Morten Gamst Pedersen

Tromsø IL

Pedersen was born in Vadsø Municipality in Finnmark. He had his breakthrough in the Norwegian top division club Tromsø, scoring 7 goals in the 2004 season, before he signed with Blackburn with only half a season played by August. The fee was £1.5 million, which could rise to £2.5 million on the basis of future appearances. Gamst was required to fill the gap left by Damien Duff, who had left in July 2003 to go to Chelsea.

Blackburn Rovers

Pedersen was signed by Blackburn boss Graeme Souness in 2004, just in time for the 2004–05 season. The Norwegian international made his Premier League debut in a 1–1 draw against local rivals 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 Souness was replaced by Mark Hughes as the Blackburn manager in September 2004. However, he started the year of 2005 by scoring against Cardiff City on his return to the 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 scored goals, such as a volley against Fulham in August 2005 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…

Gamst Pedersen scored two goals in his debut for Norway against Northern Ireland on 18 February 2004. 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. 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. 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 last match so far for Norway against Greece on 15 August 2012 in a 2–3 loss, and he has been capped 74 times scoring 14 goals. Gamst…

Club

As of 12 February 2024

International

Scores and results list Norway's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Gamst Pedersen goal

Morten Gamst Pedersen is the son of Ernst Pedersen, a former footballer who played in the Norwegian Premier League for Bodø/Glimt and Vålerenga in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Pedersen is of partial Sami origin. In a 2007 interview with Sami newspaper Ságat, Pedersen said he has Sami blood from both parents, though mostly from his mother's side. However, he admits his knowledge of the Sami language is very limited. 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.