Damallsvenskan Newsblog

Landström & Larsson, November 8, 2007
(Pictures nicked from svenskfotboll.se)

Kif Örebro and Örebro University announced a three year cooperation agreement, worth SEK 1,5 millions for the club. Örebro University wants to profile itself as Sweden's leading sport campus and sees the agreement, the first of it's kind in Sweden, as an important step to achieve that. Kif Örebro's chairman Gerd Engman says that the university is important for the club. The possibility to offer university studies was crucial in the work to get Sanna Valkonen and Maria Nordbrandt to sign for the club. The deal with the university includes discounted ticket prices for students to Kif Örebro matches.
Nerikes Allehanda: Universitetet sponsrar KIF med 1,5 miljoner

This agreement follows another groundbreaking sponsor deal, when Örebro city earlier this fall decided to sponsor the two premier division football teams in town, the men's team Örebro SK and the women's Kif Örebro, with the same amount. Both clubs gets a guaranteed SEK 500,000 a year for the three years as long as they play in the premier league. An additional SEK 250,000 can be recieved as compensation for participating as role models in schools and youth clubs.
Svenska Dagbladet: Örebros damlag får samma avtal som herrlaget

23 year old American midfielder Kacey White will return to Bälinge for the 2008 season. White, who has 2 caps for the USA national team, played the 2006 season for Bälinge until she got called up for USA in October. She returned to Bälinge this summer after being released from USA residency camp and played a handful of matches before she transfered to AIK. This time around she will join Bälinge already in February to participate in the pre-season training and stay the whole season. Barring any national team call-ups, I presume.
Coach Zaine Söderlund is elated, this is what he wanted for Christmas: "It is wonderful to have her here already in the pre-season. She will contribute a lot with her positive attitude and her great skills."
Upsala Nya Tidning: Kacey White tillbaka i Bälinge

ADDENDUM:
Bälinge's sport director Conny Sjöberg says in a short interview with local daily UNT, that at least one and maybe two more Americans are on their way to Bälinge. He says the club is having "a positive dialogue" with an experienced and very merited defensive player, who can play both defense and midfield. "We already have lots of talent in our team. The ones we are looking at now are players with experience."
Upsala Nya Tidning: Fler amerikanskor på gång

Erika Karlsson, who after two and a half years with the club did not get a renewed contract with Umeå IK, has now as expected signed for Sunnanå. The 20 year old forward got a two year deal with last season's Damallsvenskan number 5.
Västerbottens Folkblad: Erika Karlsson till Sunnanå

Hammarby has signed 17 year old left-sider Malin Broberg from Bälinge's youth programme. She has played a lot in defense, but will likely be used as a winger in Hammarby. Hammarby has also announced that two players, midfielder Therese Dahlberg och forward Lisa Björkvik has renewed their contracts.
Hammarby: Therese, Lisa kvar + 1 Malin till

LDB FC Malmö's coaching duo Jörgen Petersson and Martin Sjögren has extended their contracts with the club for two more years. Head coach Petersson was offered to take over the men's team of his old home club, Östers IF, a classic Swedish side with several Championships but now residing in the third level. Petersson decided that he wanted to continue with Malmö, which he says has been an exciting journey so far.
LDB FC Malmö: Jörgen och Martin har skrivit nya kontrakt

Bälinge defender Lina Andersson has decided to renew her contract with the club. After losing several experienced players coach Zaine Söderlund is happy to keep the 23 year old in the team.
Upsala Nya Tidning: Andersson förlänger med Bälinge

Relegated Falköping's 18 year old forward Linnea Liljegärd (6 damallsvenskan goals last season) is moving clubs to Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC. Club chairman Peter Bronsman also reveals that they are close to signing with two defensive players and are looking for a goalkeeper. He adds that they are in talks with a couple of candidates for the goalkeeper position, but will not be able to finalize any deal before the holidays.
Göteborgsposten: Göteborg värvar och jagar vidare

