Vilde Bøe Risa Admits Manchester United Still Feels Like “My Team”

MADRID, SPAIN – OCTOBER 2: Vilde Boe Risa of Atletico de Madrid poses during the official UEFA Women’s Champions League 2025/26 portrait session on October 2, 2025 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Manuel Eletto – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)

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Ahead of facing her old team in the UEFA Women’s Champions League, Atlético de Madrid’s Vilde Bøe Risa admits she still feels like Manchester United is “my team”.

Now in her third season in the Spanish capital, the Norwegian play-maker has established herself in the Atlético de Madrid midfield. Bøe Risa scored in Atlético’s opening League Phase game, a stunning 6-0 win away to St. Pölten which leaves them second in the nascent standings.

On Thursday evening, Atlético host Manchester United, who are playing in their first-ever group stage of the competition. Bøe Risa spent two seasons in the north-west of England but never quite made herself an automatic choice in the Red Devils’ starting line-up. She left for Madrid in the summer of 2023 but now will come up against her old team.

“It’s a big game coming up,” she confessed. “I feel like I know the girls and the club, in and out, and obviously I’m still watching them play and follow them very closely. I feel like it’s my team still, even though that is Atlético de Madrid for sure. I’m excited.”

Asked about what she felt about facing so many of her old team-team-mates, Bøe Risa smiled. “Definitely, I feel like I’m going to play against my friends and people that I miss so much playing with. It’s a special game for me and I was so happy to see that we were going to play against them in the Champions League.”

“My best friend is Millie Turner, I speak to her every single day for basically, many hours a day. Yes, I definitely keep in contact with her, and obviously the Norwegians as well. I know quite a lot of the girls. I was actually over there a couple of weeks ago and said ‘hi’ to everyone. I had breakfast with some of the girls. It’s really nice to catch up and to see them.”

A knee injury will prevent Turner from competing in the League Phase of the competition and a reunion with Bøe Risa. The Norwegian reflected that “of course, it’s sad that Millie doesn’t play because that would be the perfect picture, that we would play against each other here in Madrid, but I’m just really looking forward to the game. Obviously, it’s a really tough team to play against. To see everyone, it’s going to be really nice.”

Reflecting on her years in England, Bøe Risa said “I think my time at United was like a really, really nice time in general. Mostly because of the team we had and the girls within the team. It was just a really nice environment to be in. For me, it was a big step up in terms of professionalism. Just being a part of a club like Manchester United is obviously massive.”

“I look back on it as a proud moment in my career and I learned so much being there. I had a great time and obviously miss it but Spanish football is something that suits me well. I feel I can realize my potential here and I’ve had a great time here as well.”

While Atlético are seasoned competitors in the Champions League, it is a debut season in the elite group stage for Manchester United. Nonetheless, Bøe Risa dismisses any notion of inferiority from her former club. “I think they put it out like they are the underdogs, but if we look at the squad, look at the club in general, they should be a club that plays in the Champions League every year. They’ve done well over many years now and had some good signings.”

“I think they’ve started off (this season) really well, they drew against Chelsea, they played well against Arsenal and I think they get the full potential out of the players that they have. I think other teams have more superstars but these are girls who work hard and are maybe not at the Ballon D’Or ceremony but they fulfill their potential and they play well together.”

Atlético go into the match on the back of a 0-6 trouncing at home to Spanish champions FC Barcelona at the weekend, ending what had been an impressive unbeaten start to their seaseason. “It was a tough game for us against Barcelona,” said Bøe Risa. “We are at a good stage to be honest. As a team, we’ve been performing well over a couple of games so we were hoping to give a better performance against Barcelona, so it was a bit disappointing.”

“They know how to score and to win games. Barcelona is a good team so we just have to reflect on the game. It’s a new game coming up so soon with a completely different opponent. Our focus today has been on Manchester United and worked a bit on how they play and looked at how to give a good performance against them.”

“I want to go out and press them and be aggressive and show that we’re just not here to let you play. That’s the message we should send to the fans as well. I think they deserve to see more than what they saw on Sunday. We shouldn’t just let them play and give them everything.”

“We are a good team as well, we have to be brave, we have to play. I think we should do much more with the ball than we did against Barcelona. We were so scared of trying to play, but to be honest, we are good with the ball, we should play, we’ve got good individuals, we’ve got speed and we are a good physical team so we have to use it to our advantage.”

“I think we go into the United game thinking this, that it’s not okay to just let them play and let them do their thing. We need to stress them and be aggressive and hopefully that will make them play a different game to what they expect. That’s what I hope to bring out on Thursday.”

Watch every match of the UEFA Women’s Champion League, live on Disney+ as part of existing customer subscriptions.