Josefine Hasbo has made her mark in global football as the only Harvard graduate to have played in either a FIFA World Cup™ or a FIFA Women’s World Cup™.
Having recently made a return to her adopted hometown with the Boston Legacy, an expansion team in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), the midfielder is now seeking further honours by leading Denmark to a second consecutive global finals.
The Danes kick off their qualifying campaign for the FIFA Women’s World Cup Brazil 2027™ with a home tie against Serbia on 3 March following a trip to Italy four days later, in a group that also includes Sweden.
They are looking to rebound under new coach Jakob Michelsen following a disappointing UEFA Women’s EURO 2025 campaign, in which they lost all three group stage matches. The seeds of recovery were shown, however, in back-to-back victories against Finland in October followed by a goalless draw with Norway.
Hasbo was a student at Harvard when she helped Denmark to the round of 16 at Australia/New Zealand 2023. The economics graduate has since played professionally for Gotham FC, including the inaugural FIFA Women’s Champions Cup™, before recently sealing a move to the Legacy.
The 24-year-old spoke to FIFA about her Women’s World Cup memories, Denmark’s qualifying hopes for Brazil 2027 and her inspiration to become a footballer.
Josefine Hasbo: It was a great experience. It’s amazing to finally have a tournament where you bring some of the best teams from every continent to really see what the level is and be able to compare [with each other]. I’m overall happy with the set-up, great facilities and the investment from the FIFA side. When something is ultimately new, it takes time to figure [things] out in terms of our schedule with the NWSL. But I think that we had some great preparation weeks in Spain prior to the tournament. The motto for Gotham is always building, never finished. And kind of that was the feeling after that tournament, too.
That’s definitely the goal now. I’m so proud and so excited to start a new legacy and especially start a legacy that is in a city that I have a very close connection to. I’m so excited for women’s soccer to be part of this competitive sports scene that exists in Boston. And from my time with the team now, I feel that we’re going in a very good direction.
I don’t think it makes me any [more]. I mean, maybe some would disagree with me, but I don’t think it makes me any [more] special compared to all the other players who make a World Cup special in itself. I’ve been very fortunate to have a great support network that has been able to make me balance both [academic and sporting] disciplines at the same time. And ultimately having a World Cup as my internship was kind of something that I found very, very fascinating to be able to be part of.
I think there’s many moments, both on and off the pitch. We [were given] such a great welcome at our base camp in Perth and you felt like you were part of it, although you were far away from home. Perth felt like it was home during those weeks. Wow, what an amazing experience.
On the field there were two very particular moments… when Amalie Vangsgaard scored against China in the first game and the relief of getting a good start in the tournament right at the very, very end of the game. We were fighting, fighting, fighting and there was this relief that was extraordinary to feel.
We had this momentum throughout the tournament and essentially led us to the round of 16 and the game against Australia was ultimately something in itself. The support that the Matildas had during the tournament was amazing to see from the perspective of the growth of the women’s game. We did not win that game. But just seeing 78,000 people in the stands and the support was was amazing.
It’s a great group, nations that we highly respect. And the most important is ultimately to stay disciplined and consistent throughout all games. I think that it’s also a very interesting group because I believe that many teams can take points from each other. So I think the most important [thing] would be to stay consistent with our approach.
As a player, it’s always very interesting to get a new coach. You learn something new every time. And when a coach comes into a new environment, it’s always with a fresh perspective. His impact was quite immediate looking at our games against Finland to stay in Nations League Group A and we won those two games. So overall, for my assessment so far, it’s been a very positive contribution.
We have still yet to get to know each other, it takes time for someone new to impact the environment. But I think that he’s been doing that very efficiently so far. I can’t wait to see how it will continue with his winning mentality and how we want to use the player personnel that we have within the roster.
It’s kind of a mini tournament within your season almost that you have to stay so locked in and focused. On the other hand, it’s not a sprint, right? It’s kind of a marathon because it is spread out over the season and many things can happen in terms of opponents, player injuries and what that means for their competitive level. So I think it’s just such a privilege to a certain degree to ultimately one, get to represent your country, but also secondarily to get to compete at such a high level against some of the best players in the world. That’s something that has pushed me to where I am today.
I think it’s my love for the game that has driven me to where I am today. And then I think there’s some luck associated too with the fact that my best friend when I was seven years old played football. I wanted to join in the schoolyard and then kind of one thing led to the next. But really the push for that next high elite environment has been because I love the game and because I have an internal drive that I want to push myself and I want to challenge myself.
Now being a more mature player in the game, I ultimately get exposed to many wonderful personalities and players; Pernille Harder, for instance, from our Danish team. She’s incredible to be around and she’s really been one from Denmark that has pushed the boundaries and pushed the limits of what we can do in Danish football. So I would probably point to her.