Kristianstads DFF is expected to announce the signing of defender Therese Björck from Qbik within short. They are also talking to two more defensive former Qbik players, Amelie Rybeck and Jenny Hallstenson. These two might be the same unnamed players that are in talks with Göteborg.
Kristianstadsbladet: Björck närmar sig KDFF

Umeå hasn't offered the Brazilian forward Cristiane any contract and are not planning to do it at the present, says manager Roland Arnqvist to local media. "But we are not closing the door. It is hard to tell what the future will bring", he adds. And head coach Andrée Jeglertz agrees: "The last word isn't said yet, but we're not crying for another forward".
Even if Umeå hesitates, there seems to be several other options for Brazil's Cristiane. Local Umeå paper Västerbottens Folkblad got hold of Marta's agent Fabiano Farah, who now also represents Cristiane: "We have to respect that these talks are confidential, but it's hard to find a woman player that doesn't want to play in Umeå."
Farah adds that three Swedish clubs (Umeå, LDB FC and one unknown, possibly Linköping?) has shown interest in Cristiane as well as clubs in Germany, USA and France. He doesn't want to comment on whether the French club is Olympique Lyonnais, Umeå's UEFA Women's Cup semifinal opponent.
Västerbottens Folkblad: Fler vill ha Cristiane
Västerbottenskuriren: UIK nobbar Cristiane

Cristiane, Brazil forward and named third best female player at the FIFA World Player Gala yesterday, reveals that she would like to join her teammate Marta in Umeå. Cristiane, who has been playing her club football in Brazil since her contract with Wolfsburg in the German Bundesliga wasn't renewed, says that she has been approached by a couple of clubs, but that Umeå is number one on her list.
Umeå's manager Roland Arnqvist admits that he has made inquiries about Cristiane: "It would be a great signing, but we are pretty well supplied with offensive players and this is both about finances and about balancing the team", he comments, stating that he is still undecided on the question.
LDB FC Malmö's sport director Kenny Jönsson reveals that Malmö were in negotiations with Cristiane earlier this fall and were close to finding a solution. But when her agent came with a wage demand twice as high as had been discussed earlier, Malmö decided to break off the negatiations.
Västerbottens Folkblad: UIK har inte släppt tanken på Cristiane

Two personal reflections. First, Cristiane has spent a couple of seasons in Germany without any appearent success. She was first let go from Turbine Potsdam and then Wolfsburg decided against offering her a renewed contract after the 2006/07 season. Marcus Juchem had a piece at the always well informed and well written www.womensoccer.de this summer, titled "Why is Cristiane only good in her national team?" . He tried to figure out why things hadn't worked out for the Brazilian attacker in Germany. Climate, food, culture clash and home-sickness were mentioned and Juchem ended in recommending Los Angeles as a suitable destination. Not exactly Umeå.
Second, throwing in a huge wage demand is often an efficient way to break negotiations. Czech forward Pavlina Scasna did that to get Umeå of her back, when she really wanted to go to Malmö. Cristiane might have wanted to scare away Malmö because she wants to go to Umeå.

When Linköping deemed Maria Aronsson superfluous after their signing of Jessica Landström, several other teams approached the 12 times capped attacker. That she ended up with a two year deal in Malmö was a surprise to many and Aronsson herself commented that it must be seen as a step up. Malmö's coach Jörgen Petersson commented that he was very pleased to get a forward that is young (24) but still very experienced. Aronsson has scored 41 goals in 80 Damallsvenskan matches and her size and playing style could make her a good replacement for Malmö's retired Asthildur Helgadottir.
Malmö more or less re-signed all their starters already before the World Cup. Their defense was the most successful of all Damallsvenskan teams last season but with an injured Helgadottir and a Therese Lundin with problems finding the goal their offense has been suffering. Not surprisingly they seem to be aiming mostly to strengthen their attack. Coach Petersson went Prague to check in with newly signed Pavlina Scasna, finalize the contract papers and see how her rehabilitation is turning out. It looked good and Petersson is expecting Scasna to turn up for practice in Malmö after the holidays.
Malmö also decided to pick up young winger Antonia Göransson from their youth team. Göransson, a speedy 17 year old, has been on loan to Danish premier division side BK Skjold since the summer and impressed greatly.
Corren: Aronsson från LFC till Malmö
Sydsvenskan: Landslagsanfallare till Malmö ...
LDB FC Malmö: Pavlina Scasna på gång till Sverige, Ytterligare en spelare till A-truppen

