She ponders every situation, is silent in large meetings and hates attention. How could a ponder like Caroline Graham Hansen become the leader of a national team? (Part 6)
Graham Hansen rarely goes sightseeing in Barcelona, but when she does, the Sagrada Familia must of course be photographed.
The 24-year-old has written since she came to Barcelona as well, but just about good things. She feels so welcome at the club, and enjoys her new neighborhood in the suburb of Sant Feliu de Llobregat. She has learned Spanish at record speed, and she exchanges a few sentences when she goes to the convenience store or greets her neighbors.
She may not be recognized on the street yet, as the club's men's players are, but she seems to be only positive.
- I don't exactly think I'm the born superstar, like that off the football pitch, so I think it's really okay not to get too much attention, she says.
She may be richer in many experiences, both as a human and as a football player, but there is still much left of the 15-year-old girl Lise Klaveness became acquainted with in Stabæk.
Attention skepticism is one thing, but she is still reserved and at least as gruesome. Nevertheless, national team manager Martin Sjögren wanted Graham Hansen to take on a leadership role before the summer World Cup.
She didn't understand that much. The thought hadn't even hit her. She hadn't even been a captain in a club, suddenly she was going to lead a national team?
- I think Martin saw what I've never seen, or anyone else has seen. And I'm very grateful that he took that chance, says the 24-year-old.
Graham Hansen proudly agreed to join the captaincy team with Maren Mjelde and Ingrid Moe Wold, and through the tournament it was as if she was growing into her new leadership role.
She cried more than she was used to, she gave high fives to fellow players in every occasion, and in the round of 16 against Australia, when the team needed her the most, she controlled almost everything Norway created in the field.
She ran for 120 minutes in front of thousands of spectators at the Allianz Riviera in Nice. And when the referee blew the whistle and signaled that it would all be decided at the penalty shootout, she ran over to the teammates, put her hand on their shoulders, looked them in the eyes and said "this is going well, we should do this."
Graham Hansen got it right. She went to the penalty mark as the first player. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and visualized that she was playing football with her father and brother at home in the garden at Tåsen. When she opened them, there was nothing that could stop her from putting in the first and most important penalty for Norway.
