Ada Hegerberg Wants to See How Good It Can Be


Ada Hegerberg apologizes in advance for the upcoming cliche. Judging by what she’s been through, she knows exactly what she’s expected to say sounds trite. After all, it’s what everybody says, she.

Still, it’s the only way to describe how it felt in the past five months to have found herself trapped in a gym or not in a treatment room as part of her recovery from a serious knee injury. field once again. There’s no other way to say it: He says he feels like a kid again.

The little electric excitement that comes partly from feeling the grass under his feet, being surrounded by teammates, being able to do what he’s always done, the pulse of pure, sheer pleasure. He was deprived of it for almost two years; determined to “rejoice” in its restoration.

But it’s not just that. Excitement is also about rediscovering possibility. At 26, Hegerberg feels he is at the beginning of something again, happily unaware of limitations, horizons or destinations.

“I don’t know what the ending looks like,” he said. “I can be a completely different player than I used to be. I see that in a positive way as well.” That’s the joy of youth: not knowing yet what you might be.

In an ideal world, of course, Hegerberg wouldn’t have this chance. It goes without saying that he chose not to lose the best of two seasons of his career to injuries and certainly not the two seasons he did.

In January 2020, Hegerberg was more than just the best female football player on the planet; She was the shining star of the women’s game and was poised to become the dominant, uplifting force of the sport for the next ten years, at least in Europe. Last year, it was almost untouchable.

In December 2018, Hegerberg was selected as the first winner of the competition. women’s Ballon d’Or. Six months later, he scored a blitz, devastating hat-trick in the Champions League final, securing his club Olympique Lyon for their fourth consecutive European crown. By October 2019, he secured another piece of history by breaking the record for most goals scored in the tournament.

And then, when a scan confirms it anterior cruciate ligament torn He disappeared on his right knee during a workout in January 2020. He was absent because the season took a break after the epidemic. Lyon was absent as they won their fifth consecutive Champions League title.

This proved to be just the beginning. He suffered a stress fracture in his left shin in September 2020, putting an end to his hopes for a relatively quick return. Soon after, Lyon confirmed that he would not play at all until fall 2021 at the earliest. In the end, 20 months would pass before Hegerberg could play again.

For most athletes, that would have felt like a lifetime. It seems like an eternity in women’s football. The game is developing in Europe at such a rapid rate that it changed almost beyond recognition when Hegerberg returned to the field in October for a Champions League match against Swedish team Hacken.

Lyon was no longer Europe’s leading superpower; that tag belonged now Barcelona, the team that broke their dominance in the Champions League a few months ago. Lyon had been deposed as champions of France by Paris St.-Germain for the first time since 2006, and had even lost its reputation as the sport’s hottest destination: Sam Kerr, Tobin Heath and Pernille Harder had retired to England. Not by France, but by the wealth generated by the television streaming into the game.

After a while, Hegerberg also lost his position as the leading player of the continent. Suddenly, this title belongs Alexia Putellas, Barcelona captain and reigning Ballon d’Or winner, followed by a number of teammates. Arsenal’s relentless striker Vivianne Miedema seemed to have displaced Hegerberg as the game’s most clinical finisher.

There were some welcome elements of this growth: the expansion of the Champions League group stage, a streaming deal with streaming service Dazn and Hegerberg “giving the players the platform we deserve.” The others he didn’t seem to outshine him, such as being forced to watch from the outside as the totems and realities of the game change.

Still, he shows no sense of bitterness. This is the nature of football: as he says, it is “fresh” in an almost constant state of renewal. “Life goes on,” he said. “I am fully aware that I have been away for a long time. People forget you.”

Patience, as Hegerberg will admit, does not come naturally to him. He is, by his own admission, a “very organized” person, the type who can vaguely see some minor inconveniences such as a last-minute change of plans. Yet his recovery taught him his virtues; He tried his best not to worry about the little things. “Ask my manager,” he said. “He’s almost proud of me.”

This is a practical choice as well as a philosophical one. The injury and the grueling, frustrating recovery that followed changed Hegerberg’s outlook on his career—hence his greater determination to “take joy” out of it—but that’s how he describes worrying about the unimportant as a “waste of calories.” Worry is an energy that could be better used elsewhere. He became more patient because he doesn’t want to waste time.

“I would say five Champions Leagues and one Ballon d’Or was enough,” he said. “But I want to create more records. I want to come back by scoring 40-50 goals in a season. Crazy numbers and it will take time, but I know I can do it.” He said he was guided by “proving something to myself” rather than proving a point into a game going on without him.

“This is about self-respect,” he added. “I want to go beyond my limits. That’s what I want to do as an athlete: to break all existing boundaries.”

Of course, his first goal is to take Lyon to the top: reclaim both the French and European titles. The club face Italian champions Juventus in the quarter-finals of the Champions League this week. “We’ve won five times in a row,” Hegerberg said with a short, solitary burst of anger. “It was something historic, something that perhaps no one would ever do again. Maybe people have forgotten that.”

From now on, his goals include returning to the international arena; She has not played for Norway since 2017 to protest the country’s authorities’ disregard for the women’s match. Martin Sjogren, the national team coach said in February that a “closer dialogue” with Hegerberg meant it was “possible” again to play for his country. He could return in time to take part in the European Championships this summer.

Of course, she does not yet know whether she will become Ada Hegerberg as before. Still waiting impatiently and impatiently to find out. Yet the prospect of being different does not fill him with fear. Maybe the second edition will be even better. After all, that’s why she feels like a child again: because her world is once again full of possibilities.



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