Guro Reiten interview: Gotham move, Chelsea memories and new perspectives – thanks to motherhood
Guro Reiten is sitting inside her apartment in Norway, in between spending time with her 5-month-old son and packing her life away. As if being a new mom and professional soccer player weren’t hectic enough, she just added “moving across the world” to her to-do list. Two weeks earlier, the 31-year-old signed a three-year contract with NWSL club Gotham FC, after seven trophy-laden years with Women’s Super League champions Chelsea.
The Norway international, considered one of the best left-footed wingers in the world, will join the team on loan through July, before signing a multi-year deal to 2029. “It wasn’t an easy decision,” Reiten tells The Athletic on a video call. “I got some incredible memories (at Chelsea), but I felt like it was now or never, because I want to go somewhere where I can play at my best level.
“I normally go to different clubs and spend a lot of time there, so, hopefully, I’ve got a few more good years in me. ” Moving to New Jersey is Reiten’s way of stepping out of her comfort zone. Her signing with the 2025 league winners came as a shock when announced on March 12, but it was a calculated move by Gotham, whose motto remains “always building, never finished.
” The team knew Reiten’s contract expired in the summer. They took advantage of their trip to London in January for the FIFA Women’s Champions Cup to meet her — or “the moment we were allowed to, by the rules,” as Yael Averbuch West, Gotham’s general manager and head of soccer operations, told The Athletic. “We’re always looking for players at Gotham who can fit into our style, in terms of a very intelligent player with a really high football IQ and technical ability,” Averbuch West says.
“We talked to her a number of times to try to convince her why she should consider moving her family across the world. … (She) is at a stage of her career where she is experienced, but also still looking to improve her game, which is the most important thing to us at the end of the day — that players are still hungry for more, and she very much is. ” Reiten, a native of Sunndalsøra, around 300 miles north of the capital Oslo, began her professional career as a teenager in Norway, playing across multiple clubs before signing with Chelsea in 2019.
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