøm SK, inherited another club's women's team.
In the following years, Vålerenga established itself at the top tier of Norwegian football. In 2015, the board of Vålerenga Fotball stated that by 2020 the club should be a leading club in women's football.
After playing indoors in Vallhall Arena for several years, Vålerenga moved into the newly built Intility Arena in 2017. The first match played at the stadium was the Toppserien game against Kolbotn, which Vålerenga won 2–0. In 2017 they also reached the Norwegian Cup Final for the first time, which they lost 0–1 to Avaldsnes.
In 2020, the club won the Double, winning both the Toppserien and the NM Kvinner for the first time in the club's history. They won 2–0 against LSK Kvinner in the Cup Final, and were also ending LSK Kvinner's streak of six consecutive league titles. In 2023, Vålerenga won their second league title.
Vålerenga qualified for the UEFA Women's Champions League group stage for the first time in the 2024–25 season.
Players Current squad
Coaching staff Position NameDirector of footballSteinar PedersenHead coachNils LexerødAssistant coachAleksander OlsenGoalkeeper coachAndreas Thorsen SchoutePlayer developerTove TuntlandFitness coachLuciano AriasHead of medicalHelene MoaPhysioSiri NesheimEquipment managerHenning AamodtEquipment managerJon-Anders SchybergEquipment managerHeidi Øverland
Notable former players
Hanne Mellingsæter Solveig Gulbrandsen Tina Wulf Johanne Fridlund Ingrid Søndenå Maren Hauge Theresa Eslund Tinja-Riikka Korpela Jenna Dear Natasha Dowie Ingrid Schjelderup Isabell Herlovsen Ajara Njoya Sherida Spitse Sigrid Heien Hansen Celin Bizet Ildhusøy Marie Dølvik Markussen Rikke Marie Madsen Synne Jensen Dejana Stefanović Andrine Tomter Stine Ballisager Pedersen Ingibjörg Sigurðardóttir Guro Pettersen Jalen Tompkins Mimmi Löfwenius Janni Thomsen Thea Bjelde
Managers Period Manager2005–2007 Kjell Gustad 2008 Arne Berger 2009–2013 Cecilie Berg-Hansen 2014 Glenn Rostad 2015 Leif Tsolis 2016 David Brocken 2016–2017 Kjell Gustad2018–2019 Monica Knudsen2020–2021 Jack Majgaard Jensen2022–present Nils Lexerød
Recent seasons {|class="wikitable" ! Season ! ! Pos. ! Pl. ! W ! D ! L ! GS ! GA ! P !Cup !Notes |- |2010 |1. divisjon |align=right|3 |align=right|22||align=right|11||align=right|6||align=right|5 |align=right|38||align=right|24||align=right|39 ||Second round
|2011 |1. divisjon |align=right bgcolor=#DDFFDD| 1 |align=right|20||align=right|14||align=right|3||align=right|3 |align=right|52||align=right|22||align=right|45 ||Third round |Promoted to Toppserien |- |2012 |Toppserien |align=right |8 |align=right|22||align=right|6||align=right|5||align=right|11 |align=right|27||align=right|47||align=right|23 ||Third round
|2013 |Toppserien |align=right | 5 |align=right|22||align=right|8||align=right|8||align=right|6 |align=right|41||align=right|37||align=right|32 ||Semi-final
|2014 |Toppserien |align=right | 7 |align=right|22||align=right|9||align=right|3||align=right|10 |align=right|27||align=right|45||align=right|30 ||Third round
|2015 |Toppserien |align=right | 10 |align=right|22||align=right|6||align=right|3||align=right|13 |align=right|22||align=right|42||align=right|21 ||Third round
|2016 |Toppserien |align=right | 9 |align=right|22||align=right|6||align=right|5||align=right|11 |align=right|25||align=right|48||align=right|23 ||Third round
|2017 |Toppserien |align=right | 7 |align=right|22||align=right|10||align=right|4||align=right|8 |align=right|38||align=right|33||align=right|34 |bgcolor=silver|Final
|2018 |Toppserien |align=right | 6 |align=right|22||align=right|10||align=right|3||align=right|9 |align=right|37||align=right|35||align=right|33 ||Quarter-final
|2019 |Toppserien |align=right bgcolor=silver| 2 |align=right|22||align=right|14||align=right|4||align=right|4 |align=right|41||align=right|24||align=right|46 |bgcolor=silver|Final
|2020 |Toppserien |align=right bgcolor=gold | 1 |align=right|18||align=right|11||align=right|5||align=right|2 |align=right|39||align=right|14||align=right|38 |bgcolor=gold|Winners
|2021 |Toppserien |align=right | 4 |align=right|18||align=right|11||align=right|2||align=right|5 |align=right|46||align=right|17||align=right|35 |bgcolor=gold|Winners
|rowspan=2|2022 |rowspan=2|Toppserien |rowspan=2 align=right bgcolor=silver| 2 |align=right|18||align=right|12||align=right|3||align=right|3 |align=right|48||align=right|12||align=right|39 |rowspan=2|Quarter-final |rowspan=2| |- |align=right|6||align=right|4||align=right|1||align=right|1 |align=right|16||align=right|3||align=right|15 |- |2023 |Toppserien |align=right bgcolor=gold| 1 |align=right|27||align=right|17||align=right|8||align=right|2 |align=right|68||align=right|28||align=right|59 |bgcolor=silver|Final |- |2024 |Toppserien |align=right bgcolor=gold| 1 |align=right|27||align=right|24||align=right|1||align=right|2 |align=right|74||align=right|17||align=right|73 |bgcolor=gold|Winners
|2025 |Toppserien |align=right bgcolor=silver| 2 |align=right|27||align=right|22||align=right|1||align=right|4 |align=right|73||align=right|19||align=right|67 |bgcolor=gold|Winners
Source:
Honours Toppserien: Winners: 2020, 2023, 2024 Runners-up: 2019, 2022, 2025 1. divisjon: Winners: 2011 Norwegian Women's Cup: Winners: 2020, 2021, 2024, 2025 Runners-up: 2017, 2019, 2023
References