Pernille Mosegaard Harder (born 15 November 1992) is a Danish professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As #Cent ...

or a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for

Frauen-Bundesliga The Frauen-Bundesliga (German for ''Women's Federal League''), currently known as the FLYERALARM Frauen-Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of league competition for women's association football in Germany. In 1990 the German Foo ...

club

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

and the Denmark national team. In September 2020, she became the world's most expensive female footballer following her transfer from VfL Wolfsburg to Chelsea, but the record was broken in September 2022 by

Keira Walsh Keira Fae Walsh (born 8 April 1997) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Liga F club FC Barcelona Femení, Barcelona and the England women's national football team, England women's national team. She is considered ...

when she was signed to

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

. She is considered one of the best footballers in the world. Harder won the UEFA Women's Player of the Year Award in 2018 and 2020. Harder, like her partner

Magdalena Eriksson Magdalena Lilly Eriksson (also Ericsson, born 8 September 1993) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a defender for Chelsea Women in the English Women's Super League as well as for the Swedish national team.

, is also known for her LGBTQ+ advocacy in sport and beyond.

Club career

Early career

Harder played for Team Viborg and

IK Skovbakken Vejlby Skovbakken Aarhus (; commonly known as VSK Aarhus) is a Danish football club based in Risskov, a neighbourhood in Aarhus. The club was founded in 2016 when the football departments of Vejlby IK Fodbold and Idrætsklubben Skovbakken deci ...

in her native Denmark's

Elitedivisionen The Danish Women's League ( da, Danmarksturneringens Kvindeliga, Kvinde-DM Liga or Kvindeligaen) is a semi-professional top-flight league for women's football in Denmark. It is organised by the Danish Football Association (DBU) as part of the ...

. Skovbakken had made Harder and her contemporary

Sofie Junge Pedersen Sofie Junge Pedersen (born 24 April 1992) is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Italian Serie A club Juventus FC and the Denmark national team. She previously played for IK Skovbakken and Fortuna Hjørrin ...

contracted players in April 2010, in recognition of their exceptional potential.

Linköpings FC

Harder chose Swedish club

Linköpings FC Linköpings Fotboll Club is an association football club from Linköping, Sweden. The club was established in 2003 when Kenty DFF women's football club decided to merge with the premier division ice hockey club Linköpings HC under the new name L ...

for her next destination because she wanted a new challenge, but also because she wanted to remain in

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...

. In September 2013 she scored all four goals in Linköpings' 4–1 win at

relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

-bound

Sunnanå SK Sunnanå SK is a football club from Skellefteå, Sweden who in 2019 plays in Swedish Women's Football Division 1, level 3 of women's soccer in Sweden. The club was established in 1939 and the women's division was added in 1974. Sunnanå has playe ...

. In the

2015 Damallsvenskan 2015 Damallsvenskan was the 27th season of the Swedish women's association football top division, Damallsvenskan. It was played between 11 April 2015 and 18 October 2015. FC Rosengård were the defending champions, having won the competition in 201 ...

season, Harder scored 17 goals in 22 appearances for Linköping, winning a series of national awards including Årets Anfallare ( en, Forward of the Year) and Årets Allsvenska Spelare ( en, League Player of the Year). At the annual awards gala, she shared the stage with male winner

Zlatan Ibrahimović Zlatan Ibrahimović (, ; born 3 October 1981) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a striker for club AC Milan and the Sweden national team. Ibrahimović is renowned for his acrobatic strikes and volleys, powerful long-range sho ...

and was described as "hyper-talented" and "world-class" by Swedish national coach

Pia Sundhage Pia Mariane Sundhage (, born 13 February 1960) is a Swedish football manager and former professional player. She is the head coach of the Brazil women's national team. As a player, Sundhage played most of her career as a forward and retired as ...

. Harder was also voted

Danish Football Player of the Year The Danish Player of the Year award is an annual prize, which has been given to the best male Danish football player by the Danish Football Association since 1963. The winner is decided in a vote among the professional Danish footballers. Since 2000 ...

in 2015. In June 2016, Harder was among 30 local worthies to be named in a Wall of Fame by

Linköping Municipality Linköping Municipality (''Linköpings kommun'') is a municipality in Östergötland County in southern Sweden. With more than 165,000 inhabitants, it is the fifth largest municipality in Sweden. The municipality is bordered in the west by Motala ...

. Harder enjoyed further success in the

2016 Damallsvenskan The 2016 Damallsvenskan is the 28th season of the Swedish women's association football top division, Damallsvenskan. FC Rosengård were the defending champions, having won the competition in 2015. Linköpings FC is the champion of the season. Te ...

season, retaining the League Player of the Year award. Her 23 league goals secured the Top Goalscorer award and helped Linköping win the Damallsvenskan title. By now a transfer target for the biggest clubs in women's football, Harder's agent announced in November 2016 that she would be leaving Linköping for a new challenge.

