"I've really been fond of the role, Klavs has given me. I've got much more playing time than I had dared to hope for before we left."

Mie Højlund has through the entire WORLD cup finals has been a large smile. The finals, which l. calls her international breakthrough. The roses have been in the queue. A contrast to how things were 15 months ago, where she got a tough message.

A message, she in the first place just had to swallow and then try to turn it into something she could use.

the Time must be screwed back to september 2018. Klavs Bruun Jørgensen was to take the national team, but Mie Højlund was not among the chosen. She had been the wreck. The reason for it she could read in the media. the Follow Monday's WORLD cup match against the Netherlands at the. 10 here at B. T.

Her form was not good enough, it sounded. One announcement that struck her, has she told Jyllands-Posten. And Mie Højlund remember also back on some hard days.

"I cried. I was hysterical and really upset about it," says Mie Højlund honestly to B. T on the first response.

When she had the sound, and took she, however, fat in the Klavs Bruun Jørgensen.

"I got over it and talked with Klavs about it. We talked about it all, and so there has not been anything at all succeeding," says Mie Højlund.

Even though the words did hurt, she has also used them. In several ways.

"I can agree or disagree in it, that was pronounced back then, but it is definitely something you take with. That goes some thing up for you," says Mie Højlund and says that she has always worked a lot on his form and physique.

the Whole situation has given her a better understanding of national coach and vice versa. At the same time, she took it as a challenge, took the words to himself and itched on.

"I really think this announcement was a nudge to me. Klavs has always said to me, the potential I had. And he has been good to guide me in the right direction and talked to me about what had to be," says Mie Højlund.

Klavs Bruun Jørgensen has never concealed the fact that he is honest. Both in relation to what they say about themselves and the national team, but also when he is talking with the players. Honesty, Mie Højlund really really like.

"It means a lot. It is somewhat easier to work with one that is one hundred percent honest and speaks his mind. But next time he may well just come to me and just call," laughs Mie Højlund, who got slutrundedebut last year.

today, she is one of the great profiles on the national team. She has got a confidence from the national coach, for which she is grateful for, and she can see that the hard training pays off.

At this year's WORLD cup feel Mie Højlund, she has disappointed in angrebsspillet. Instead she's been used a lot in defense, and it pleases her more than fine.

Mie Højlund says that she feels there has been a notion that she can't cover up, because in handball, perhaps, is a general notion that defenders should be big and physical.

She even try to exploit the fact that she has played in the attack. She knows how she hates to be covered up, and that she uses in her own game at the other end, where she has made a good figure.

"Now it is almost the reverse world, where I will be shifted into the defense and out in the attack. But I'm so glad I get the chance," says Mie Højlund explains:

"I think the defense is one of the most fun to stand in. You can feel each other, and there is good communication. You have the opportunity to share some beating off instead of all the time to get, so it seems I have resources at mit," says Mie Højlund, who has received a blue and swollen eye after fight against France.

Anything else, she has been a part of, is experience. Among other things, from EM last year, which she uses very much. She can tackle everything now.

the unrest, which all the time is around the players to the finals.

When she first laced håndboldskoene and enters the hall, she can shut all other noise out, and it has given her much to have tried it before.

"the finals is a bit of a chaos, and it is a little difficult to be in, so it is completely safe. You can believe as much of it before the taking of the place, but it is only when you stand there, you will find out how it is," says Mie Højlund.

She has had to learn to navigate in it.

"Some of the toughest are actually having to deal with all the things outside of håndbolden. We know what we should do when we go into battle, and how we must prepare ourselves. We have done so many times. But it to stand with all the expectations and all the comments ... it must learn to deal with. The teacher also quickly, and so you talked about it internally in the squad, and so on," says landsholdsprofilen.

A player with big ambitions for himself. And it also makes the fact that she has big dreams when it comes to the future in and around the Danish national team.

"I think this here finals have been a step in the right direction, where it has been fun to play. It has been awesome to go into every game and know that I have had the ro on the track to go in and do it, I know I should. I hope in the future there is a big role for me in the national team," says Mie Højlund.