Damallsvenskan Newsblog

Pernilla Eberyd, 19 year old back-up goalkeeper behind Bente Nordby in Djurgården/Älvsjö, has decided to change clubs and accept an offer from Hammarby, that were looking for a new keeper after losing Camilla Halonen to retirement. Hammarby's sport director Annelie Norén calls Eberyd promising and motivated and, it seems, doesn't necessarily see her as a back-up.
Damfotboll.com: Djurgården/Älvsjö tappar målvakt

Elin Härén, 21 year old Hammarby midfielder, has decided to leave the club for the lower division Stockholm side Tyresö. Härén has spent two years with Hammarby, the last year mostly as a substitute.
Damfotboll.com: Lämnar Hammarby för Tyresö

23 year old forward Mia Westerblad leaves Malmö FF after 6 seasons and 120 Damallsvenskan matches to return to her mother club Stattena IF in the 1st division. Westerblad, who has experience from all Sweden's youth national teams, has mainly been used as a late sub the last seasons, being unable to compete with Therese Lundin and Asthildur Helgadottir for a starting position.
Damfotboll.com: Åter till Stattena från Malmö

Bälinge's team captain Linda Sembrant has signed a new contract with her club. Sembrant has spent November and December playing for the English 1st division club Lincoln City Ladies FC.
Bälinge has also signed a 19 year old fullback, Lisa Lantz, from 1st division side Sundsvalls DFF.
Upsala Nya Tidning: Kapten Linda klar för Bälinge, Lisa Lantz valde Bälinge  

Qbik is still looking looking for a forward. They are negotiating a renewal of their contract with German Jennifer Meier, who has been with the club the last one and a half seasons. She scored one third of Qbik's 37 Damallsvenskan goals 2005-2006. But the club, that made a substantial loss last season, is unable to keep her as a professional and is looking at the possibilities of helping her to a part-time job.
The negotiations between Qbik and Nigeria's Football Association seems to have opened the door for Maureen Mmadu, Faith Ikidi and Yinka Kudaisi to return to the club. Qbik's squad is already almost filled, so they will need financial support from Nigeria's FA or an independent sponsor to be able to afford the three extra players. On the other hand Nigeria seems pretty interested in having their national team players continue playing in Europe. 
Värmlands Folkblad: Meier eller svensk stjärna förstärker Qbik, Dörren står öppen

Former Mallbacken player Maja Johansson is trialing with Sunnanå. Sunnanå is looking for a replacement for Madelene Edlund, that went to Umeå, and the 20 year old target player wants to stay in Damallsvenskan. Sunnanå's coach Kega Israelsson calls her tough and unconventional (Maja herself doesn't hesitate to use the word "dirty"). Maja is in spite of her age an experienced player with 4 seasons in Damallsvenskan and several matches for Sweden youth teams. Still, Israelsson makes the reservation that he is still looking at international players.
Norra Västerbotten: Maja Johansson tränade med laget

After failing with all their tries to sign a domestic or scandinavian top name, Linköping FC has turned to USA for players. Tiffeny Milbrett seems highly likely to return and the club has also established contact with "a few promising younger players". Since a 6 month contract for tax reasons is very favourable, it is unlikely the players will stay the entire season. The contracts will probably be from early spring until the World Cup break, that starts in August. After the break, there are just 4 matches left of the series.
Corren: LFC:s värvningar från USA kan missa allsvenska slutet

Umeå IK has managed to bring back their 1998-2001 goalkeeper Ulla-Karin Rönnlund from retirement. Rönnlund (then Thelin) left football at only 24 and has since married and is now a mother with two small children. She tells that when Sofia Lundgren left for AIK she, jokingly, told her friend Maria Bergkvist (the Umeå defender) that this maybe was the time for her to make her come-back. A few days later Roland Arnqvist was on the phone.
Ulla-Karin Rönnlund was Umeå IK's starting goalkeeper for 4 seasons and has 2 Damallsvenskan gold medals. She also played four national team matches.
Västerbottenskuriren: Ulla-Karin - UIK:s egen Magnus Hedman

