A Viking in Blue (Maria Thorisdottir interview)

Maria Thorisdottir actually chose handball. She played both to eighteen, left Stavanger for professional handball in Oslo, and came back to football in 2014 only because jumper’s knee is ruinous for a sport built on jumping. Three years on she is at Chelsea, having consulted Maren Mjelde and turned down a reported Arsenal approach, and describes a squad so cosmopolitan the English players joke there are too many Scandinavians. She remembers almost nothing of the last twenty minutes at Bayern Munich, only that they went through and celebrated all the way home. On Norway’s Euro exit she is unsparing, and on Ada Hegerberg’s departure unsentimental. The equal pay deal her federation struck, with the men’s agreement, surprised her and she hopes others follow.