ZURICH -- Maren Mjelde had sung Norway's anthem 180 times before, but as she lined up for her country's Euro 2025 opener against hosts Switzerland on July 2, this rendition of "Ja, vi elsker dette landet" (Yes, We Love This Country) was poignant. It marked her ninth major tournament, but also provided a moment of self-gratification.
Just three months previous, the 35-year-old defender had suffered a partial tear of her Achilles and was told it was unlikely she'd be fit for the tournament. But, just like she'd done in 2022 after being told she may have issues walking again after suffering a knee injury, the lure of playing for her country in a major tournament propelled her body through the pain barrier and confounded medical prognosis.
Mjelde's status as one of Norway's greatest-ever players was already secure before Euro 2025 had begun. Her club career has taken her from local side Arna-Bjørnar, to clubs in Germany, Sweden, Norway, and then to Chelsea in 2017 -- where she played 140 times, won six Women's Super League titles and four FA Cups, while being labelled "a Rolls Royce of a footballer" by legendary manager Emma Hayes -- before heading back to Arna-Bjørnar and, finally, a short half-season spell with Everton.
All the while, she has been synonymous with this Norway team since making her international debut 18 years ago; through all the triumphs and tribulations, she's been their reliable constant and was captain for over a decade. Now, as Norway prepare for a quarterfinal against Italy on Wednesday, Mjelde is seven caps away from overtaking Hege Riise's record to become her country's most-capped player. And she's not stopping anytime soon.
Early promise
Mjelde owes Arna-Bjørnar a lot; it's where she made her career. Having started playing football with her brother and his friends, she joined the boys' team, and eventually impressed enough to gain a callup for Norway's under-17 women's team at the age of 14. She was a talented defender, but also a brilliant attacking handball player. And, when she had to pick a college at 16, she prioritized the handball option.
For a while, she would play handball early in the day, then go to football training in the evening. But once she'd progressed to make her senior Norway debut against Russia in 2007, aged 17, she decided to ditch handball. Her physical, abrasive handball style didn't match with the need to preserve her body for a professional career in football.
Incredibly, just two years later, against a backdrop of disharmony when five experienced players boycotted the squad after falling out with then-manager Bjarne Berntsen, Mjelde was fast-tracked into the Norway first team for Euro 2009.
- Euro 2025 bracket, results and fixtures schedule
- Euro 2025 Talking Points: Best team, player, predictions
Norway made it to the semifinals where they lost to a Germany side which had won six straight Euros from 1995-2013, as well as the 2003 and 2007 World Cups, with the likes of Birgit Prinz and Inke Grings in the squad. And at Euro 2013, Norway reached the final again, only to be denied by the same opponents.
"I think that's probably the best memory of playing for the national team," Mjelde tells ESPN. "We had good players, solid players, a lot of experience in the team, and the coach [Even Pellerud] was very strict in the way he wanted things. There was a very clear plan, and while it wasn't the best style of football, we were clear on what we needed to do.
"He gave a lot of responsibility to our senior players in the team, so we all had ownership and that fostered a good team environment. But still, when we got to the tournament, there was uncertainty over how we'd do. I remember I got there, a little late as I was playing for Turbine Potsdam in Germany, and I'd been in midfield and central defense there. But then when I got to the Norway camp, he told me I was playing right back! It went OK though, as we reached the final."
'There were days I thought I was never going to play again'
For so much of Mjelde's career, she had been lucky with injuries and managed to make seven major tournaments for Norway with very few scares. Then came one afternoon at Vicarage Road. It was 81 minutes into the Conti Cup final, between Chelsea and Bristol City, on March 14, 2021; Mjelde was only meant to play 45 minutes or so, but got moved further forward in the second half. "I was so excited, as I love playing in midfield," she says.
Ann Katrin-Berger, the Chelsea goalkeeper, threw the ball in her direction, and Mjelde turned out of an attempted tackle from Aimee Palmer. Her left knee buckled, leaving her screaming in agony, and the prognosis was grim: she'd completely torn her medial collateral ligament (MCL), dislocated her kneecap and injured some of the bone around the joint. Her return was arduous.
"I struggled to walk properly after 3½ months," she says. "I was like 'if I can't walk by now, how am I gonna be able to run?' It took so long. For the first six months of my rehab, I doubted every day if it was ever going to be OK.
"But I had people around me that were really like supportive. [Norway teammate] Guro Reiten had come back from summer holidays and joined my rehab club. In the end, the physios thought they just had to get me back onto the pitch to help my progress. I remember Guro was there for one. She watched me try to move the ball, and later she said to me that when she watched me in that session, she thought 'this is never going to work.' That was when she first looked at me, but then she saw me progressing and was like 'thank God.'"
Some 260 days after the injury at Watford, Mjelde returned for Chelsea against Servette on Nov. 9, 2021. "She is a quiet leader and has been the mother hen of this group for several years," Hayes said after that match. "The ability to read things you can't teach. Maren is one of the most under-rated players in the world."
Six months later, Mjelde was named Norway captain for Euro 2022. "I was so proud, as there were days I thought I was never going to play again," she says. But the tournament also held one of her worst memories. Norway opened with a 4-1 win over Northern Ireland, but then lost 8-0 to eventual champions England, before slumping to a 1-0 defeat to Austria that meant they failed to reach the knockouts.
