Latest news with #KarenHolmgaard
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Everton's identical Holmgaard twins on bamboozling opponents, team-mates and their coach
There's a video making the rounds: identical Australian twin sisters speaking in perfect unison to a television reporter about an attempted car-jacking on their mother. They're not so much finishing each other's sentences as being each other's sentences — all while sporting matching blue, bunny-spotted nursing scrubs and low, blonde ponytails. Sara Holmgaard pulls her hand up to her mouth and her eyes grow wide in half faux horror. 'That's… oh no,' she pauses before confirming: 'We're not like that.' Advertisement Everton's identical twins Karen and Sara Holmgaard have called Merseyside home since 2023. When The Athletic meets the 26 year olds on a hot day in May, the Holmgaards — with their light auburn hair tied into near-identical messy buns — are at least kind enough to dress in different colours. Karen in Everton's all turquoise training strip and Sara in sleek black. They're also kind enough to introduce themselves correctly. Mischief has been known to be a calling card of theirs. In school, sometimes the girls would switch seats in class, teachers unable to suss out who was who. More often than not, however, the trickery is unintentional. During preseason last summer, Sara returned to Finch Farm, Everton's training ground, earlier than her sister, who underwent hip surgery last May. Nearly a month passed before Karen returned. 'I saw one of the new signings and was like, 'Hey, I'm Karen, nice to meet you',' Karen recalls under the awning of a practice stand at Finch Farm. 'She looked straight at me and said, 'You're Sara'. I was like no, I'm Karen, we're twins. And she goes, 'No, **** off, you're Sara!'. Eventually Sara walked in and everyone was dying laughing. She had no idea.' Advertisement The Holmgaards have a cache of similar stories. Everton head coach Brian Sorensen, whom the defenders played under at Fortuna Hjorring in Denmark during the 2017-18 season, is known to speak to one, giving instructions or praise, before the other has to confess that he's speaking to the wrong twin. 'The best was last year against West Ham,' Karen says with a smile. '(Hawa) Cissoko was meant to mark me when we had a corner because Sara was usually on delivery. But I came on late in the game, and Sara wasn't doing the delivery this time, so we were both in the box. She ends up tracking Sara not me, and I ended up scoring.' 'One of our Danish team-mates on their team had to explain to her we were twins,' Sara says. Twin combinations have become a theme for the Holmgaards at Everton. Sara has assisted three of Karen's four goals, the most recent arriving at Manchester City in a 1-1 draw at the end of April. Playing right-back, Karen headed home her sister's lofted delivery from left-back at the back post. The Denmark internationals met in the middle of the pitch and embraced, skipping merrily with their arms around each other as City fans' boos rained down around them. Advertisement 'We really need to figure out a celebration together,' Karen says with a nudge to her sister, before growing more serious. 'That was also a big moment for me. I've been out for a really long time, I've not played for a while, this year has been difficult.' Karen has featured in just eight matches for Everton, with only three starts, her season hampered by injury and recovery. Not since 2023 has she represented Denmark. In that time, Sara, experiencing one of the most prolific seasons of her career, has featured 11 times for her country, scoring twice. Meanwhile, in the Women's Super League (WSL), Sara has scored three times and supplied a further four in her 21 starts. She has played the second-most minutes this season for Everton (1,641), behind goalkeeper Courtney Brosnan (1,800) and slightly ahead of midfielder Honoka Hayashi (1,635). Karen's goal against City represented her first goal involvement of the season. She started at right-back again against Liverpool at Anfield in this month's Merseyside derby and scored Everton's second goal in the 2-0 win. Advertisement 'The hardest is with the success,' says Karen, 'When Sara is doing really well and I'm not, that's difficult. We have been better to accept being there for the other, but it's really difficult sometimes.' Being at the same club is not a contractual obligation, but try as their parents or coaches might at splitting the two apart, they always follow a similar drum beat. As children, the two were inseparable. When attempts were made to move Karen and Sara into separate rooms, to the point of moving one twin's clothes and furniture into another room in the house, they were back in each other's orbit by the time night fell. Today, they share an apartment in Liverpool together. The most difficult point in their relationship, they say, was not a fight but rather a forced time apart upon the pair's move to Everton in 2023 from German side Turbine Potsdam. Advertisement Sorensen earmarked the Danes as recruitment priorities upon his appointment at Everton in April 2022. But while Karen was brought straight into the first-team fold, Sara was loaned back to her former club for the season. 'That was a hard move because Sara's dream was to be there at the same time as me,' Karen says. 