At the Norwegian Embassy in Britain's capital, Norway's men's and women's captains -- Stefan Johansen and Maren Mjelde -- and representatives of the Norwegian Football Association (NFF) and Norway's players' association (NISO) signed an agreement on equal pay in a deal thought to be the first of its kind in international football.

Ms Rones claimed the debate about the physical differences between women and men is often led by emotions. "There is much more to a combat situation than pure physics," she said. “It's about understanding situations, being able to orient, being able to be part of a team and handling weapons. This makes women as good as men.”

Like its Scandinavian neighbours, Norway is a pioneer in gender equality: in 1986, the Labour government of had almost as many female cabinet members as men, with eight out of 18.

“We wanted to increase the money on the marketing side for the women’s team but it was actually the FA’s own idea to go for equality. They said: ‘Isn’t it a cool idea and wouldn’t it be a good signal if we did things equally?’

his though means everything for us! For our team! For our sport! But not at least for all the female athletes out there, who does the same work, same sport as men's do, but get paid less!