Harder has been nominated thrice for the Ballon d'Or in 2018, 2019, and 2021, placing second with only a 6-point margin at the first ever awarding in 2018 while playing for VfL Wolfsburg.[8][9][10][11][12] She was awarded the UEFA Women's Player of the Year Award in 2018 and 2020, the first player to win the award twice.[13][11] English newspaper The Guardian named Harder as the best footballer in the world in 2018 and 2020, with Harder also the first player to twice receive this honour.[11][14] In 2020 British football magazine Four Four Two[a] named Harder the best footballer in the world.[16][15][17]
Harder played for Team Viborg and IK Skovbakken in her native Denmark's Elitedivisionen.[21] Skovbakken had made Harder and her contemporary Sofie Junge Pedersen contracted players in April 2010, in recognition of their exceptional potential.[22]
Linköpings FC
Harder chose Swedish club Linköpings FC for her next destination because she wanted a new challenge, but also because she wanted to remain in Scandinavia. In September 2013 she scored all four goals in Linköping's 4–1 win at relegation-bound Sunnanå SK.[23]
In the 2015 Damallsvenskan season, Harder scored 17 goals in 22 appearances for Linköping, winning a series of national awards including Årets Anfallare (English: Forward of the Year) and Årets Allsvenska Spelare (English: League Player of the Year). At the annual awards gala, she shared the stage with male winner Zlatan Ibrahimović and was described as "hyper-talented" and "world-class" by Swedish national coach Pia Sundhage.[24][25] Harder was also voted Danish Football Player of the Year in 2015.[26] In June 2016, Harder was among 30 local worthies to be named in a Wall of Fame by Linköping Municipality.[27]
Harder enjoyed further success in the 2016 Damallsvenskan 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.[28] 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.[29]
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 and German Cup 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[30] and 2019-20[31] seasons. She also played in two Champions League finals (2018 and 2020), losing both to Lyon.[32] In 2020, she was elected best forward of the Champions League[33] and best player of the German Championship.[34]
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.[35] In the 2020–21 Champions League quarter-finals, she scored in both legs against her former club VfL Wolfsburg.[36] In the group stage of the 2022–23 Champions League she scored a hattrick against KF Vllaznia Shkodër. On 18 November 2022 she suffered a serious thigh injury on national team duty against Austria that required surgery and sidelining her for five months. She made her comeback against Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final on 22 April 2023. In the FA Cup final against Manchester United 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 Magdalena Eriksson, had signed for Bayern Munich on a three-year deal.[37] She made her debut for Bayern against SC Freiburg and scored her first goal against 1. FC Köln. In the next game against 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.[38] After the winter break, she quickly returned to her old form. She provided assists against Freiburg and Frankfurt, and scored twice against Leipzig. In the top match against her former club, she scored to make it 1-0 and set up Lea Schüller for the 3-0 goal with a through ball. Harder scored a hat trick against Nuremberg, and on the final matchday, away against TSG Hoffenheim, she scored again. FC Bayern thus won its sixth German championship. She finished the season as the club's second-best goalscorer alongside Jovana Damnjanović, with nine goals. Harder's 2024/25 season with FC Bayern was very successful: the team won the double for the first time with the German championship and the DFB Pokal and also won the newly created World Sevens Football small-field tournament. She was Bayerns best goalscorer with 14 goals and was named as Bayerns player of the season.
At the inaugural 2008 U-17 World Cup in New Zealand, Harder was part of the Denmark team who won their group before losing 4–0 to eventual champions North Korea in the quarter-final.[39] Still 16 years old, she contributed a hat-trick 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.[40]
She played in the Algarve Cup in 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2015, 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.[44] In March 2016, Harder was appointed captain of the national team.[45]
In 2017, she was named in national coachNils Nielsen's Denmark squad for the Euro 2017. 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.[46] On 16 September 2021, she broke Merete Pedersen's 12.5-year-long national record, becoming the record goalscorer of the Denmark national team, with 66 goals in her 129 games.[47] In the successful campaign to qualify for the Euro 2022, she played in all ten games and scored eight goals. She was called up for the Euro 2022 and scored the only goal for Denmark, but the team was eliminated in the group stage.
In July 2023, she was named to the final roster for the 2023 FIFA World Cup.[48] She scored one goal and provided one assist, but Denmark was knocked out in the round of 16 by Australia. It was the first time since 1995 that Denmark reached the knockout stage at a World Cup.
On June 20, 2025, she was nominated for the European Championship, but Denmark was already eliminated in the group stage. In the last game against Poland, she had to be substituted after just 25 minutes due to an injury, when the score was 0-2.
Personal life
Since May 2014, Harder has been in a relationship with current Bayern Munich teammate and Swedish international, Magdalena Eriksson.[46][49][50] On 21 July 2024 they announced their engagement after over a decade together.[51]
She and Eriksson work with the charity Common Goal and pledged 1% of their salaries to help tackle social issues throughout football. The couple also advocates for equality and LGBTQ+ rights in sport.[20]
↑ "Abschied gegen Ablöse". Wolfsburg Official Website (in German). 1 September 2020. Archived from the original on 1 September 2020. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
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