Last year, the twin sister made her debut with a big game and EC gold. Now the stage is set for a new Rushfeldt Deila for the handball girls.
Live Rushfeldt Deila – twin sister of Thale Rushfeldt Deila and daughter of football profile Ronny Deila – has been selected in the Norwegian squad for the double meeting with Montenegro this week.
– It’s been a lot of fun being here until now, and I’m looking forward to the games even more, Live Rushfeldt Deila tells VG the day before her possible national team debut.
– Live has developed very well. Especially now in the last few years after she came to Sola. She has taken big steps, says national team manager Thorir Hergeirsson to VG.
It’s been a few weeks since Live got the message now. Hergeirsson sent a message and asked if the Sola player could call him.
Then a little hope was lit for the 23-year-old.
– Then it was great fun to have that hope confirmed, says Rushfeldt Deila.
However, she has not been able to bring her twin sister to the gathering. Thale has an ankle injury and is out for the rest of the season.
Live says that she has spoken to Thale through the championship and the gatherings she has attended in the past, and heard her experiences from it.
– It may have prepared me a little for what I encounter, but at the same time all the influences are different for me too, says Live.
She describes the rest of the handball girls as a pleasant and welcoming group, who have welcomed the debutant well.
– Most people are probably kidding a bit that they feel they already know me, since they know Thale so well. But it’s just nice, she says.
Live says that dad Ronny Deila – current manager of the Belgian football club Standard Liège – thinks it was very cool that she was selected for the national team. The advice from father – who also has a past as a footballer and Strømsgodset, Vålerenga and Celtic coach – is to enjoy the gathering.
There is a lot of talk about sports in the family, she says. With twin sisters on the national handball team, a high-profile father who is a football coach and an uncle named Sigurd Rushfeldt – the top scorer of all time at the top level in Norwegian football.
– There will be a lot of talk, but it is not necessarily specifically about me. It is perhaps a bit more general about how to deal with things. We joke a little more about sport, and talk about our experiences, says Live.
– How do you feel about the pressure such big names as Rushfeldt and Deila bring with them?
– Not really that much. They are football players, so they don’t have much to say about handball, she says, laughing.
– But of course it is very cool that they have managed to achieve what they have achieved. There is no pressure, but rather a hope that it can be continued, she continues.
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Hergeirsson cannot guarantee that Live Rushfeldt Deila will make her debut during the two upcoming international matches, but has faith that she will be in one of the matches.
In that case, it will be a role the defender knows well from Sola – the club in Rogaland she has played for since the summer of 2021.
– Although there may be nuances to the game and principles, it is much the same. Then it’s about the player himself, and us as fellow players and coaches trying to bring out the forward skills and strengths of each one, says Hergeirsson.
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