Morten Gamst Pedersen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Morten Gamst Pedersen
Gamst vs ManUtd.jpg
Pedersen in action for Blackburn in 2009.
Personal information
Full name Morten Gamst Pedersen
Date of birth (1981-09-08) 8 September 1981 (age 31)
Place of birth Vadsø, Finnmark Norway
Height 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)[1]
Playing position Winger
Attacking midfielder
Club information
Current club Blackburn Rovers
Number 12
Youth career
1997–1998 Norild
1998–1999 Polarstjernen
1999–2000 Norild
Senior career*
Years Team Apps† (Gls)†
2000–2004 Tromsø 103 (40)
2004– Blackburn Rovers 288 (35)
National team‡
1999 Norway U18 4 (3)
2000 Norway U19 2 (0)
2001–2004 Norway U21 18 (10)
2004– Norway 74 (16)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 17:10, 6 May 2013 (UTC).

† Appearances (Goals).

‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 6 May 2013
For the Danish football player, see Morten Petersen.

Morten Gamst Pedersen (born 8 September 1981) is a Norwegian Sami[2] footballer who plays for Blackburn Rovers and the Norway national football team.

Contents

Club career [edit]

Tromsø IL [edit]

Pedersen had his breakthrough in the Norwegian Premier League club Tromsø, scoring 7 goals in the 2004 season, before he signed with Blackburn with only half a season played by August.[3] The fee was £1.5 million,[4] which could rise to £2.5 million on the basis of future appearances.[5] Gamst was required to fill the gap left by Damien Duff, who had left in July 2003 to go to Chelsea.

Blackburn Rovers [edit]

Pedersen was signed by former Blackburn boss Graeme Souness back in 2004, just in time ahead of the 2004–05 season.[3] The Norwegian international made his Premier League debut in a 1–1 draw against Manchester United on 28 August 2004, a match Blackburn were leading until deep into injury time. He initially struggled to make an impact in the Premier League and had lengthy period of not being selected after Graeme Souness was replaced by Mark Hughes as the Blackburn manager in September 2004.[3] However he started the year of 2005 in style, scoring against Cardiff City on his return to side and going on to score three goals in his next three matches. In his first season in English football he featured in 27 matches and scored 8 goals in all competitions.

2005–06 saw Pedersen make the left-midfield position his own and he has become well known for scoring many spectacular goals, such as a volley against Fulham in August 2005[3] which won BBC Match of the Day's Goal of the Month. The highlight of his Blackburn career came in September 2005, when he scored both goals in a 2–1 victory against Manchester United at Old Trafford.[6]

During the 2006–07 season, Pedersen seemingly struggled for form during the early half of the league season, but returned to form in the second half of the campaign. With new management under Paul Ince in 2008, Pedersen found himself in and out of the team, but when Ince was dismissed in December 2008 and Sam Allardyce was appointed Pedersen regained a regular starting position. He has been frequently used a central attacking midfielder under Allardyce, initially with great success. On 17 April 2010, Pedersen, was poked in the cheek and then the eye from Everton midfielder Mikel Arteta, who acted angrily after Pedersen had tackled him in a challenge. They both were booked for stopping play.[7]

After a year of transfer negotiations, Blackburn announced that Pedersen had signed a new four-year deal at Ewood Park on 19 May 2010, which would see him stay contracted until the summer of 2014.[4] He went on to make more than 30 appearances for them, and scored three goals in the 2009–10 Premier League campaign, in which Blackburn finished 10th, achieving 50 points and winning 10 league games at home and three away. Blackburn chairman, John Williams, who completed the formalities of the deal, added: "Sam made this, together with finding a striker, being our summer priority. "He regards Morten as a key member of the Rovers squad and his future at Ewood Park is now secure." On 6 November 2010, he scored a 40-yard free-kick against Wigan Athletic, in a 2–1 victory at Ewood Park, playing the full 90 minutes. And then four days later, on 10 November, he netted against Newcastle United at St James' Park, scoring in the third minute with his right foot following an assist from teammate Brett Emerton and he also took a punch to the stomach by Joey Barton.[8] This was also coincidentally his 40th goal for the club in all competitions. On 21 November, in the game against Aston Villa, he scored twice at Ewood Park. First, from a free kick on the stroke of half time and the second came from a deflection off Ryan Nelsen's shot in the 66th minute. Rovers went on to win the game 2–0. At the end of the 2010–11 season, he had made 39 appearances and scored four league goals for Rovers in all competitions.

On 13 August 2011, Pedersen started against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Ewood Park in a 2–1 defeat in their opening 2011–12 Premier League fixture. On 20 August 2011, he started against Aston Villa in a 3–1 defeat at Villa Park and scored Rovers' only goal in the 52nd minute. On 24 August 2011, Pedersen captained Blackburn in their 3–1 win over Sheffield Wednesday at Ewood Park in the second round of the League Cup. Three days later, in a league game with Everton at Ewood Park, he suffered a thigh injury in a 1–0 loss.

International career [edit]

Gamst Pedersen holds 74 caps for his country, having scored 16 goals, since he scored two goal in his debut on 18 February 2004 against Northern Ireland.[9] He was one of the first names on the team sheet for Norway until August 2012.

