Lyon (AFP) – Having been recognised as the top women’s footballer on the planet, Ada Hegerberg is revelling in her status as a role model for aspiring young talents as she thrives at Europe’s top club.

It was the 23-year-old’s prolific form in front of goal for Lyon, the Champions League holders and serial French champions, that led to her winning the inaugural women’s Ballon d’Or in December.

That award helped turn the Norwegian into a one of her sport’s biggest names heading into a World Cup year that is set to raise the profile of women’s football.

Yet Hegerberg will not be there, a personal decision that she is at peace with. Winning the Ballon d’Or might make her absence from the tournament easier to swallow.

“It was a historic moment that you can’t forget,” she said in an interview with AFP in Lyon.

“Beyond the sport, it was an evening for all women. It has given me the motivation to continue at the highest level and it justified the work I have put in throughout my career.”

Hegerberg is a big star with nearly quarter of a million followers on Instagram, and she wants “to show girls that it is possible to become better, with lots of hard work, and to make a living from your sport.”

Given her age, Hegerberg still has a decade ahead of her to keep scoring goals and help the development of the women’s game as a player. There will perhaps be opportunities to play at World Cups as well, but not this year.

– ‘Difficult choices’ –

The striker has not played for her country since Euro 2017, and has ruled out a return, even with the tournament in France, where she now lives.

Indeed, the final will be played in Lyon, the city she has called home since 2014, and Norway are in the same group as the hosts. But none of that will make her change her mind.

“The decision was taken a long time before we knew the World Cup was going to be in France,” she says.

“Sometimes you need to make difficult choices. This decision is one of them and I am calm about it because it was important in order to be able to keep playing at the top level.” 

– In the family –

Her road to the top began in small-town Norway and took her to Germany as a teenager when she joined Turbine Potsdam, a club near Berlin, along with her elder sister Andrine. Football runs in the family.

“My father and my mother were professional footballers and have also been coaches,” she says.

“My sister plays for PSG. My brother played too but not professionally. So I had no choice! I come from a little town of 7,000 people and everyone in my family played football.”

Also a keen cross-country skier, Hegerberg cites the influence of her father, Stein Erik, in helping her footballing development.

“He has always been very close, my mother too, but in a different way. All the sessions I have done with my father and sister since I was really young have made the difference.”

– Respect –

Those sessions helped turn her into a striker who scored a remarkable 31 goals in 20 league games last season for Lyon, as well as 15 in their victorious Champions League campaign.

She has 21 in 21 games this season, with 12-time reigning French champions Lyon atop the league again.

They have also won the Champions League three seasons running, and Hegerberg knows she could not be in a better place than a city that is proud of its women’s team while also boasting a top men’s side.

“Being respected as a woman and a footballer,” says Hegerberg when asked what she likes most about life at ‘OL’.

“OL are changing mentalities in terms of the way people look at women playing football in France.

“This club is a family where the men’s and women’s teams are very close and support one another.

“I appreciate that mutual respect. It is a very modern approach to the running of a club. It is the future.”

Even if she won’t be putting a World Cup winner’s medal beside the Ballon d’Or on her mantelpiece this year, she still has a lot to achieve in the game.

“I still want to work on a lot of things in my game. In what is a short career, you need to do everything to fulfil your potential.

“More than winning a second or third Ballon d’Or, I want to win more titles, be the top scorer, like I am now.”