– I had no thoughts of stopping playing football when I became pregnant. It is sad and heavy to think that his football career ended in that way, says Victoria Ludvigsen to news. After Icelandic Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir came forward and said that top club Lyon withheld her salary when she became pregnant, Ludvigsen has reflected a lot on her own experiences. Ludvigsen received the money she was entitled to from NAV, through sick pay and maternity leave, but still felt badly treated by Vålerenga. She expected help to get back on the field as soon as possible, but received no follow-up or facilitation from the club. She felt she was standing on bare ground. She is not alone in that. news has been in contact with a number of Toppserie players who have become pregnant while they were active. The experiences are shared, but the vast majority have felt poorly taken care of and point to a lack of follow-up and facilitation from the clubs. CONCERNED: Hege Jørgensen thinks it is sad to hear about players who feel badly treated during and after pregnancy. Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB This worries Hege Jørgensen, general manager of Toppfotball Kvinner. – It is completely unacceptable not to look after players who become pregnant. They should get a red carpet to the clubhouse throughout the pregnancy period and afterwards, she says. Felt alone This was by no means the case for Ludvigsen. She was 26 and in the shape of her life when she found out she was pregnant. When she told the management in Vålerenga about the pregnancy, she still had a year left on her contract. Ludvigsen, who had been a key player and started almost all matches for Vålerenga in 2018 and 2019, thought that it was going to be tough to combine pregnancy and family life with football, but was motivated to continue investing. What she was not prepared for was that she would have to manage alone, without help from the club. KEY PLAYER: Victoria Ludvigsen helped secure cup and league silver with Vålerenga in 2019. Photo: Marit Hommedal / NTB She says that communication with the club, facilitation and follow-up was completely absent both before and after the birth. – I have experienced close follow-up when I have been injured, but when I became pregnant there was nothing. I have invested so much time and energy in Vålerenga. The treatment back has been disappointing. Everyday life was turned upside down. From being an important part of Vålerenga’s tough venture, she felt excluded and alone. – I felt like a burden that was no longer wanted at the club, she says. The club director replies that news has presented Ludvigsen’s criticism of his former employer for Vålerenga. – Victoria probably has a point in that there has been too little expertise in the clubs on how to follow up top players during pregnancy, says club director Harriet Rudd. She says it is regrettable that the player was not satisfied with the follow-up, and that they are taking the feedback on board. Rudd says that Vålerenga generally has a great focus on continuous follow-up of each individual player, and that it would be a matter of course if a player became pregnant today. – Without there being any excuse, the situation in 2020 was a little extra difficult due to the covid restrictions, she adds. MOTHERS: Stine Hovland (tv) and Ingrid Stenevik have continued with football after they had children, but say that it has been terribly demanding. Here they are pictured during an event in 2017. Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB In full training three weeks after giving birth Fire player Ingrid Stenevik had a child when she was 19 and playing in Sandviken. It’s been a while, but she still remembers the feeling of being alone and without follow-up. Stenevik didn’t get her own training program when she became a mother, but started training fully with the rest of her team-mates as early as three weeks after giving birth. She would not take that risk again. – At the time I was young and it went surprisingly well, but that’s not how it should be. If the desire for a slightly older Toppserie is to be fulfilled, better arrangements must be made to combine family life and the football career, she says. Another who combines top football with work and family life is Arna-Bjørnar’s Stine Hovland. She believes the majority of Norwegian clubs have no idea how to handle and facilitate when a player has a child. – Much is probably about finances and understanding, about making everyday life go round. It’s something else to just support yourself, than if you have a child to think about, says Hovland. – We cannot have it as Hege Jørgensen in Toppfotball Kvinner believes that there has not been enough awareness of the problem in the past. She explains that the clubs have largely been run by volunteers and that there have not been finances to employ sufficient support staff around the players. – And everyone has too much to do all the time. That is probably part of the explanation. But we can’t have it that way. It is incredibly important to facilitate the players, in all phases of life. And we also know that they often get better after pregnancy. It’s a win-win situation for everyone. Jørgensen says that the clubs themselves have put the topic on the agenda, and that better conditions for mothers in football is a target area in the Toppserien’s new strategy plan. – Then it remains to work out what we are going to do concretely and what measures we are going to initiate, but a lot is about awareness. Give up after giving birth Today, Victoria Ludvigsen is a mother of two and works full-time as a police officer, a job she enjoys. Nevertheless, it still hurts a little to think that her football career did not last longer. She believes she had several good years left on the pitch if the club had invested in her also after she became pregnant. – I understand that it is a top sport that we are involved in and that you cannot spend a lot of resources on a player who cannot play, but I wish there was a plan that could help me get back as soon as possible. Therefore, it is important to focus on this and perhaps pave the way so that others do not experience the same as me. CHANGED OCCUPATION: Victoria Ludvigsen currently works as a police officer. Photo: Privat Ludvigsen chose to give birth after the birth in June 2020. – In the end, it was an overall assessment. It was a lot about my situation in Vålerenga, but also about finances and how challenging it is to combine football, work and family life.
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