Meet the only English manager at the Euros

It's easy to see why Gemma Grainger gets mistaken for a Norwegian. Sitting in the sunshine outside a coffee shop near her Oslo flat, she looks very much at home. It's only when she speaks and you hear her north-east accent do you realise, she is distinctly English.

"I always thought that I was tall in height until I came here," 5ft 10in Grainger tells BBC Sport. "Then I realised these are my people because I'm average height here, which is nice."

The 42-year-old from Middlesbrough took over as head coach of Norway's women's team 18 months ago. And since then, she has had to adapt to a new kind of culture off the pitch and build a new one on it.

This week she will take on the biggest challenge of her career when she leads the national side into the Euros. It also makes her the only English head coach at the tournament.

But for Grainger, who was previously assistant coach to the Lionesses under Mark Sampson and head coach of Wales, there are no mixed allegiances here.

"This is something I've worked for my whole career. So, I'm incredibly proud and privileged to work with this group of players.

"They've given me this opportunity because they see something in me. And for me, I want to repay that. So, when we go into this tournament, I want to be the coach that can bring this team success.

"I want Wales and England to do well," she says, before adding with a laugh - "except for when they're playing Norway".

One of the first things you notice about Grainger is her very calm demeanour. The second, is her pure love for the game. Even as manager of a national team, she thinks nothing of giving up an evening to coach a session to youngsters.

She has close coaching relationships with USA head coach Emma Hayes and ex-England boss Gareth Southgate. She sees players as people first and has spent the last year and a half building a "holistic" culture at Norway that allows the players to be themselves.

"As an international manager, it's about taking care of people. It's about making sure that when they come here and when they leave, they can't wait to come back," she says.

"When they're here, I make sure that they can be who they are. And from my perspective, I really value leadership within the team, so I give them the opportunity to own that.

"It's about the good moments, the uncomfortable moments and honesty and that is the strongest part of our team."

And her warm approach has been well received by the squad, including women's football icon Ada Hegerberg, Norway's captain.

"She's a very empathic woman," she told BBC Sport. "She sees the human in you first off and I value that a lot. She's a very intelligent woman, we've had a lot of funny discussions and I enjoy that.

"It's been really refreshing for us to get that mentality into the group. She's been a big plus for us."

And her thoughts were echoed by defender Guro Bergsvand. "She's very calm and very passionate about what she wants from the team and what values we have as a team.

"She cares about her players, but she wants to get the best out of each one. She's not going to be the coach who screams in the locker room."

Norway's previous appearance at a major tournament, the 2023 World Cup, was overshadowed by player unrest under former coach Hege Riise.

The president of the Norwegian FA, Lise Klaveness, admits that Grainger was not on their initial list of candidates when they started to recruit for a new head coach and was only added to increase the number of females they saw. But once Grainger sat in front of them, they knew they had the right person.

"She really impressed us through a very thorough process. She's very nerdy, she loves football. She's very professional, warm, kind and value based.

"One of the things that's impressed me most is how open she is to Norwegian culture and new challenges. She's a mediator, she's honest but she's good at making people connect.

Norway were once a powerhouse of women's football. They won the World Cup in 1995, were crowned European Champions in 1987 and 1993 and added an Olympic gold medal in 2000. However, recent tournaments have not been kind to the side, despite producing a long line of global stars.

They last reached a major final at the European Championship in 2013 and have failed to get out of the group at the last two Euros. At the 2022 tournament, they suffered a humiliating 8-0 defeat by the Lionesses in the group stage.

Under Grainger they beat Northern Ireland 7-0 on aggregate to qualify for the Euros via the play-offs, while they have had mixed results in their recent Women's Nations League group, where they finished second behind France.

This summer they open their tournament against hosts Switzerland and then play Finland and Iceland in Group A.

For Grainger, the only way is up.

"Coming from the outside is one of my biggest strengths because I don't feel the things that they [the players] feel. I see the potential in this team.

"Norwegian people are very passionate about football. Very passionate about the national team. So, for us, there is pressure. We want to make sure that we do the country proud but also that you see a team that you enjoy watching.

"The expectation is for us to get out the group. I'm not going to sit here and say we're going to win it, because we want to take a game at a time. It's a cliche, it's boring but it's how it's going to be.

"Women's football has never been more competitive, the margins are fine and they're getting finer.

"We're going to see a lot of teams putting themselves under pressure to win it because I think expectations are high in many countries. But for us, it's genuinely about making sure that we're the team that we want to be.

"We will channel everything into every game to get out of that group. And then of course, once you get out the group, you take it from there.

Grainger is not someone who craves the spotlight, but her coaching CV is vast and impressive. From starting out at Leeds United 15 years ago, she quickly moved her way through the England youth teams which gave her valuable experience of major tournaments.

And no doubt that was part of the reason that Lionesses head coach Sampson asked her to join the England senior coaching set up for the 2017 Euros. A tournament where England made the semi-finals.

"I predominately worked with the forward players in that tournament. So, a lot of my memories on the pitch were working with Jodie Taylor [who claimed the Golden Boot]. That's something that I remember fondly.

"When you're the assistant, you get the luxury of spending time on the pitch. The more time on the pitch, the more time with the players."

But when asked if one day she would like to return to the England set up as manager, the answer is clear, at the moment Norway is her only focus.

"Right now, I'm incredibly happy. The support that I have here with the federation and the work that I'm doing with Norway is absolutely the right place for me to be. But one day, I could be interested."

Grainger got her first senior international head coach role when Wales appointed her in 2021, which she says was a "very proud" moment, and went on to guide them to the brink of World Cup qualification in 2023.

But when Norway made their approach for her three years later, she said she knew it was not an opportunity she could turn down.

Should Norway reach the semi-finals, Grainger could find herself coming up against one of her former sides, with both England and Wales fighting it out in Group D.

Grainger still splits her time between Norway and England, but her Norwegian is a work in progress.

"I understand it now. It's actually a smaller language so there's a lot of words that they use in English, which is good for me. But it's coming along and it's something that I've tried to embrace. The team talks are still in English though.

"The last 18 months have been incredible. I honestly have embraced the culture, the lifestyle, the football. So I'm having a great time."