Umeå has shown interest for danish national team midfielder Johanna Rasmussen. Rasmussen is a speedy left-footed player with 33 caps for Denmark and has twice been nominated for the danish player of the year award. Umeå's head coach André Jeglertz confirms: "We need one midfielder and one forward, and we have to find established players". Rasmussen is flattered by the interest and says she will listen to what Umeå has to say.
Västerbottens Folkblad: Umeå IK på jakt efter dansk landslagsspelare

Ingvild Stenslands long anticipated move to Kopparbergs/Göteborg is now completed. The top 20 FIFA World Player will sign her contract with Damallsvenskan's number 5 today. Göteborg coach Martin Pringle is happy "My god, this is fantastic. She is a really great player" and doesn't hide that he is pretty pleased with his entire squad.
Stensland's signing should mean that Göteborg and Kolbotn now has reached an agreement on a transfer fee, but there is no mention of this.
Göteborgsposten: Ingvild Stensland ny i Göteborg FC

The person behind KIF Örebro's development the last years, chairman Karin Tellås, has decided to leave the board of the club after three successfull years. She says that being able to sign Pia Sundhage as head coach was her major achievment.
Nerikes Allehanda: Tellås slutar som ordförande i KIF Örebro

19 year old forward/winger Hanna Pettersson from 1st division side Glanshammar has signed a 2 year deal with KIF Örebro.
Nerikes Allehanda: Hanna Pettersson klar för KIF Örebro

Maja Krantz, promising midfielder from 1st division Stattena and Sweden's U18, is deciding between offers from Linköpings FC and Malmö FF. Linköping's Caroline Seger, a former Stattena team-mate, does all she can to persuade Krantz to make up her mind.
Corren: Krantz gör som Seger?

Emmelie Konradsson, a 17 year old midfielder from the local club Umedalens IF, has signed a contract with Umeå, the champion club's third signing so far.
Umeå IK: Emmelie är UIK:s tredje nyförvärv

Linda Blom, 30 years old attacking player, returns to Bälinge after two injury-ridden years with Malmö FF. She will contribute a lot with her experience and positive attitude, comments coach Zaine Söderlund.
Bälinge: Linda Blom återvänder hem till Bälinge

Hammarby's midfield key player Jennie Jonsson - she played every single minute of every Damallsvenskan match 2006 for Hammarby - has renewed her contract and stays with the club 2007.
Hammarby: Jennie Jonsson förlänger

Sofia Karlsson, defender with 1st division club Holmalund, has moved to Kopparbergs/Göteborg. The club has also signed a new assistant coach, Kristian Andersson from the top club Örgryte's youth program.
Kopparbergs/Göteborg: Sofia Karlsson klar för Kopparbergs/Göteborg

After 10 seasons in Damallsvenskan and 97 national team matches has Djurgården/Älvsjö's midfielder Linda Fagerström decided to call it a day. The 29 year old will now move on to the world of teaching, a degree she has studied for during her footballing career.
Djurgården's sport director Micke Söderman thank's Linda "for the fantastic years we've had together."
Damfotboll.com: Linda Fagerström lägger av
Djurgården/Älvsjö: Linda Fagerström slutar med fotbollen

In other Djurgården news, the club announces that they have signed Jenny Råland as assistant coach beside Benny Persson. She has previously worked for one of Sweden's most successfull youth programs in the Stockholm club Brommapojkarna.
Djurgården/Älvsjö: Vi förstärker tränarteamet

Also Linköping FC has made reinforcements in their coaching staff. They have signed former Allsvenskan player Patrik Kieback as assistant coach. Kieback, who previously has worked with a men's 3rd division club and the youth program in a 1st division club comments that he wants to work in top football and that Linköping FC is very interesting from that point of view.
Linköping FC: Ass tränare klar för 2007 

