We Made History
Luna Gevitz, Denmark
For the UEFA Women's EURO 2022, Goal Click collaborated with 12 international women’s footballers from across the national teams of Europe. The players, from Netherlands and Denmark to Portugal and Switzerland, documented their football lives in the weeks leading up to the tournament – finishing club seasons, playing in cup finals, national team training camps, international friendlies, and even the first matches of the Euros.
Luna Gevitz plays for BK Häcken in Sweden and represents the Danish women’s national team.
Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your football journey?
My name is Luna Nørgaard Gevitz, I play for BK Häcken in Sweden and represent the Danish national team. I come from a small village with an extraordinary community, where I began playing football by the age of 6 with the boys, until my dad found a girls’ team for me and my younger sister. This was alongside many other activities such as handball, horseback riding, and playing music. Many interests were over time deprioritized by football.
Going through the talent camps I was told that I was 20% talent and 80% will. I have relied and achieved a lot based on my willpower ever since. After reaching the senior league team at Skovbakken IK in Denmark, I got my first professional contract with Montpellier HSC in France when I was 18 years old. After a year of great experiences, I returned to Denmark to play for Fortuna Hjørring which were one of the two best teams in the league. We won the league and several cup titles and played Champions League with a great international team.
Here I decided to start university to study architecture as a civil engineer. This is one of the most energy- and time-consuming studies I could choose, but I wanted to live my passion for architecture as well as I lived my passion for football. The studies were a lot, and in the beginning, it was influencing my energy and focus on football practice. I received a lot of support from family and friends, as well as from the university and the football club.
I believe that I became a better football player and a better architecture student as I was enjoying playing football at an international level and was enjoying my studies with my friends. Happy and tired in the evenings. With one year left of my studies, I felt ready to go abroad to play football full-time at a higher level. I went to En Avant Guingamp in Division 1 in France. For me playing abroad is both an opportunity to develop your football skills, but also about traveling and experiencing another country. I developed a lot playing against some of the best teams in the world and flourished as one of the leading players in the team.
Covid came, and with the restrictions I saw an opportunity to restart the last year of my master’s degree from abroad. I switched to BK Häcken in Sweden during the winter of 2021. They had become the champions of Sweden and were set to play in Champions League. BK Häcken was another level up in my career. The club have in a short time integrated a women’s section and strived towards equality between the men’s and women’s team.
This respect for women’s football and the work and effort you put as a professional athlete, is established on all levels throughout the organization - from the shared facilities to the social media coverage, and to the partition of the sponsor deals. I am proud to represent the values of BK Häcken and hope that other clubs in Europe will follow this choice of investing in values. Throughout my first season I fought to finish my degree in Architecture while playing better than ever. This season we did not reach our potential as a team, but I have been proud to be the captain and add a skillset as a leader.
What did you show with the photos? Was there any wider meaning?
I showed everyday life at BK Häcken and our Euro pre-camp with the Danish national team in Helsingør in Denmark, where we were staying at the men’s facilities prior to friendly games against Brazil and Norway.
With BK Häcken I showed everyday moments - getting ready for practice or games, and our happy and professional environment at Gothia Park Academy. This includes team meetings, playing games while traveling, supporting our men’s team playing their game at our shared home pitch, and my individual mental preparation for games.
One of the strengths of the Danish national team is our amazing collective and team-feeling. We like to hang out with each other, we make space for everyone, and we work well together being tactical nerds. I wanted to capture this aspect as it can be a defining factor for how we do in the Euros. Player for player we may not be the most valuable team on the market, but we have a unique team spirit.
You can see a bonfire where the team is gathered making “snobrød” while telling stories and playing games. The sea is in the background, looking over to Sweden, showing Danish summers from its best side.
A special moment was the huddle before our friendly game against Brazil. In the huddle, being very connected and very present, we were trying to convince ourselves that this game was just a football game. And it was, but it was also so much more. For the first time in history, the women’s national team were playing at Parken – the Danish national arena. We set a new spectator record of 21,500 people of different ages and gender. No one on the team had ever played in front of so many Danes cheering for us live. Many players, including myself, still get touched by thinking of this moment. We made history.
What are the current opportunities for female footballers in Denmark?
Today, young women can dream about becoming professional football players and they now have female role models. Women’s football in Denmark has taken a huge step over the last couple of years, when the league made a big effort to promote it and some men’s clubs have invested in the women’s game, which has been showing very fast results. This is proof that a small effort can have a huge effect when there is a lot of potential.
Yet, in Denmark we compare ourselves with other countries like Sweden, Norway, Germany, and England, and we can see that we have not taking big enough steps. The league is still ranked lower, the media coverage is not sufficient, and the players deserve better structures. At Euro 2017 in Holland, we were runners up and the Danish population showed great support. I hope that with the attention the national team can bring this year to Danish football in general, we can push for more development.
What does representing your country mean to you? What are your personal ambitions?
It is a huge honour to be selected to represent Denmark. When we are with the national team, I hope that whoever we meet can sense our values, so I strive to represent them as well as possible. Being here is a dream come true and I try to enjoy every moment I represent Denmark.
I am an experienced player, yet still developing, so I want to enjoy my football career by challenging myself and seeking great experiences. I am fortunate that I have an education which I can rely on after my career which gives me peace in mind for the future. But I have more titles to win.
What is the future for Danish women's football?
The 2022 Euros will show great entertaining football played by women. This will hopefully generate more interest from football fans and can highlight the gigantic potential women’s football has commercially. In Denmark I hope that more clubs will invest in women’s football so the level will rise, and the league will become more competitive.
When a club like BK Häcken decides to invest in women’s football and succeeds this well, I hope it can inspire other organizations to do as well. The club did this with very few means to create high level professional football and gained respect in the surrounding society for the sport and equality in society in general.
