It is rare in top-level soccer for a player to be tasked with marking their life partner who is also the opponent’s star striker.
Sweden defender Magdalena Eriksson’s job Friday is stopping the threat of Denmark captain Pernille Harder in their opening game at the Women's European Championship.
They have been a couple for 11 years whose influence and inspiration goes beyond sports, since a photograph went viral of their kiss after a game at the 2019 World Cup in France.
Ahead of their Euro 2025 game in Geneva, the previous clash for the pair — each with more than 100 national-team appearances — was a celebrated victory for Eriksson in February.
Showing no personal favors as Sweden captain that evening, Eriksson’s tough challenges late in a Nations League game left their mark. Harder had treatment for an injured side then got Eriksson’s elbow in her face when they wrestled at a corner near the end of Sweden’s 2-1 win.
Harder smiled ruefully after that foul was judged and seemed content last month that Eriksson was suspended for the return game when finishing top of the group was at stake.
“As a football player, it’s nice that Magda won’t play. But also to avoid these duels between us,” the Denmark captain said ahead of her team losing 6-1.
A running joke this year has been that the loser must do the washing up at their home, and a Swedish fan's banner in Solna four weeks ago read: “Pernille tar disken” (Pernille does the dishes).
Eriksson and Harder have embraced their status as LGBTQ+ icons in soccer since the 2019 kiss in Paris, on the sidelines of Sweden’s victory over Canada in the round of 16.
“I didn’t realize until that picture came out how big of an inspiration we actually are for a lot of people,” Harder told English daily Guardian after the tournament, when both signed with soccer’s Common Goal social program.
Eriksson said the reaction to the photo “made me understand that, ‘OK, I am actually a role model to people’.”
They donate 1% of their salary to Common Goal and support its Play Proud project.
Eriksson explained more of her personal philosophy in a film the couple made in 2022 with Vogue magazine’s Scandinavian edition.
“That’s something my dad always taught me when I was younger was to have integrity, to stand up for what you believe in,” she said. “It’s very important to stay true to my values.”
Eriksson and Harder’s relationship started in 2014 when teammates at Swedish club Linköping, and they were reunited at Chelsea and now with Bayern Munich.
They have faced each other twice, in 2018 on opposite sides of a Champions League semifinal — Harder scored as Wolfsburg eliminated Eriksson’s Chelsea — and in a World Cup qualifying game that saw Sweden advance.
Now their friendly rivalry finally lands on a tournament stage at Euro 2025.
Picture Courtesy: AP Photo/Scott Barbour, File