The 20 year old Dutch national team forward Manon Melis has signed a one year contract with Malmö FF. Melis, who has been a regular in the Netherlands national team for two years and has scored 9 goals in the last eight matches for her club BK Quick 28 in the Dutch league, is characterized as "an incredible speedy winger, who can play on both sides". It is rumoured that Melis chose Malmö despite being sought by the Bundesliga top side FCR 2001 Duisburg.
Malmö FF could also announce that key players Therese Sjögran and Caroline Jönsson has signed 2 year deals with the club.
Sydsvenskan: Malmö FF värvar från Holland
Damfotboll.com: Manon skrev på för Malmö

At the FIFA World Player Gala 2006 in Zürich, Umeå IK's Marta was announced as the FIFA Women's World Player. After being 3rd in 2004 and 2nd in 2005, she now won the first price ahead of USA's Kristin Lilly and Germany's Renate Lingor. Two more Damallsvenskan players got in the top 10: Malin Moström (Umeå IK) at 9th and Lotta Schelin (Kopparbergs/Göteborg) as number 10. Marta thanked God, her family, her club, her team-mates and all the people who helped her to get there.

The proud Umeå manager Roland Arnqvist commented that this will benefit the club a lot. Everything that is important for a top club - sponsors, match attendance, media interest, advertising - will move in the right direction. "And of course we will try to capitalize on Marta's award. We are already an internationally respected club, but this help even more."
FIFA.com: Cannavaro and Marta reign supreme
Göteborgsposten: Marta Vieira da Silva ger Umeå klirr i kassan

For those interested in details, the complete voting result can be found at
http://fifa.com/documents/fifa/events/FWPG06_results_by_player_women.xls 
and the voting records of the national team coaches and captains in these documents:
http://fifa.com/documents/fifa/events/FWPG06_votes_captains_women_final.xls 
and http://fifa.com/documents/fifa/events/FWPG06_votes_coaches_women_final.xls.

When Umeå's midfielder Elaine E Moura left for Brazil national team duties in October, there was little to suggest that she would return to Umeå. Instead she has been surrounded by rumours of interest from Linköping as well as German and USA clubs. But Umeå's heavy losses on the player market (Anne Mäkinen the most important) and failed tries to sign replacements like Norway's Ingvild Stensland has changed the picture. Today Umeå's manager Roland Arnqvist announced that Umeå and Elaine, who reportedly did very well in the South American championships, has agreed on a new one year contract. Elaine will join the team in the end of February 2007.
Damfotboll.com: Förlängt för Elaine

In other transfer news, Hammarby has announced the resigning of defensive player Karolina Rinman and Kopparbergs/Göteborg has been able to make a new deal with their sought-after winger Sofie Andersson.
Hammarby: Karolina Rinman förlänger
Kopparbergs/Göteborg: Snart knyter även Kopparbergs/Göteborg ihop sin säck

Umeå IK's manager Roland Arnqvist, pleased and proud that Marta decided to stay with Umeå in spite of a bigger pay-check being offered, reveals that he will meet with Marta's agent Fabiano Farah in Madrid in January to discuss the terms for a 2008 contract. "Both we and Marta and Fabiano Farah wants this, and we hope to find a solution already early next year", Arnqvist says.
Marta's 2007 contract is for 10 months and presumed to be worth somewhere between SEK 50,000 and 60,000 a month. On top of this comes benefits like the free car from Umeå's main sponsor Volkswagen. There are several opinions on how much Linköping's bid was worth, ranging from "more than SEK 50,000 but less than 75,000" to "close to SEK 100,000". But everybody seems to agree that it was higher than Umeå was prepared to go. Fabiano Farah says that Marta likes it a lot in Umeå and thinks the conditions to develop as a player are the best there. "Marta wants to be recognized as the best player in the world, and her chances to achieve that is much better if she plays in Umeå than in any other club in the world", Farah concludes.
And at the same time as Umeå IK announced Marta's renewed contract, they could also announce a renewed deal with one of their main sponsors, Volkswagen. Maybe more than a coincident?
Västerbottens Folkblad: UIK vill att Marta stannar även 2008
Västerbottenskuriren: Så mycket tjänar Marta i UIK - förlorar minst 200000 på klubbvalet

