The most special date for Graham Hansen: “We lived five minutes away”

OsloThis Saturday (6:00 PM, TV3), Barça will once again be the center of attention across Europe. For the sixth consecutive year, the blaugranes will compete in the Champions League final. It will not be just any match. Pere Romeu's team will face Jonatan Giráldez's Olympique Lyonnais, the former coach of the Catalan team. The two best teams in Europe will meet at the Ullevaal Stadium in Oslo. The final has been preceded by the difficulties fans –and the press– have had in reaching Norway, but UEFA has already posted the sold-out ticket sign. Thousands of culers will fill the streets of Oslo and will try to win the battle in the stands, where 28,000 people are expected. Among them, the family of Caroline Graham Hansen, who will be playing at home.

The Norwegian winger has been the center of attention in recent weeks after suffering a right thigh adductor injury in the second leg against Bayern Munich. This was 15 days ago. Since then, the club has prepared a recovery plan for her to be available. It will be a very special final for Graham Hansen, who grew up 400 meters from the Ullevaal stadium. “When I was little, she used to come with me to watch the matches of the men's team of Lynn, the team where he played at the time. We lived a five-minute walk from the stadium”, recalls Petter Normann Hansen, the father of the current Barça player, to ARA.

A path full of obstacles

Lynn d’Oslo was Graham Hansen's first club, where her father also played. “She started playing with the boys, I coached her. When she was 8 or 9 years old, she thought she could always play with the boys, she didn't understand it any other way, because she didn't have female role models,” explains Petter, who highlights the talent his daughter has always had. “To play football, you have to enjoy it, it has to fulfill you to be able to keep working and improving. She played in the garden when she was 3-4 years old. She had more technique than many boys”.

It wasn't until she was 15 that Graham Hansen made the leap to play –for the first time– with girls. It wasn't at Lynn or Oslo, but at Stabæk, a team from Bærum, a municipality located on the outskirts of the Norwegian capital. “We signed two players from Lynn, Caroline Graham Hansen and one of her best friends, Mats Møller Dæhli, who currently plays for Norwegian club Molde. Hansen started the first three games on the bench because we had a team with eight or nine international players. She was 15 years old, but after three games she started playing regularly. She is very intelligent and eager to learn from the more experienced players,” Richard Jansen, who was the Stabæk sporting director when the blaugrana player arrived at the club, explains to ARA.

Ada Hegerberg also played for that team, Graham Hansen's rival in the final. The two footballers were teammates in their early years of their careers at Stabæk. “We played the Cup final in 2012. We weren't favorites, but Hegerberg scored three goals in the first half and Hansen completed the score with a goal in the second half. We won 4-0”, boasts Jansen. Both will play at their home, just like Ingrid Engen. The former Barcelona player, who left the club last summer, will meet her former teammates in Oslo.

Effort and discipline

To get to this point, Graham Hansen has had to work hard. "She asked how to work out at the gym, how to be stronger, what kind of exercises to do...", remarks Jansen. The Norwegian has always stood out for her consistency and hard work. She is not a very media-savvy player, which has harmed her chances of winning a Ballon d'Or. In 2024, the year she came closest, she finished in second place behind her teammate Aitana Bonmatí. "She is very focused on football. She has always liked Barça's style, she is a player who adapts perfectly to this game; due to her technique and how she reads matches," analyzes her father, who has also been a coach.

But Hansen has not always been a Culer. “When I was little I was a follower of Manchester United because I was. You know, from father to daughter”, confesses Petter, who was also the person who gave her her first Barça jersey. “I went to Barcelona on a business trip and there I bought her the blaugrana jersey”. The Norwegian footballer's contract ends next June, but everything indicates that she will renew with the Catalan entity. “She is happy in Barcelona and I hope she stays”, concludes the father.