Dream Big, Work Hard
By Lars Sivertsen & Julien Quelen
To be closing in on 300 career goals at the age of 23 is unusual, but then Ada Hegerberg is not your usual footballer.In the beginning it was simpler, of course.. “When I was younger, I played because it was the biggest passion in my life,” she told Goal. “I had fun, I grew up in a football family, so football was basically life for me and for all of us. I don't think it was before I was 14, 15, 16, that I really thought it was possible to be a professional.”
Hegerberg has spent her time since then pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. A serial winner, a goalscoring phenomenon and, of course, the winner of the first ever Ballon d'Or in the women's game. Beneath a charming and outgoing exterior, she possesses the single-minded determination and fierce motivation shared by all true sporting champions.
“I have always been serious. I was really passionate and I did things with quality. I learned that from my family. So I've been bloody serious from day one, you could say."
Those qualities have seen her rise to the very summit of her sport, but they have also made her a strangely divisive figure in her home country. She has not played for the Norwegian national team since their last game at the 2017 European Championship. She made the decision after having been frustrated by her experiences with the Norwegian national team for several years. She felt the Norwegian FA needed to up their game with regards to logistics, communication and the overall standard of coaching, and later told the Norwegian press that she felt she regressed during periods with the national team.
There are those who feel she is too assertive and difficult to work with, while her defenders are quick to point out that elite-level sportspeople rarely have the temperament of a career diplomat. Either way, Hegerberg's description of herself of having been “bloody serious” in her approach to football is, if anything, an understatement.
Since joining Lyon in 2014, Hegerberg has scored an extraordinary 194 goals in 165 games for the club. Lyon have been a real powerhouse of the women's game in recent years, racking up 13 straight titles in the French top division, and perhaps more importantly winning the last three Champions League titles. On Saturday they'll have the chance to make it four when they face Barcelona in this year's final. Hegerberg makes no secret of the fact that the Champions League is both her and Lyon's biggest priority.“
To be honest, the Champions League means everything for us, because that's what we work hard for throughout the whole season. It defines our season, if we win it or not kind of describes if it’s been a successful season or not,” she says.
“Playing a fourth final is such a big thing, so we need to enjoy it, but at the same time to concentrate on what we do every day to prepare for the game because the team that is the most prepared has the biggest chance of winning. This team knows all about these games, the girls have experience of playing big games like this, which is a big positive. We prepare for it in a really focused manner. And we are excited to play a fourth final a row, which is just amazing.”
With Lyon enjoying this kind dominance both domestically and in Europe, it was no huge surprise when the shortlist for the inaugural women's Ballon d'Or was published that a whopping 7 out the 15 names on it were from the perennial French champions. “It’s amazing having seven girls from Lyon, from the team, being nominated, it’s really something incredible. It was big for us to bring the Ballon D’or home, you could say, to Lyon. I was hoping that one of us would take it home. I think it was well deserved for the club and the team for what we have achieved. I felt the support from the girls as well, that they were all into this, because this Ballon D’or belongs to the whole team. That’s why it was such a special moment, to share it with our whole club and the girls and everything.”
It is of course no coincidence that Lyon have been such an unstoppable force in women's football. The team is well funded, well run and the club takes women's football seriously. Hegerberg credits Lyon-president Jean-Michel Aulas for putting conditions in place for success and creating a sense of unity. “I feel like I’m in a club where you have equality and high standards, which comes from one man, the president, who puts everything in place so that we have the best conditions. We eat with the men's team, we have the same canteen as everyone who works in the club. Which for me is such an important thing, that you share the space with the security guard, the people who take care of the pitch, those details. It’s important that you show that you appreciate all the work that goes on behind the scenes.”
Lyon may be a model club when it comes to women's football, but Hegerberg is typically uncompromising in her view that there is still a long way to go with the way women's football is seen in general. “I think there are a lot of attitudes that need to be changed throughout [France], and I think that's the case all over the world and all over Europe as well. That’s why I always talk about respect when it comes to football. Me playing football and women playing football in general. I’m not here talking about money or what salary a male footballer gets, I’m only here talking about us getting the respect that we earn because it’s the same hard work that we put down, and the same level of seriousness. It all comes down to the attitude, that people accept that we've earned our place. So, there’s work to do, and we are working on it every day to change attitudes. But it's also about men in positions of power helping us change those attitudes as well, because obviously there’s a lot of work to do.”
Work is not something Hegerberg has ever shied away from, and her advice to youngsters who hope to go on a similar journey to hers is clear: “High ambitions have high consequences,” she insists. “The first rule is hard work. We talk a lot about talent, but I think it's all about working hard and mixing that hard work with building your self-confidence. I think it's important to give younger girls the confidence that they can dare to work hard, dare to dream big. And by us performing well, showing more games on the TV, that can give them the chance to actually dream big and work hard.”
As for Lyon, they go into their match against Barcelona with eyes firmly fixed on the prize. The club has already won the Champions League more times than any other, they have already won three trophies in a row, and the last time someone else won the French top division Ada Hegerberg was 10-years-old. Still, Hegerberg is unlikely to ever rest on any kind of laurels. “I think we have very important work to do to stay at the top. We have the opportunity to stay on top for years to come, but it's all about how we look at ourselves. Like how can we keep developing, how can we analyse the team and what we do in training every day, so as to always take another step. If we do that, if we work hard enough and work with quality, and if we have the right mentality, we could stay on top. And I think we could still increase the gap between us the others. It’s all about what we want ourselves. Our main focus should be to continue being the best team.”
It’s her relentless pursuit of her goals that has catapulted Ada Hegerberg to the top, to separate her from the rest. She may have ruffled a few delicate feathers in her home country, but she will also undoubtedly inspire others all around the world. The message for young girls is clear: The work is hard, the road is long, but increasingly the rewards are there to be won. As Hegerberg herself puts it: “Dream big, work hard.” And never settle for the usual.
