One to watch: Maria Dybwad Brochmann is tall

Unless you’re a fan or Toppserien or just really into people from Bergen, Maria Dybwad Brochmann is most likely a name that doesn’t mean much to you.

Viking? Probably. Tall? You betcha

As science tells us, all Norwegians are Vikings, so all Norwegians are tall, bearded and travel to work by longboat, and Brochmann is no exception. Except for the beard and at present, we lack conclusive evidence one way or the other on the longboat.

However, given her height (did I mention she’s tall?) and the fact she’s built like an old English centre back (sturdy, resolute, would likely not notice if someone ran full speed at her), she may very well have some Viking blood in her.

Initially told she wasn’t good enough to play for Arna-Bjørnar in Toppserien, Brochmann persevered with her football at Åsane in 1. divisjon (the second tier) and before long, earned her moved to AB. Brochmann’s heady rise cemented when she earned the captaincy in her second season in Toppserien, her third over abruptly after a serious knee injury. Tearing both her ACL and MCL as well as doing serious damage to her meniscus, the prognosis wasn’t a good one: the attacker would be out for close to a year. In reality it would be 55 weeks before she started a senior fixture again, her first 90 minutes on the board coming in mid-May 2017.

Despite being *ahem* tall (she’s listed as just over 6ft by her former agency), Brochmann possesses a good turn of pace, her movements (unlike an old English CB) aren’t laborious and tiring just to watch. The 26-year-old can streak in behind defences with ease, a straightforward desire to attack what propels her forward, her nose for goal only bettered by her head for a mål or two. So good is her heading ability that six of her league goals this year have been scored with her loaf, her other two (including a goal of the round free kick) thundered into the net from outside the box.

Having completed a winter move from Arna-Bjørnar to their Bergen rivals, Sandviken, Brochmann is in some of the best form of her a career and it seems like almost a matter of time before she [finally] makes her senior bow. With just a smattering of under-23 appearances to her name, the Bergensar is known to Norway coach Martin Sjögren but is yet to earn a cap. And some kind of head-wear seems only fair, afterall, we’ve heard it’s cold up there…