Midfielder turned goalkeeper: Panengstuen's ball-playing pathway
Being a goalkeeper wasn’t always Selma Panengstuen’s path in football, but she feels it has helped her become the player she is today.
Following in the footsteps of her three older sisters, who all played football in their younger years, the Norwegian shot stopper actually began her footballing journey as an outfield player, specifically as a midfielder.
Heading to one of her district teams as a teenager, playing as a midfielder, the now 23-year-old stepped in to help her side out after their goalkeeper got injured – and that’s where the story began for Selma in between the sticks.
Joining us from SK Brann last week, Selma revealed her pathway to becoming a goalkeeper and when she fell in love with the position.
“I was there as a midfielder and then our goalkeeper got injured, so the coach came to me and was like ‘can you just be a goalkeeper for this part of the session?’ and I was like, ‘okay, I'll do that’,” she explained, speaking to us after becoming a Lilywhite.
“Then, the next time I got selected as a goalkeeper and I was like, ‘this can't be right’ so I came to training without gloves, without anything because I wasn't a goalkeeper, but then they were like ‘oh yeah, you're meant to be a goalkeeper for our team’.
“Then, after that I started to play one half in goal and one half as an outfield player. Then, after a while, I understood that I'm going to be a goalkeeper. I understood that I had potential, but I don't think I fell in love with it until maybe when I was like 19 years old.”
Spending a lot of her youth career as a midfielder, Selma actually feels her experience of playing in that position has helped her become a composed goalkeeper on the ball and isn’t afraid of having possession.
“I think it's because I could actually use my strengths and I was allowed to play, not like an outfield player, but I was involved a lot with my feet and was allowed to try different things even though I was a goalkeeper,” she said.
“So, it's not only just stay on the line, you're not in the play, but I was actually engaged in the play and that's what I loved, so that's when I realised that I could be a goalkeeper but still use my strengths with the feet.”