From the ground of the Norwegian side Melhus IL, you can almost see the house where Ingrid Engen grew up. Her best friend and the former player Maiken Bakke drives The Athletic there, but she points out Engen used to run the route every day from 2005-2011.Melhus, a small town in the north of the country, is where Engen is from. Bakke used to play with the OL Lyonnes midfielder turned centre-back when they were kids.“I used to think that Ingrid and I would go back to playing Melhus at some point and retire here,” Bakke says, staring at the pitch. “But, you know what? I’m starting to think that’s not going to happen.”They met while playing for the village’s other team, Gimse, in 2012. They had previously faced each other when Engen played for Melhus IL. At first, they didn’t get on, but now Engen will be a bridesmaid at Bakke’s wedding.“I think I’ll have to hold it on New Year’s Eve because Ingrid has to be there — and she can only come here twice a year,” she says with a laugh.Saturday’s Women’s Champions League final will be a special occasion for Engen. It is her sixth appearance in European football’s showpiece event, and OL Lyonnes’ opponents are the team she played for from 2021-2025, Barcelona. The 28-year-old will become the only player apart from Conny Pohlers to feature in the Champions League final for three different clubs (Wolfsburg, Barcelona and Lyon).Her whole family will be there to watch as the game is being played in Oslo, around 290 miles (470 kilometres) from her hometown.There is added significance for Engen: she is set to face her partner, the Barcelona and Spain centre-back Mapi Leon.Ingrid Engen and Mapi Leon while at Barcelona (David Ramos/Getty Images)Before the final, The Athletic travelled to her hometown to discover the player’s roots.Melhus has a population of around 18,000 and is located 30 minutes south of Trondheim.It is one of Norway’s most densely forested areas, which is evident everywhere you look. It is a peaceful village surrounded by nature, and built on a strategically important site during the Viking age. Perhaps that is where Engen draws her warrior spirit from.The Engen family home stands opposite an old farmhouse. We are welcomed by her mother, Gudrun Syrstad, and the resemblance to her daughter is immediately striking.Growing up in Melhus gave Engen a sense of calm she has always had, but Syrstad jokes, “Melhus was not a place for her. She is like me, a city person. In this town, we are actually really good at sports,” Bakke says. “We have a lot of good skiers and football players. It was a great place to grow up for people who are interested in sports.”Syrstad has always played the piano but says her daughter was never interested in it. Ingrid’s thing was sport.“She had a natural talent; I don’t know where she got it from, because we’re not a football family,” Syrstad says, although she adds that her father was accomplished in various sports.“Ingrid started quite late at football, at the age of seven. She was multi-talented. She was good at lots of sports — ski, athletics — and took winning very seriously. Even when playing cards.Ingrid Engen and Maiken Bakke during their teenage playing days (Gudrun Syrstad)“She started training with girls, and I remember one day she came back home from a training session in tears because she said the team wasn’t good enough, that she needed more. At the age of nine, she started training with boys.“She enjoyed playing with boys because the standard of the team was higher. Two of her team-mates now play in Europe, so it was a good team. At that age, not all girls would have felt comfortable with that, but she wasn’t afraid.”“She was very thin, very small. When the boys got muscles, they were too strong for her.”Ingrid Engen’s mother with her OL Lyonnes shirt at Melhus IL’s ground (Laia Cervello Herrero/The Athletic)In 2012, Engen changed teams and started playing with the girls again in Gimse, with Bakke.“They got a lot of attention because the whole team were really, really good,” says Gimse board director Kristin Aune Welschinger.