ULLEVAAL (VG) Caroline Graham Hansen says that all the players want Ada Hegerberg back in the Norwegian national team. At the same time, he thinks the “Hegerberg conflict” is a media creation.
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On Tuesday, Hegerberg participated in national team training for the first time in nearly five years.
There are plenty of high fives, laughs and smiles to be found in the Norwegian star back on the grass of Ullevaal.
Another star, Caroline Graham Hansen, said no one was worried about a new conflict with Hegerberg and the national team.
– Ada came with a big smile and we look forward to her return. It would be great to start and find a rhythm again. We have played with each other for many years, so it won’t be difficult, the Barcelona player said at a media meeting on Tuesday.
He said there was no nervousness about Hegerberg’s return to the national team for the first time since the European Championships in 2017.
– I feel the interest this media creates around the so-called conflict that happened with him and the national team. Nothing negative can be traced.
– If you think that people don’t talk much, then there will be a lot of interest in what’s really going on, and that’s natural. Then more moments of conflict are also created in the media than they actually are.
Graham Hansen believes Hegerberg has come to stay.
– We are in a completely different place as a national team and a federation now.
In 2018, Hegerberg deleted several of his national teammates as friends on Facebook after the conflict. One of them is Chelsea player Guro Reiten.
She says NRK in 2018 that he was shocked, but told VG at a media meeting that he wasn’t swayed by it more than four years later.
– I have become more mature. Something happens. A lot has happened to him and us. We kind of had to put it behind us and move on. We have the same ambition, so that’s what matters.
– You’ve become more mature in recent years?
– Mhm, that’s all, and probably plays a big role for everyone here.
– We want to win football games and do the best we can. Then we need the best football players. We live in a country where there are not many people, so what we have must be available. Especially when it’s one of the best in Europe, so of course we want to have it here. Now we have it, Reiten said of Hegerberg.
Ada Hegerberg had the following to say about Facebook’s removal from 2018 at Monday’s press conference:
– When I made that choice there, it was a difficult choice to make, at the same time it is also a choice that needs to be made. Then I have to focus on what I want to focus on. And continue to watch the national team on social media get hurt. There is nothing personal behind it and the girls notice it.
In Hegerberg’s first training return, national team coach Martin Sjögren coached the duo Graham Hansen and Hegerberg to the top in a 4-4-2 formation.
– It’s a big boost that you have another class of players who are on top and can get the ball into the net. Opponents have to defend themselves in other ways. “Then not only me but some of our creative players will get more space as if you let Ada go, it will quickly become a goal or goal opportunity,” said striker Graham Hansen.
With Hegerberg’s return to Norway, Manchester United’s Maria Thorisdóttir is looking to play on some of the Lyon striker’s strengths.
– I think we had a few posts in the last collection, but we have strikers with quality in another way. Now we know that Ada is the beast in the box, so now it’s just a matter of shooting the ball at it.
– All blessings are good blessings. “There is a big profile in the world, so it’s positive for the national team with all the attention we can get,” said Thorisdóttir of the interest around the national team.
Next Thursday at 18.00, Norway will host Kosovo for an important match in the World Cup qualifiers.
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