No one is a prophet in his own country. The first female Golden Ball of history, the star Ada Hegerberg radiates on the planet football as much as it shines by its absence in a Norwegian national team that stubbornly sulk with the approach of the 2019 World cup which will take place in France.
In a golden dress, the 23-year-old striker received the "historic" trophy in Paris on Monday night after winning three league championships with Olympique Lyonnais and being voted player of the season by UEFA 2016.
"Bring her back to the national team"
This is enough to boost calls for her return to the Norwegian team, which she slammed the door in August 2017 after a catastrophic Euro and friction with both the Federation and her teammates.
"Make her back in the national team , " Tuesday proclaimed social networks. "Deplorable that the World Cup next year, which will be played a fortiori in France, does not have Ada in his casting," lamented an editorialist of the newspaper Dagsavisen. Officially, the door is open.
"Hopefully Ada, perhaps, will change her mind and maybe she can be part of the national team in the future," Norwegian coach Martin Sjögren told AFP.
1 - Ada Hegerberg became the first player in history to win the Women's Golden Ball - she scored 23 goals in 18 women's D1 matches in 2018. Bravo. pic.twitter.com/8qTW9vti07
- OptaJean (@OptaJean) December 4, 2018"This decision must come from Ada"
"As a national coach, you always want the best players but you can not focus on those who do not want to be," said the Swede.If the Federation has split a message of congratulations on the social networks, Martin Sjögren says he does not intend to contact the Lyon striker.
"Playing for Norway? This decision must come from Ada herself, I think, " he said. Will we see it in the Norwegian jersey at the World Cup in France next year? "At this point, I would say no," says Martin Sjögren. "But you never know what can happen. Ada Hegerberg, she, stands on his positions. "There is a need for a lot of changes for me to see a return," she told Norwegian broadcaster NRK on Monday night.
"The question is not if I have to change my mind. The question is what the Federation and the national team need to do to improve. And there is a way to go, " she added. What changes? "If the national team wants to achieve the goals and results that coaching has set, I think it requires improvements in several areas, both in planning, in execution and in monitoring," she said. dropped in August 2017.
Despite the popular fervor she enjoys in her country, a wall of ice separates Hegerberg on one side and, on the other, the national authorities and her ex-teammates.
On the eve of winning the Golden Ball, the prolific attacker who scores more than 50 goals per season was not selected to be part of the "Norwegian team of the year" designated Sunday by the association representing the athletes of the Scandinavian country (Niso). A "shabby betrayal" , released a commentator of the newspaper Verdens Gang.
Prima donna?
To this talented player, it is accused of excessive ego, which earned him to be called "prima donna" and analogies with the famous Swede Zlatan Ibrahimovic.See ex-teammates, reported NRK in September, require an apology, including for comments made after the Euro 2017 fiasco.
"I always feel worse when I come back from a rally, and that should not be the case," she told Aftenposten after the first-round elimination of Norway's finalist four years earlier with three losses and no goals scored.
According to the Norwegian media, Ada Hegerberg, for his part, broke all ties on social networks with his former friends after their qualification - without it - for the 2019 World Cup.
"The image of prima donna some of which have decked it, it is only hogwash," protested his mother, Gerd Stolsmo, on the sidelines of the evening gala Monday in Paris. "Ada is generous, caring and good with everyone. She is no more selfish than anyone on Earth, "she told TV2. Not sure that's enough to melt the ice.