On 2 September 2006, in a Euro 2008 qualifier against Hungary, Pedersen, whose favourite player as a kid was Marco van Basten, scored a goal which was very similar to van Basten's famous goal in the final of the 1988 European Football Championship. Major newspapers Aftenposten, Dagbladet and VG all dubbed him van Gamsten as a result of the goal.[10][11] After the match against Hungary, he received the coveted Golden Watch award given to him by the Football Association of Norway on the occasion of his 25th appearance for his country.[12]

On 12 August 2009, he scored two goals for Norway in a world cup qualifier against Scotland, scoring in stoppage time in both the first and second half. On 17 November 2010, Pedersen scored in the 34th minute to equalise, playing the full 90 minutes against Republic of Ireland, at the Aviva Stadium, scoring with a superb curling free-kick into the top corner in a 2–1 win. On 4 June 2011, Pedersen started the Euro 2012 qualifier against Portugal in Lisbon, where he played the full 90 minutes in a 1–0 defeat. On 7 June 2011, he completed the full 90 minutes and was Norway's matchwinner when he scored in the 83rd minute from a rebound after he missed a penalty against Lithuania in a friendly game held in Oslo.

He played his so far last match for Norway against Greece on 15 August 2012 in a 2–3 loss.

International goals [edit]

Statistics [edit]

Club [edit]

Correct as of 6 May 2013 (2013-05-06)[14][15][16][17]
Season Club Division League Cup Other Europe Total
Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Norway League Norwegian Cup Royal League Europe Total
2000 Tromsø Tippeligaen 10 3 1 0 – – 11 3
2001 26 5 4 0 – – 30 5
2002 1. Divisjon 23 18 5 3 – – 28 21
2003 Tippeligaen 26 7 5 5 – – 31 12
2004 18 7 3 3 0 0 – 21 10
England League FA Cup League Cup Europe[n 1] Total
2004–05 Blackburn Rovers Premier League 19 4 7 3 1 1 – 27 8
2005–06 34 9 2 0 6 1 – 42 10
2006–07 36 6 5 2 1 0 7 0 49 8
2007–08 37 4 1 0 2 1 6 1 46 6
2008–09 33 1 1 0 3 0 – 37 1
2009–10 33 3 1 0 5 2 – 39 5
2010–11 35 4 2 0 2 0 – 39 4
2011–12 33 3 1 0 3 1 – 37 4
2012–13 Championship 28 1 5 0 0 0 – 33 1
Total Tromsø 103 40 18 11 0 0 — 121 51
Blackburn 288 35 25 5 23 6 13 1 349 47
Career total 391 75 43 16 23 6 13 1 470 98

International [edit]

[9]

Norway national team
Year Apps Goals
2004 10 4
2005 11 1
2006 6 2
2007 10 1
2008 8 0
2009 10 4
2010 9 2
2011 7 2
2012 3 0
Total 74 16

Honours [edit]

Tromsø
Individual

Personal life [edit]

Ernst Pedersen, his father as well as a football coach, began to train him to use his left foot rather than his natural right foot in a bid to help him become a professional player, as there is less competition for left-sided roles within the sport. As a result his left foot has become his dominant foot.

Pedersen fronted Norwegian boyband The Players, alongside fellow footballers Freddy dos Santos, Raymond Kvisvik, Kristofer Hæstad and Øyvind Svenning. Released in aid of the Soccer Against Crime campaign, their first single became a hit across Scandinavia.[18]

Notes [edit]

  1. ^ Includes UEFA Cup and 2007 UEFA Intertoto Cup

References [edit]

  1. ^ "Premier League Player Profile". Premier League. Retrieved 21 March 2011. 
  2. ^ "Ja, jeg er same!" (in Norwegian). NRK. 19 November 2007. Retrieved 31 March 2013. 
  3. ^ a b c d "Pedersen warms up Norway". UEFA.com. 11 November 2005. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  4. ^ a b "Morten Gamst Pedersen signs new deal with Blackburn". BBC Sport. 19 May 2010. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  5. ^ "Gamst solgt for 31 mill." (in Norwegian). NRK. 25 August 2004. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  6. ^ "Pedersen pushes United back into the pack". The Guardian. 25 September 2005. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  7. ^ "Everton's Mikel Arteta points finger at Morten Gamst Pedersen". The Daily Telegraph. 19 April 2010. Retrieved 10 April 2013. 
  8. ^ "Banned Joey Barton 'sorry' for Pedersen punch". BBC Sport. 11 November 2010. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  9. ^ a b Søfting, Thomas. "Morten Gamst Pedersen" (in Norwegian). Retrieved 12 November 2011. 
  10. ^ "Morten van Gamsten" (in Norwegian). VG. 2 September 2006. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  11. ^ "Marco van Gamsten" (in Norwegian). Dagbladet. 2 September 2006. Retrieved 10 April 2013
  12. ^ "Scoret praktmål". Nordlys.no (in Norwegian). 2 September 2006. Retrieved 12 November 2011. 
  13. ^ Morten Gamst Pedersen. EU-Football.info. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  14. ^ Pedersen's Norwegian stats (in Norwegian). NFF. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  15. ^ Pedersen's career stats (in Norwegian). AltomFotball.no. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  16. ^ Pedersen English stats. Football Database.eu. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  17. ^ Pedersen Blackburn stats. 11v11.com. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  18. ^ Dart, James (8 August 2007). "Which footballers have released a record?". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 13 May 2010. 

External links [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Morten Gamst Pedersen
Blackburn Rovers F.C. – current squad
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Morten_Gamst_Pedersen&oldid=553806830"