VfL Wolfsburg

In December 2016, it was announced that Harder had signed a two-and-a-half-year contract with VfL Wolfsburg running from January 2017. In all four seasons with the team, Harder won the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

and

German Cup The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considered ...

double. She was top scorer in the league twice: in the 2017–18 season with 17 goals scored, and in the 2019–20 season with 27 goals. Thanks to these performances, she won the UEFA Women's Player of the Year Award twice for the 2017-18 and 2019-20 seasons. She also played in two Champions League finals (

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

and

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

), losing both to

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

. In 2020, she was elected best forward of the Champions League and best player of the German Championship.

Chelsea

On 1 September 2020, Harder signed for Chelsea on a three-year contract for a world-record fee for a female footballer, reportedly in excess of £250,000. In the 2020–21 Champions League quarter-finals, she scored in both legs against her former club VfL Wolfsburg. In the group stage of the 2022–23 Champions League she scored a hattrick against KF Vllaznia Shkodër. On the 18th November 2022 she suffered a serious thigh injury on national team duty against

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

that required surgery and sidelining her for five months. She made her comeback against

in the Champions League semi-final on April 22, 2023. In the FA Cup final against

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

she gave the assist for the victory goal for Sam Kerr in front of a record crowd of 77,390 people.

Bayern Munich

On 1 June 2023, it was announced that Harder, along with partner and former Chelsea teammate

, had signed for

on a three-year deal. She made her debut for Bayern against

SC Freiburg Sport-Club Freiburg e.V., commonly known as SC Freiburg () or just Freiburg, is a German football club, based in the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg. It plays in the Bundesliga, having been promoted as champions from the 2. Bund ...

and scored her first goal against

1. FC Köln 1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V., commonly known as simply FC Köln () or FC Cologne in English, is a German professional football club based in Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was formed in 1948 as a merger of the clubs ''Kölner Ballspi ...

. In the next game agsinst SGS Essen, she scored her second goal, but collided with the goalkeeper and was subbed out with a knee injury after 17 minutes. With a medial collateral ligament injury she was out for over two month and made her comeback in december 2023 against

1. FC Nürnberg 1. Fußball-Club Nürnberg Verein für Leibesübungen e. V., often called 1. FC Nürnberg (, en, 1. Football Club Nuremberg) or simply Nürnberg, is a German association football club in Nuremberg, Bavaria, who currently compete in the 2. Bund ...

International career

At the inaugural 2008 U-17 World Cup in New Zealand, Harder was part of the

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

team who won their group before losing 4–0 to eventual champions

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

in the quarter-final. Still 16 years old, she contributed a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

to a crushing 15–0 win over Georgia in her senior international debut in October 2009, and she has continued to score regularly for the Danish team ever since. Harder scored further hat-tricks against

and

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

in 2011 and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

in 2013. She was named in national coach

Kenneth Heiner-Møller Kenneth Heiner-Møller (born Kenneth Heiner Christiansen; 17 January 1971) is a Danish football manager and former player. He is the former manager of the Canadian women's national team. In 1994–1995 he played for Ferencvárosi TC in Hungary, ...

's Denmark squad for

Euro 2013 The 2013 UEFA Women's Championship, commonly referred to as Women's Euro 2013, was the 11th European Championship for women's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament, held in Sweden from 10 to 28 July 2013, became the most ...

. With nine goals she had been the team's top goalscorer in qualifying. She played in the Algarve Cup in

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

, and

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

, but had an injury in 2014. In October 2013, Harder won her 50th cap for Denmark in a 1–1 draw with Serbia. She scored Denmark's goal in the match. In March 2016, Harder was appointed

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

of the national team. In 2017, she was named in national

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

Nils Nielsen's Denmark squad for the

Euro 2017 The 2017 UEFA European Women's Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Women's Euro 2017, was the 12th edition of the UEFA Women's Championship, the quadrennial international football championship organised by UEFA for the women's national team ...

. She captained the team to the final and scored a goal in Denmark's 4–2 defeat by hosts the Netherlands. She was voted runner-up to Lieke Martens in the UEFA Women's Player of the Year Award for 2016–17. On 16 September 2021, she broke

Merete Pedersen Merete Pedersen (born 30 June 1973) is a Danish former football striker who played for Vejle BK and Odense BK in the Elitedivisionen, TSV Siegen in the German Bundesliga and Torres CF in Italy's Serie A, taking part in the UEFA Women's Cup wit ...