'That was the first time we were split.' There have been other challenges, not least those within Everton itself. As the club has trundled through a protracted takeover saga with resources dwindling, the women's team was forced to work in ever-tightening spaces, focusing on survival as opposed to growth and competition. Sorensen is credited for finishing successive seasons in sixth and eighth despite a threadbare squad blighted by injury. 'It's been several years where staff has been limited, we've needed to save money, our squad feels smaller and smaller,' Sara says. 'At the end of each season, we could barely see out the weekends because we were so low in number.' Advertisement The new owners from The Friedkin Group (TFG), who took over in December, have installed a sense of excitement, say the twins. In January, the owners held a meeting with the women's team staff and players at Finch Farm. In a huddle on one of the training pitches, the owners outlined their ambitions and the club's new direction. The words have not been without action. Six players were signed in January, including striker Kelly Gago from FC Nantes, midfielder Hayley Ladd from Manchester United and defender Maren Mjelde (free agent) on permanent deals. Contract extensions have been agreed for Sorensen and assistant manager Stephen Neligan, along with defender Kenzie Weir and midfielder Clare Wheeler. 'In January, when they were talking about their vision, you could feel they really wanted to invest in us. We've already got money in the women's team now and we can already see the future as better now,' Sara says. 'You can also feel it in the air,' she adds. 'People are smiling, the scene is happier. Of course, we were still smiling a year ago but looking back, it was some tough years. That's why it means so much to us now when the owners say what they do.' This article originally appeared in The Athletic. Everton, Soccer, NWSL, UK Women's Football 2025 The Athletic Media Company
New York Times
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Everton's identical Holmgaard twins on bamboozling opponents, team-mates and their coach
There's a video making the rounds: identical Australian twin sisters speaking in perfect unison to a television reporter about an attempted car-jacking on their mother. They're not so much finishing each other's sentences as being each other's sentences — all while sporting matching blue, bunny-spotted nursing scrubs and low, blonde ponytails. Sara Holmgaard pulls her hand up to her mouth and her eyes grow wide in half faux horror. 'That's… oh no,' she pauses before confirming: 'We're not like that.' Everton's identical twins Karen and Sara Holmgaard have called Merseyside home since 2023. When The Athletic meets the 26 year olds on a hot day in May, the Holmgaards — with their light auburn hair tied into near-identical messy buns — are at least kind enough to dress in different colours. Karen in Everton's all turquoise training strip and Sara in sleek black. They're also kind enough to introduce themselves correctly. Mischief has been known to be a calling card of theirs. In school, sometimes the girls would switch seats in class, teachers unable to suss out who was who. More often than not, however, the trickery is unintentional. During preseason last summer, Sara returned to Finch Farm, Everton's training ground, earlier than her sister, who underwent hip surgery last May. Nearly a month passed before Karen returned. 'I saw one of the new signings and was like, 'Hey, I'm Karen, nice to meet you',' Karen recalls under the awning of a practice stand at Finch Farm. 'She looked straight at me and said, 'You're Sara'. I was like no, I'm Karen, we're twins. And she goes, 'No, **** off, you're Sara!'. Eventually Sara walked in and everyone was dying laughing. She had no idea.' The Holmgaards have a cache of similar stories. Everton head coach Brian Sorensen, whom the defenders played under at Fortuna Hjorring in Denmark during the 2017-18 season, is known to speak to one, giving instructions or praise, before the other has to confess that he's speaking to the wrong twin. 'The best was last year against West Ham,' Karen says with a smile. '(Hawa) Cissoko was meant to mark me when we had a corner because Sara was usually on delivery. But I came on late in the game, and Sara wasn't doing the delivery this time, so we were both in the box. She ends up tracking Sara not me, and I ended up scoring.' 'One of our Danish team-mates on their team had to explain to her we were twins,' Sara says. Twin combinations have become a theme for the Holmgaards at Everton. Sara has assisted three of Karen's four goals, the most recent arriving at Manchester City in a 1-1 draw at the end of April. Playing right-back, Karen headed home her sister's lofted delivery from left-back at the back post. The Denmark internationals met in the middle of the pitch and embraced, skipping merrily with their arms around each other as City fans' boos rained down around them. 'We really need to figure out a celebration together,' Karen says with a nudge to her sister, before growing more serious. 