Umeå's back-up goalie Johanna Baecklund and midfielder/forward Johanna Andersson, both with very little time on the field for Umeå last season, has decided to join relegated Jitex in the 1st division. Both have had the option to join Damallsvenskan sides, but feels that it will be better to play for a winning team in the 1st division than for a relegation struggler in Damallsvenskan. Jitex' management has made it clear that they are aiming for a speedy return to the top flight.
Västerbottens Folkblad: Umeå IK tappar Johannor

In other Jitex news, the transfer of midfielder Therese Björk to Qbik doesn't go as smoothly as expected. Björk has one year left on her contract with Jitex and the club wants compensation. The SEK 50,000 they demands from Qbik was met with dropped jaws: "We want her to come to us, but this is a grotesque amount of money". Jitex on their side says the sum Qbik offered wasn't even worth discussing. They add that they have had inquieries about almost all their players with long-time contracts and can't let Björk go without due compensation.
Värmlands Folkblad: Qbik och Jitex ännu inte överens om Therese Björck

Bälinge's two new Finnish recruits, Petra Vaelma och Katri Nokso-Koivisto, visited Uppsala for contract signing and meetings with coach and fellow players. They said that they are moving to Sweden to develop as players: "Everybody knows that Damallsvenskan is the best league in the world and our Finnish league isn't even close".
Upsala Nya Tidning: Tuff start för Bälinges nyförvärv

Ingvild Stensland's Norwegian club Kolbotn tells local press, that her prospected move to Kopparbergs/Göteborg isn't unproblematic. She has one year left on her contract with her club and she is not easy to replace. "We have proposed a transfer fee to Göteborg and they have answered, but their answer is not acceptable", says Kolbotn's sport director Svein Angvik. "If we don't find a solution, Ingvild will stay with Kolbotn." But the talks between Kolbotn and Göteborg are still active.
Østlandets Blad: Kolbotn kan stoppe Stensland

In other Scandinavian news, just promoted Norwegian premier side Asker announces that they have reached a deal with Djurgården's Danish midfielder Katrine Pedersen. The Danish national team captain has also been persued by Norway's champions Kolbotn and  Damallsvenskan's Malmö FF.
Asker FK: Pedersen valgte Asker

On the other hand has Djurgården managed to sign one of Sweden's most talked-about youngsters, Hammarby's 17 year old Emma Lundh. Lundh, who transfered to Hammarby from Brommapojkarna a year ago, managed to get an almost steady starting position in a fairly successfull Hammarby.
Djurgården/Älvsjö: Emma Lundh klar för Djurgården/Älvsjö

Bälinge's 22 year old left back Nera Smajic has agreed with Malmö FF on a contract. Smajic says that her ambition is to qualify for the full national team (she has extensive youth team experience) and she thinks Malmö offers a great environment for her development. Malmö's coach Jörgen Pettersson has been looking for a left footed defender a long time and is pleased with the signing.
Pettersson is also very pleased that Nanna Johansen, the 20 year old Denmark national team player who had a three month "try-out" contract with Malmö last season, has decided to sign a one year deal with an option for another year. The young winger already has more than 20 caps for Denmark and coach Pettersson calls her "one of the most promising players in Scandinavia".
Since Malmö FF got their Damallsvenskan license renewed, things have been looking brighter for the rough times club. All players from the 2006 squad has declared that they want to continue with the club and there is even hope that Icelandic forward stand-out Asthildur Helgadottir will continue playing. "She can obviously not continue communting the way she did this season [more than 30 trips between Iceland and Sweden], but we are hopefull findning a solution for her." Pettersson also confirms Malmö's interest in Djurgården's danish midfielder Katrine Pedersen.
Sydsvenskan: Dansk talang fortsätter i MFF 
Upsala Nya Tidning: Från Bälinge till Malmö FF

