Once the Holmgaard twins step on to a football pitch it becomes relatively easy to tell them apart. While Sara is left-footed and plays in central defence, Karen favours her right foot and anchors midfield but, back in the dressing room, the pair’s similarities far outweigh the differences.
Even Everton’s manager, Brian Sørensen, has been known to confuse one identical twin with the other. “Being left and right-footed is the biggest difference. I’m maybe a bit quieter but otherwise we’re nearly the same,” says Sara before Karen interjects. “I have a higher bun,” she points out, gesturing to her hair. “But we’re just enjoying being here together, it’s something special.”
The Holmgaards relish following the path set by their similarly identical male football counterparts, Jacob and Josh Murphy, who played together at Norwich for a time, and Michael and Will Keane, once regular fixtures in assorted Manchester United and England youth teams. In the women’s sphere, a precedent was set by the Kmita twins, Mollie and Rosie, although that pair have now swapped West Ham for sports broadcasting.
As the Holmgaards prepare for Friday night’s Merseyside derby against Liverpool at Goodison Park retirement is the last thing on the 24-year-olds’ minds, but they accept they are unlikely to synchronise their entire careers. Indeed they have only recently been reunited after being divided for the first time when Sara spent the first half of this season on loan at Denmark’s Fortuna Hjørring.
Although strictly temporary, this parting of the ways proved a useful exercise in independence for the Danish siblings who had previously played together at Hjørring and Germany’s Turbine Potsdam. “It was our first time without each other and, yeah, of course, it was a good thing,” says Sara. “We learned a lot about a lot of things. We expected it to be difficult and it was hard – but not as hard as I imagined. It was nice to try to live alone and, also, to show people outside that we can be apart.”
Karen believes the dual Denmark internationals have now achieved a perfect balance at their shared apartment in Liverpool’s fashionable docklands area. “Sometimes I go out with a friend and Sara stays at home,” she says. “But we have a lot of the same friends so we’re often all chilling together.” Sara is particularly appreciative of her new habitat. “The culture’s different to Germany,” she says. “Personally, I love to be here. The people are so warm and friendly. They’re just kind, it’s good to be among them.
“The football culture in Germany was tough too. The games were a lot about power but, in England, although the intensity’s the same, there’s a lot more possession. In Germany we had a lot of running in training, but here it’s much more tactical.”
As Karen emphasises, it also helps that the pair previously worked with Sørensen at Hjørring. “I think he was the main thing for us to move over here last summer,” she says. “We had Brian for two years before and we really enjoyed that time. He supports us and we just like him as a manager. But, even after working with Brian for so long, there are still times when we confuse him.”
Perhaps most memorably, at Hjørring, Sorensen once congratulated Sara for a goal scored by Karen. “At school people couldn’t see the difference,” says the latter. “So sometimes we did something funny and tricked them.”
During that childhood in Mid Jutland the duo excelled at both football and handball and it was only after a joint, post-college discussion that they opted to pursue mutual success in the former, with their near-telepathic on-pitch connectivity and inter-twin competitiveness helping secure them senior Denmark debuts in 2019. “We wouldn’t have this life now if we hadn’t each pushed the other on,” acknowledges Sara.
After joint involvement in Euro 2022, they hope to be on the plane to this summer’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand where Denmark face England in a group-stage game in Sydney. “It’s going to be tough,” says Karen. “England are good. I think they’re better than us right now, but we’ll see. We’re very excited.”
More immediately, they aim to help Everton improve on their current sixth-placed WSL standing while finding the time to explore England properly. “We’ve heard the Lake District’s really beautiful so we want to visit the mountains,” says Karen. “And we’d like to see more of London.”
The only problem is that, between now and the WSL season’s conclusion in late May, the matches come thick and fast. “But playing in England’s a good feeling,” says Sara. “Every game’s important. You can lose to the last team in the table and win against the highest. It’s nice to feel there’s always something to play for.”
As Karen stresses, Friday’s night’s meeting with Liverpool, the first to be staged at Goodison, is a particularly high-stakes fixture. “We’re just so excited to be part of it,” she says. “We understand the history, we know Merseyside derbies are always something special.”
Get to know the players in England’s top flight better with our WSL player in focus series. Read all our interviews here.