'That was also a big moment for me. I've been out for a really long time, I've not played for a while, this year has been difficult.' Karen has featured in just eight matches for Everton, with only three starts, her season hampered by injury and recovery. Not since 2023 has she represented Denmark. In that time, Sara, experiencing one of the most prolific seasons of her career, has featured 11 times for her country, scoring twice. Meanwhile, in the Women's Super League (WSL), Sara has scored three times and supplied a further four in her 21 starts. She has played the second-most minutes this season for Everton (1,641), behind goalkeeper Courtney Brosnan (1,800) and slightly ahead of midfielder Honoka Hayashi (1,635). Karen's goal against City represented her first goal involvement of the season. She started at right-back again against Liverpool at Anfield in this month's Merseyside derby and scored Everton's second goal in the 2-0 win. 'The hardest is with the success,' says Karen, 'When Sara is doing really well and I'm not, that's difficult. We have been better to accept being there for the other, but it's really difficult sometimes.' Being at the same club is not a contractual obligation, but try as their parents or coaches might at splitting the two apart, they always follow a similar drum beat. As children, the two were inseparable. When attempts were made to move Karen and Sara into separate rooms, to the point of moving one twin's clothes and furniture into another room in the house, they were back in each other's orbit by the time night fell. Today, they share an apartment in Liverpool together. The most difficult point in their relationship, they say, was not a fight but rather a forced time apart upon the pair's move to Everton in 2023 from German side Turbine Potsdam. Sorensen earmarked the Danes as recruitment priorities upon his appointment at Everton in April 2022. But while Karen was brought straight into the first-team fold, Sara was loaned back to her former club for the season. 'That was a hard move because Sara's dream was to be there at the same time as me,' Karen says. 'That was the first time we were split.' There have been other challenges, not least those within Everton itself. As the club has trundled through a protracted takeover saga with resources dwindling, the women's team was forced to work in ever-tightening spaces, focusing on survival as opposed to growth and competition. Sorensen is credited for finishing successive seasons in sixth and eighth despite a threadbare squad blighted by injury. 'It's been several years where staff has been limited, we've needed to save money, our squad feels smaller and smaller,' Sara says. 'At the end of each season, we could barely see out the weekends because we were so low in number.' The new owners from The Friedkin Group (TFG), who took over in December, have installed a sense of excitement, say the twins. In January, the owners held a meeting with the women's team staff and players at Finch Farm. In a huddle on one of the training pitches, the owners outlined their ambitions and the club's new direction. The words have not been without action. Six players were signed in January, including striker Kelly Gago from FC Nantes, midfielder Hayley Ladd from Manchester United and defender Maren Mjelde (free agent) on permanent deals. Contract extensions have been agreed for Sorensen and assistant manager Stephen Neligan, along with defender Kenzie Weir and midfielder Clare Wheeler. 'In January, when they were talking about their vision, you could feel they really wanted to invest in us. We've already got money in the women's team now and we can already see the future as better now,' Sara says. 'You can also feel it in the air,' she adds. 'People are smiling, the scene is happier. Of course, we were still smiling a year ago but looking back, it was some tough years. That's why it means so much to us now when the owners say what they do.' (Top photo:)
Reuters
20-04-2025
- Sport
- Reuters
Man City's European hopes dented by 1-1 WSL draw with Everton
MANCHESTER, England, April 20 (Reuters) - Manchester City's hopes of European football next season were all but extinguished on Sunday as they were held to a 1-1 home draw by Everton in the Women's Super League to leave them seven points adrift of third-placed Manchester United with three games left. With the top two of Chelsea and Arsenal both involved in Champions League semi-finals this weekend, City's slip-up left them fourth on 36 points, meaning they will have to win all of their remaining games and hope that United lose all theirs if they are to overtake them. Chelsea, who take on Barcelona in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final later on Sunday, top the standings on 48 points, three ahead of Arsenal with a game in hand, with Manchester United two points further back. Full back Kerstin Casparij got City off to a perfect start with a goal in the 13th minute, but Everton equalised through Karen Holmgaard 20 minutes later, and a combination of dogged defending and wasteful finishing from their hosts led to a frustrating stalemate. In Sunday's late kick-off, Aston Villa threw a way a two-goal lead at Tottenham Hotspur but still managed to emerge with a 3-2 victory thanks to a stoppage-time winner from substitute Kirsty Hanson. On Saturday, Oliva Smith and Leanne Kiernan stuck first-half goals for Liverpool as they beat Brighton & Hove Albion 2-1 to climb into fifth place, while Manchester United were held to a scoreless draw by West Ham United.