's 12.5-year-long national record, becoming the record goalscorer of the Denmark national team, with her 66 goal in her 129 games. In the successful qualifying for the Euro 2022 she was used in all ten games and scored eight goals. She was called up for the Euro 2022 and scored the only goal for Denmark, but was eliminated with the national team in the group stage. In qualifying for the 2023 World Cup, she was used four times and scored two goals. In July she was nominated for the 2023 FIFA World Cup. She scored one goal and gave one assist, but was knocked out with Denmark after the round of 16 by

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It was the first time since 1995, that Denmark reached a knockout stage at a World Cup.

Personal life

Since May 2014, Harder has been in a relationship with current

teammate and Swedish international,

. On the 21 July 2024 they announced their engagement after over a decade together. She and Eriksson work with the charity

Common Goal ''Common Goal'' is the third album by American jazz group the String Trio of New York recorded in 1981 for the Italian Black Saint label.

and pledged 1% of their salaries to help tackle social issues throughout football. The couple also advocate for equality and LGBTQ+ rights in sport. She has a Master's degree in

Business administration Business administration, also known as business management, is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. From the point of view of management ...

. She grew up as an avid

fan.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Denmark's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Harder goal.''

Honours

Linköpings *

Damallsvenskan The Damallsvenskan, Swedish for ''ladies all-Swedish'' and also known as OBOS Damallsvenskan for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of women's football in Sweden. It is also referred to as the women's Allsvenskan. The term Allsvenskan ...

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

* Svenska Cupen: 2014, 2015; runner-up: 2016 * Svenska Supercupen runner up: 2015, 2016 VfL Wolfsburg *

: 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20 * DFB-Pokal: 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20 * UEFA Women's Champions League runner-up: 2017–18, 2019–20 Chelsea * FA Women's Super League:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, 2021–22,

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

* Women's FA Cup:

, 2021–22,

* FA Women's League Cup:

* UEFA Women's Champions League runner-up:

FC Bayern * Bundesliga: 2023–24 Denmark * UEFA Women's Euro runner-up:

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

Individual * Danish Breakthrough Player of the Year: 2010 *

: 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 *

's Most Valuable Player: 2015, 2016 * Damallsvenskan Forward of the Year: 2015, 2016 * Damallsvenskan Top scorer:

* FIFPro: FIFA FIFPro World XI: 2017, 2020 * UEFA Women's European Championship All Star Team: 2017 *

Goal 50 GOAL is an international association football news website for FC Barcelona fans founded in 2004 by Chicco Merighi and Gianluigi Longinotti-Buitoni. It is published in 19 languages, with 38 national editions and 600 contributors. It is owned by ...

: 2017 * UEFA Women's Champions League Squad of the Season: 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20, 2020–21 * IFFHS Women's World Team: 2017, 2018, 2020 * Frauen-Bundesliga Top scorer: 2017–18, 2019–20 * UEFA Women's Player of the Year Award: 2017–18, 2019–20 * UEFA Women's Champions League Top scorer: 2018–19 * UEFA Champions League Forward of the Season: 2019–20 * The 100 Best Female Footballers In The World Winner: 2018, 2020 * Niedersachsens Fußballer des Jahres: 2020 *

Women's Footballer of the Year (Germany) The title Footballer of the Year (German: ''Fußballer des Jahres'') has been awarded in Germany since 1960. Eligible are German players as well as non-German players playing in Germany. In 1996, the title Women's Footballer of the Year (German ...

: 2020 * '' World Soccer''s Women's World Player of the Year: 2020 * IFFHS World's Best Woman Player: 2020 * IFFHS UEFA Woman Team of the Decade 2011–2020 * FA Women's Super League Goal of the Month:

September 2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

*Nominated for the Ballon d'Or Féminin (2018 2.place), (2019 14.place) (2021 7.place)

References

External links

*
Profile
at the FC Bayern Munich website * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Harder, Pernille 1992 births Living people Danish women's footballers Denmark women's international footballers Danish expatriate women's footballers Danish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate women's footballers in Germany Danish expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Expatriate women's footballers in Sweden Danish expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate women's footballers in England Damallsvenskan players Elitedivisionen players Linköpings FC players Women's Super League players Frauen-Bundesliga players VfL Wolfsburg (women) players Chelsea F.C. Women players People from Ikast-Brande Municipality Women's association football forwards Danish LGBT footballers Danish LGBT rights activists Danish LGBT sportspeople Danish lesbians FIFA Women's Century Club Footballers from the Central Denmark Region UEFA Women's Euro 2022 players UEFA Women's Euro 2017 players 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup players Danish lesbian sportswomen