Magda and Pernille: Rivals on the field & pioneers off it
One thing that both can agree on, regardless of the shirt they wear, is that football is just football – nothing more.
Away from the pitch they are planning a wedding, building a life together; that is not necessarily forgotten in 90 minutes, rather put to one side as they battle it out.
That sentiment is echoed in the openness of which they live their lives, something that resonates with fans globally.
Such a stark contrast between the men and women’s game is not lost on them, either, recognising the importance of having a space to be themselves.
“It’s a totally different environment to men’s football,” suggests Harder.
Eriksson follows on: “Players can be themselves, love who they love, and if you come into the women’s football environment, you have to buy into that.
“I think we have been quite lucky, that there is so much acceptance, whereas in men’s football there is a culture that still has to change… it takes time.”
Nothing quite emphasises their point like the kiss they shared at the 2019 World Cup, Magda going over to the stands where Pernille was cheering her on – a photo taken by an attentive photographer that captured the hearts of adoring fans.
An act so simple, yet a reaction so monumental.
“We’ve always just been natural, not so much thinking of being inspirations together, putting pictures up of each other or anything like that,” Harder told the Guardian not long after the image circulated the internet.
“But when we saw that photo and the comments around it, then it was really something; we had a lot of messages from a lot of young people, people of our age, but older people also.”
Eriksson added: “I think that’s when I felt the demand for role models in that way, because of how big it was and how many people wrote to me on Instagram that they looked up to us and how much we’d helped them.
“That’s when I understood that we’re really powerful together. Before, we hadn’t really seen ourselves as that.”