Ada Hegerberg: Norway’s Trailblazing Ballon d’Or Winner

She scores goals for fun and speaks truth to power. Norway’s Ada Hegerberg turned football glory into a global platform for fairness, equality, and lasting change. This is her story.

When Ada Hegerberg became the first woman ever to lift the Ballon d’Or in 2018, she did more than make history. She sent a message.

At just 23 years old, the Norwegian striker stood on world football’s biggest stage and showed that women’s football deserved equal recognition, respect, and reward.

That moment was a turning point for the sport, even if it was briefly overshadowed by the now-infamous comment from the ceremony’s host asking her to twerk on stage.

Hegerberg’s dignified response (she simply said “no” and carried on) came to define her as much as her goals: calm, determined, and unafraid to challenge the status quo.

From Sunndalsøra to the World Stage

Born in 1995 in the small town of Sunndalsøra in western Norway, Hegerberg grew up kicking a ball around with her older sister, Andrine.

Read more: Learn more about the popularity of women's football in Norway

The pair were inseparable on the pitch, joining their first team together and quickly outpacing the boys they trained with.

Their parents, both keen amateur footballers, encouraged their passion. When the family later moved to Kolbotn near Oslo, the sisters joined Kolbotn IL and Ada’s goal-scoring instincts began to shine.

She finished her debut season as the league’s top scorer at just 16, picking up the Young Player of the Year award.

After a short spell at Stabæk and a season in Germany with Turbine Potsdam, Hegerberg made the move that would define her career: signing for Olympique Lyonnais in 2014.

A Goal Machine at Lyon

When Ada Hegerberg joined Olympique Lyonnais in 2014, the French club was already a powerhouse in the women’s game. But what followed was a golden era, with Hegerberg at its heart.

Her debut season was extraordinary: 26 goals in 22 league appearances and Lyon’s ninth straight Division 1 Féminine title. From then on, her goals came in torrents. Across her first five seasons, she scored more than 200 times in all competitions.

It was a staggering strike rate that made her one of the most prolific forwards in modern football.

At Lyon, she developed into a complete striker: quick off the ball, ruthless in front of goal, and lethal with both feet. She had an instinct for being in the right place at the right time, turning half-chances into goals with effortless composure.

Her dominance extended beyond France. In European competition, Hegerberg became the all-time leading scorer in the UEFA Women’s Champions League, surpassing even legends who had played far longer.

By 2025, she had scored more than 60 goals in the tournament, including a stunning hat-trick in the 2019 final against Barcelona, which Lyon won 4–1. That night, she didn’t just win another trophy, she truly defined an era.

Under her influence, Lyon captured five consecutive Champions League titles between 2016 and 2020 and continued their reign as the undisputed queens of European football. Few teams in history have ever dominated with such consistency.

Then, in early 2020, disaster struck. A serious anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury sidelined her for more than a year and a half. For an athlete whose identity was bound up in performance, it was a brutal pause. But Hegerberg’s recovery showed the same discipline that had made her a star.

She returned to the pitch in early 2022 to a standing ovation and scored within minutes of her comeback. A few months later, she was back in the Champions League, adding yet another goal to her record tally.

Hegerberg Standing Up for Equality

Hegerberg’s career has always been about more than football. In 2017, she made global headlines when she stepped away from the Norwegian national team, citing deep frustration at the unequal treatment of female players compared to their male counterparts.

At the time, Norway was one of the few countries to have a professional women’s league and a proud history of success in women’s football, including a World Cup win in 1995.

But Hegerberg argued that progress had stalled. “We’ve stopped talking about development,” she told The Guardian. “Other countries have overtaken us.”

Her stance sparked national debate, helped accelerate change within the Norwegian Football Federation, and became a symbol of the wider fight for gender equality in sport.

In 2018, Norway became the first country in the world to agree to pay its men’s and women’s national teams equally. It was a step that many credited to the pressure Hegerberg helped create.

She eventually returned to the national side in 2022, scoring in her comeback match and later representing Norway at the 2023 Women’s World Cup.

A Cultural Icon Beyond Sport

In Norway, Ada Hegerberg is part of the country’s broader conversation about fairness, representation, and what it means to use your platform responsibly.

She has spoken openly about confidence, mental health, and the pressures faced by young women in elite sport.

Her advocacy has extended to global campaigns promoting equality and participation in women’s football, including partnerships with UEFA and Nike aimed at inspiring girls to play.

Off the pitch, she’s become a role model for a new generation of Norwegian footballers. She's outspoken, authentic, and unwilling to accept “good enough” when it comes to equality.