{"id":1310598,"date":"2019-05-23T10:44:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-23T16:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/seeking-more-respect-superstar-hegerberg-out-of-world-cup\/"},"modified":"2019-05-23T10:44:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-23T16:44:00","slug":"seeking-more-respect-superstar-hegerberg-out-of-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/seeking-more-respect-superstar-hegerberg-out-of-world-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeking more respect, superstar Hegerberg out of World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"
Ada Hegerberg of Lyon celebrates her goal during the women’s soccer UEFA Champions League final match between Olympique Lyon and FC Barcelona at the Groupama Arena in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, May 18, 2019. (Balazs Czagany\/MTI via AP)<\/strong>
AP | MTI<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With a no-nonsense look etched on her face, Ada Hegerberg stares straight into the camera and says: \u201cNow it\u2019s time for action.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fitting the Norwegian superstar was chosen as the face of a recently launched campaign aimed at improving the profile and standards in women\u2019s soccer.<\/p>\n

Not just because, as the first ever female winner of the Ballon d\u2019Or, she is the outstanding player in the women\u2019s game. But because she also is fighting her own private battle for equality and greater respect in the sport, a battle that will deprive soccer fans of the chance to see her at the Women\u2019s World Cup, which kicks off in France on June 7.<\/p>\n

Hegerberg hasn\u2019t played for Norway in two years, ever since she decided to rule herself out of selection because of what she perceives to be a general disregard for women\u2019s soccer in the country. The crux of her frustration is the uneven pace of progress and strategy in the women\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

The Norwegian soccer federation has reached an agreement with Norway\u2019s players\u2019 association for an equal pay deal between men and women. The deal, struck in December 2017, a few months after Hegerberg stood down from national team duty, was held up as the first of its kind in international soccer.<\/p>\n

The federation also now has a female sporting director \u2014 former international Lise Klaveness \u2014 who splits her time equally between the country\u2019s men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams, and runs a project aimed at developing top women\u2019s coaches. She is sure Norway invests more money in the women\u2019s game than \u201cmost other federations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Hegerberg won\u2019t return for the World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of things need to be done,\u201d she said in an interview with The Associated Press last year, \u201cto make the conditions better for women who play football.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norway coach Martin Sjogren said meetings were held in an effort to change Hegerberg\u2019s mind ahead of the tournament. They were in vain.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a coach, you need to focus on the players who want to be a part of the team,\u201d Sjogren said, \u201cand Ada doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hegerberg hasn\u2019t gone into any specific detail about why she has rejected this latest chance to return to her national squad, although Klaveness spoke of the 23-year-old striker believing \u201cshe cannot be at her best in this system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Klaveness doesn\u2019t want the dispute with Hegerberg to leave a cloud over the Norwegian team but was eager to stress she has \u201cnot given up\u201d on the country\u2019s star player.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to try to have a confidential relationship and just talk directly to each other so we can have common ground and maybe have her back after the World Cup,\u201d Klaveness said in a phone interview with the AP. \u201cThat\u2019s where we are now.\u201d<\/p>\n

And so, the best player in women\u2019s soccer won\u2019t be gracing the biggest tournament in women\u2019s soccer. It\u2019s a black eye for FIFA \u2014 the organizer of the World Cup \u2014 considering Hegerberg won the Ballon d\u2019Or last year and stands alongside Lionel Messi, a five-time winner of the men\u2019s award, as the current icons of the sport.<\/p>\n

She is putting up Messi-like scoring numbers, too.<\/p>\n

Thanks to her hat trick for Lyon in its 4-1 win over Barcelona in the Women\u2019s Champions League final , she has 44 goals in 46 appearances in that competition. In domestic games, she has 211 goals in 208 games.<\/p>\n

Her goal tally for Norway \u2014 38 in 66 appearances \u2014 is also extraordinary, considering she stopped playing for the team at the age of 21.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why she\u2019ll be so sorely missed in France.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Ada\u2019s decision needs to be respected,\u201d Nadine Kessler, UEFA women\u2019s soccer director, told the AP. \u201cIt\u2019s a brave decision to consciously miss a World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

That Hegerberg saw fit to front a campaign by UEFA entitled \u201cTime for Action\u201d that was launched a month before the World Cup brought further exposure to the fight for greater equality. The United States women\u2019s team, in particular, has been at the forefront of that.<\/p>\n

American players have filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation over equal treatment and pay. The players allege ongoing \u201cinstitutionalized gender discrimination\u201d that includes unequal pay with their counterparts on the men\u2019s national team.<\/p>\n

Unlike Hegerberg, the U.S. team won\u2019t be boycotting the World Cup, but the discontent is simmering there and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Over the last couple of years, Ireland\u2019s team has threatened to go on strike, while Denmark\u2019s team canceled a World Cup qualifier against Sweden because of a pay dispute, leading to its players eventually signing a four-year collective bargaining agreement with their federation.<\/p>\n

There clearly is growing momentum behind the women\u2019s game \u2014 for example, the $13 million sponsorship deal secured by the Women\u2019s Super League in England, the record crowd of 60,739 for a women\u2019s match in Spain, and the record attendance of 39,000 for a domestic league match in Italy \u2014 and it is helping to establish players like Hegerberg as household names.<\/p>\n

So while her absence from the World Cup is a loss for fans, her ongoing fight for change could reap benefits for the game in the long term.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are happy for this debate to raise attention and respect for women\u2019s soccer in the world,\u201d Klaveness said, \u201cand I do view it as a big change-maker. But I just wish she was in our team.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ada Hegerberg of Lyon celebrates her goal during the women’s soccer UEFA Champions League final match between Olympique Lyon and FC Barcelona at the Groupama Arena in Budapest, Hungary, Saturday, May 18, 2019. (Balazs Czagany\/MTI via AP)AP | MTI With a no-nonsense look etched on her face, Ada Hegerberg stares straight into the camera and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1310598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 21:31:02","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1310598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310598\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1310598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1310598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1310598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}