Cecilie Falch retirement from professional football, Digi Mart USA News (Bodø, Norway): The match against Rosenborg at home will be the last for Cecilie Falch as a professional football player. Before reaching her decision, she had to have a conversation with herself.
“It was very nice to tell everyone together. Tears came when I was going to speak, and that is natural.
But I carried it out as well as I could,” said Falch, who on Thursday afternoon informed her teammates at Bodø/Glimt that she has played her last season as a professional football player.
The 30-year-old can look back on a fifteen-year career. She says that over the past few months she has been asked what she thinks about the future, and that it has been difficult to hide her thoughts about retiring.
When her two-year contract now expires, it is over.
“When someone has asked me, I have answered that I have made up my mind. So some in the team have known about it, while others found out yesterday.
It is difficult to keep quiet when you choose to say it right before the last match of the season.”
After 23 years at Grand Bodø, she joined Bodø/Glimt at the start of 2024. The club were promoted to the Toppserien.
The experienced player spent two seasons at the top level with Bodø/Glimt.
“I am proud of what we have achieved. Being promoted at the first attempt was not something we had expected, but the whole year was a great experience.
We were included in Glimt, supporters came to matches, made banners and created something new with us. It was very moving to be part of it.”
Falch also previously played in the Toppserien with Grand in 2014, 2017 and 2018.
The 30-year-old admits she decided early in the summer to retire after the season ended, but changes at the club led her to postpone the decision.
“After a new coaching team was put in place this summer, I had to go through some rounds with myself again. Should I continue?
Suddenly a new motivation came, and I had to find out where it came from. In the end I found that retiring is something I do only for my own sake.
The way I felt about my time at the club was the same, even though changes were under way.”
Now a somewhat different everyday life awaits the 30-year-old, who has played at the top level for sixteen seasons. Alongside football she completed a teacher’s degree and in recent years has worked as a lower secondary school teacher in Bodø.
“Even though I have come straight from work to training, they have really made it possible for me to play football, matches and travel to away games.”
She is described as a pillar of women’s football in Bodø and has also been part of Bodø/Glimt’s captain group.
“It has felt natural for me to take responsibility, and an honor to be in the captain group for several years. I like being able to contribute where I can.
If anyone has questions, I want to have the answer or find out, so that others are doing well.”
Falch has felt what life as a football player has cost, including on her body. There have been some physical complaints, but that is not what is stopping her now.
“The combination of a full-time job and football has worked well, but I now notice that there is not as much energy to do everything that is required. It is not injuries or little playing time that is the reason I am stopping, but because I choose that enough is enough.”
Among the players, Falch has been one of the most experienced on the team. She has also previously been a coach for several of her current teammates.
She leaves the door open to a coaching job in the future, but stresses that her football boots will now rest, at least until the Christmas tournament.
Although she will not be showing up at Aspmyra at fixed times going forward, she looks forward to following the team.
“I will probably have a permanent seat in the stands. There are good friends and teammates who are going to keep playing, and whose development I want to follow.
No one will be completely rid of me, because I will probably drop by at training to say hello.”
After New Year, the club faces the First Division following relegation from the Toppserien. Falch believes the team will have a new and exciting start.
“Now there is a new sheet with a new structure around it, and that can be positive. It is completely decisive for how things will go in the future.
Next year they are going to have a new buildup, where they can focus on small details and play matches against teams that are more at the same level. That will be good for both confidence and relationships.”
Falch points to a Toppserien rival as motivation.
“Suddenly Glimt could end up like Ålesund. They rebuilt the team, got promoted and took the Toppserien by storm.
That is better than sitting at the bottom of the table and struggling for survival. My wish for the women’s program is to start again and build up stone by stone.”