"It's still a hard one to think about," Mjelde says of the 8-0 defeat. "I just don't know what happened. I remember the days after, I was still in disbelief. I still don't understand what hit us. I remember standing in front of the media trying to answer questions, and I couldn't put it into words.
"Nothing was good enough from us. It was like we were paralyzed on the pitch; it was a nightmare. It was probably one of my worst experiences as a player."
Tough choices to make
Take a look at the numbers behind Norway's 2-1 win vs. Switzerland at the Women's European Championship.
After a 2023 World Cup which saw Norway exit at the round-of-16 stage, the 33-year-old Mjelde returned to Chelsea in August. But the following February, she was informed the club were not going to renew her contract in the summer.
"When I left Chelsea, I had one goal and that was to go to the Euros," she says. "I had to make some choices along the way that probably not everyone thought was smart."
The outside perception was that Mjelde's decision to return home to Arna-Bjørnar, a team in the Ytre Arna district of Bergen, was a soft launch for her retirement; a blissful ending to a remarkable career. Her brother Erik was the coach, and Mjelde tried to mentor the young side while battling (unsuccessfully) against relegation.
"It was such a change from Chelsea," she says. "You get so used to other people doing things for you. But here, I had to remember -- and this sounds silly -- things like to take my own water bottle out onto the training pitch. That was all done for us at Chelsea ... and our laundry. But this was a lovely change.
"When I left Chelsea, it felt like I'd lost a part of me. So I went home, and it felt right to stay a little longer. Everyone was like 'this is her going back to Norway to retire.' I read 'oh she's done now.' I remember an interview after my first game with them [Arna-Bjørnar], and they [the media] said 'oh you're here to retire.' But no, I went there to build myself up again and to try to get to these Euros."
But with the Norwegian season ending in November, Mjelde needed a new club to stay fit and sharp. The WSL transfer deadline was on Jan. 28, and her agent had spent the previous days phoning around clubs seeing if they wanted an experienced center back. And, as the hours ticked towards the window closing, Mjelde accepted a move wouldn't be forthcoming: "I remember I just went home after the gym. I was like, 'okay, try to stay still positive, but it's not gonna be England again.' I went for a nap."
She woke up a couple of hours later to see several missed calls from her agent. Everton had been in contact; captain Megan Finnigan had injured her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and they wanted Mjelde. She was on a flight the following morning and at the training ground by mid-afternoon.
Mjelde started well and became the club's oldest goal scorer with a volley against Aston Villa in a 2-0 win in early March, but injury struck again. In the second half of the game against Manchester United on March 31, she sprinted for the ball and felt something happen in her ankle. She finished the match, but scans later revealed a small rupture in her Achilles.
With only a three-month window to get fit for the Euros, Mjelde went back to the solitary existence of rehab. "I couldn't believe the timing of this, how is it possible?" she says. "I had to do Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy twice, and on my second one I just remember I was like, 'how am I gonna be able to get to the Euros?' My life was quite lonely for two months there, but I knew I had to maximize the time." And maximize it, she did.
Relying on experience
Mjelde was called up to Norway's preliminary Euros squad as the 24th player (countries could take a squad of 23), had her first training session with the team, and her Achilles held up. As the team were preparing for their Nations League match with Switzerland on June 3, a month before the Euros, Mjelde thought she'd be asked to head home. But then two center backs picked up injuries and she travelled to Sion.
"They [the coaching staff] said to me, you've looked great this week, it doesn't look like you've been away from football, so you're going to start against Switzerland. I was like, 'how will my body suddenly react to playing a game again?' But I told myself, it's something I'd done 178 times before in my life for Norway."
Mjelde went back to Bergen, kept up her fitness regime, and waited. Norway's squad was due to be announced on June 16, but the players would usually receive an official email earlier in the week letting them know if they were in or not.
"It was the Friday and I was sat at home with my family, and everyone was asking me, are you in the squad?" she says. "I hadn't heard anything. Then on that evening, we were sat outside and my phone pinged. And I was like, holy s---, we did it. I was in."
The 35-year-old played in Norway's first and third group games vs. Switzerland and Iceland, missing the win over Finland. With three wins from three, Norway topped Group A and will fancy their chances of reaching the semifinals when they meet Italy in the quarterfinals, before a potential semifinal tie against either England or Sweden.
Despite having generational talents like Caroline Graham Hansen, Ada Hegerberg and Reiten, Norway have yet to hit the heights of 2013 and this is the first time they've made it out of the Euros group stage since. Mjelde insists there's no one reason why some campaigns haven't clicked, but the overall standard of women's football is improving year on year so it's harder than ever to win major tournaments. This year, though, there's a quiet optimism in the Norway camp that the team can achieve something special.
But could a 37-year-old Mjelde make it to the 2027 World Cup? She laughs: "A 10th major tournament? Pfft." But she's already conjured up a few miracles along the way to make it to nine.
"I'm really happy that I've seen everything," she says. "That semifinal in 2009 was played in front of 2,500 or so people, and our match with Switzerland here was in front of 34,000.
"I've never had a goal of trying to get to as many major tournaments as possible, it's just something that's come naturally. Captaining Norway for 10 years was an incredible honor. I'm so proud that I've been in the team for so long. We've been through many ups and a few downs, but I wouldn't change it for anything."