Denmark's national team captain Katrine Pedersen tells Norwegian newspaper Østlandets Blad that she is in talks with Norwegian champions Kolbotn. Her present club Djurgården/Älvsjö is not a current option, but Malmö FF has approached her as well as just promoted Norwegian Asker.
According to the paper, Pedersen is thought of as a replacement for Ingvild Stensland, who, still according to the same source, is pretty much set on moving to Göteborg.
Østlandets Blad: Dansk stjerne aktuell for KIL, –Pedersen holder verdensklasse

In other news, Mallbacken's Icelandic international Erla Arnadottir has announced that she has chosen to leave Damallsvenskan and instead play for the US club Jersey Sky Blue in the W-league next season. The New Jersey club seems to grow into a new home for former Damallsvenskan players; assistant coach Denise Reddy and their so far only official signing Formiga have both played for Malmö FF.
Damfotboll.com: Erla lämnar Mallbacken

Former Mallbacken coach Krister Engström has signed on as head coach for newcomers Falköping. The club says he was their first choice and comments that keeping a team like Mallbacken in Damallsvenskan for three consecutive seasons, as Engström did, is a great accomplishment and, says chairman Bength Tjus, "we know we are taking Mallbacken's place in Damallsvenskan. The small club from the smallest town with a really limited economy".
Falköpings KIK: Krister Engström klar som tränare för FKIK

Kopparbergs/Göteborg's Sofie Andersson turns down Qbik, but isn't finished deciding between Göteborg and AIK yet.
Värmlands Folkblad: Sofie Andersson nobbar Qbik

19 year old "super talent" defender Nina Engström has signed for Bälinge, turning down offers from Linköping, Sunnanå and Norwegian Fløya.
Bälinge: Nina Engström går till Bälinge

Bälinge's strong left back Nera Smajic seems to be tempted by a move to Malmö FF. The 22 year old, that was a certain starter with Bälinge the entire 2006 season and has experience from Sweden youth teams of all age groups, was on Malmö's wishlist already a year ago. On the other hand Malmö's forward Linda Blom is likely to return to her old club. She joined Malmö when Bälinge relegated 2004, but hasn't managed to get a starting spot in the team.
Uppsala Nya Tidning: Blom in - Smajic ut?

And some ice-hockey news:
Defender Jesper Jäger in Denmark's top division club Aalborg has decided to leave the club and return to his native Umeå.
This is interesting, since Jesper is Malin Moström's long-time boyfriend. Malin has spent time with him in Denmark lately, instead of going to Egypt on a sponsor event with Umeå IK. There was even some speculation in if Malin might chose to move to Denmark (Fortuna Hjørring would in that case have been the lucky club). Luckily for us in Sweden, Jesper made up his mind. Now we're just waiting for Malin to decide if she is going to continue playing or not.
Västerbottenskuriren: Jäger bryter med Aalborg
Damfotboll.com: Nu kan Malin Moström bestämma sig

Linköpings FC has presented an offer for Marta's signature to her agent. The club's general manager Anders Mäki confirms that it is the by far biggest the club has ever presented, but refuses to comment on any figures. He won't even tell if the bid is above or below the SEK 50,000 a month, that according to a persistent but unconfirmed rumour is what Marta makes today.
Corren: LFC har lämnat drömbud till Marta

Therese Lückner from Norwegian Team Strømmen has agreed to return to Karlstad and play for Qbik, partly persuaded by the fact that her Team Strømmen coach Janne Jansson also is joining Qbik.
Qbik has also managed to sign young left-winger Elinor Rangvaldsson from 1st division side Holmalund, beating competition from Kopparbergs/Göteborg and Falköpings KIK.
Therese Stolpe, sought-after by both Qbik and Kif Örebro, has decided to stay with relegated Mallbacken after first announcing she would quit playing. "It was so fun getting back training with the girls again. And we'll hopefully win more matches in the 1st division."
Värmlands Folkblad: Lückner - ett av två färska Qbik-förvärv, Stolpe in, Mallbacken