There are many fans of the men’s game who are dismissive of the women’s version, perhaps underestimating just how long it has been going on for and how big it is in other countries. For those fans, the idea of there being a ‘journeywoman’ player seems entirely contradictory. Yet in Guro Reiten that is exactly what women’s football has to offer, with the Norwegian winger having made a name for herself in her native country by playing for several different clubs, gaining a solid experience for making the move to Chelsea’s talented side.
Who is Guro Reiten?
Born on the 26th of July 1994 in the Norwegian village of Sunndalsøra, Guro Reiten is five foot six and grew up in the village of her birth, falling in love with football when she was a youngster. As soon as school would finish, her and some friends would run onto the local field to kick a ball around. She immediately took a shine to the sport, but had to bide her time as she made her way through the youth ranks of the game. It perhaps says something about the town she grew up in that it was also where Ada Hegerberg, the winner of the inaugural women’s Ballon d’Or, was from.
Getting into Football
When she was 16-years-old, Guro Reiten signed for the Academy of her local team, Sunndal. She also played for Kattern and Trondheims-Øms during her youth career, going on to play for both of them at a senior level. It was at Sunndal where she made her initial breakthrough, however, with the team in the Norwegian Second Division. It didn’t take long for other sides to show an interest, with Kattern signing her in 2011. She remained at the club for a year-and-a-half, making 35 appearances in the league and scoring 11 goals.
That made her the club’s top scorer for 2012, but when Kattern pulled out of the Toppserien it was clear that she would need to find a new club. That came in the form of Trondheims-Øm, who she joined in 2013. She spent four seasons at the club, making 82 appearances in the league and finding the back of the net 25 times. She also helped the club to make the final of the Norwegian Cup in 2014, but they lost 3-1 to LSK Kvinner. Whatever else happened, Reiten did enough to impress the opposition, who kept tabs on her in the years that followed.
Making it to Chelsea
Ahead of the 2017 season, Reiten transferred to the Toppserien side that she had faced in the cup final three years earlier, LSK Kvinner. She was the club’s top scorer for the regular season, finding the back of the net 18 times and helping them to win the Toppserien title. In 2018 she was once again top scorer, which helped the club to win another title thanks to her 21 goals. She also finally managed to win the Norwegian Cup, scoring twice as the team defeated IL Sandviken in the final to be nominated for the Footballer of the Year award.
The 2019 season began much as the previous seasons had left off, with Reiten making her way to the top of the Norwegian goalscoring charts. It was enough to show Women’s Super League side Chelsea that Reiten was exactly what they needed to add to their ranks to improve Emma Hayes’ already impressive side. She was official signed on the 31st of May 2019, with a reported transfer fee believed to be in the region of 100,000 Norwegian kroner. She played 23 times in her first season at the club, scoring seven goals.
Earning a New Contract
The 2020-2021 season was somewhat disrupted for Reiten, not least of all because of the global health crisis that disrupted football in general at the time. She was mostly used as a substitute, scoring just once in 19 appearances in the league. She did score in the final of the 2021 FA Women’s League Cup against Bristol City, helping her relatively new club to retain the trophy. Things improved slightly in her third season at the club, scoring 11 goals in spite of the fact that she was playing mostly as a left wing-back, being chosen in the PFA WSL Team of the Year as a result.
The 2022-2023 campaign saw Reiten win her fourth consecutive Women’s Super League title, making 39 appearances in all competitions; the most of any player in the Chelsea squad. She netted 13 times in all competitions, which included the winning goal in the Champions League quarter-final first-leg against Lyon. The start of the following season saw her score a 96th-minute equaliser against Manchester City, but she also suffered an ankle ligament injury in the same month that ruled her out until the December.
It was during this period that it was revealed that Reiten would be extending her contract with Chelsea until 2025, whilst also being nominated for the 2023 Ballon d’Or Féminin. If the Blues needed any proof that they had made a good decision in retaining her services, it surely came in the final home game of the 2023-2024 season when she found the net four times in an 8-0 win over Bristol City. That gave Chelsea a one goal lead over City in the title race with two games to go. The Blues would go on to win the title by goal difference, handing her her fifth consecutive WSL title. In the January of 2025, the club triggered an extension in her contract to keep her until 2026.