Linköpings FC has, as usual, had the ambition to sign a big name to the club. But both their main targets Victoria Svensson and Lotta Schelin opted to stay with their clubs. Instead they managed to get Hammarby's budding national team star Jessica Landström, offering her a full time position paying somewhere around SEK 20,000 a month.
But besides Landström, Linköping's new recruits has been young and fairly unproven with the two 16 year olds Tilda Heimersson and Lisa Nilsson as the youngest. These signings has made Linköping's squad 19 players strong, but coach Daniel Pettersson says he's counting on two more players, preferably established internationals.
Expressen: Löneklippet
Corren: Norrköpingsduo klar för LFC

Kif Örebro's defender Malin Nilsson has decided to leave her mother club and instead sign for Hammarby. Örebro's sport director Thomas Rasmusson said they wanted to keep her, but with the competition in the club for a position as one of the two centre defenders as tough as it is, he could understand why she wanted to move. Last year she had team captain and Sweden defender Stina Segerström and USA's Keeley Dowling as competition and next season Dowling will have been replaced by Finland's Sanna Valkonen.
Rasmusson also told local newspaper Nerikes Allehanda that even if they already have a better squad than last season, he is still open for a couple more players, most important a good back-up for their keeper Kristin Hammarström.
Nerikes Allehanda: Malin går till Hammarby


Bälinge's experienced keeper Maja Åström has decided to take a break from playing football. The 25 year old, who has both national team experience and two Swedish championships with Djurgården, says that she has been living with football for a long time now and needs to try something else.
Sport director Conny Sjöberg isn't worried, even if Åström is the third key player that has left (Mäkinen and Sembrandt the others) recently. He has confidence in the team in the long run, but admits that 2008 will be a tough season: "It is crucial that we find the right players when we sign the more experienced players we are looking for". And his first priority isn't a goalkeeper, but a defender and midfielder.
Upsala Nya Tidning: Maja Åström lämnar Bälinge


Kopparbergs/Göteborg has now officially given up on trying to sign USA's national team keeper Hope Solo for the 2008 season. The possibilities to synchronise USA's Olympic preparations with a Damallsvenskan schedule are limited, to say the least. Club chairman Peter Bronsman admits that they will have to find another keeper, but is in no hurry.
Göteborgsposten: Hoppet om Hope ute


After a tough 2007 season, with injury problems and her father's death, it took Sunnanå midfielder Sanna Frostevall some time to decide if she should continue playing. But recently she resigned with Sunnanå: "Dad would have liked me to go on".
Norra Västerbotten: "Pappa hade velat att jag skulle fortsätta"

First Umeå announced the anticipated return by Frida Östberg. The 30 year old defender/midfielder said it felt great to be back home again. Umeå has been trying to persuade her since the summer, but Frida had umeå waiting for her answer: "I wanted to feel that I had the right motivation to continue. You don't take a place in Umeå by just going 90 %".
While Östberg returned to Umeå, Lise Klaveness returned home from Umeå. After a lot of thinking, she decided to go back to Asker in the Norwegian league. She was sad to leave Umeå, but after finishing her law studies she felt she had to return to Norway if she wanted to establish herself on the work market. She stated that she wants to use her experience from her two years in Sweden to help making Asker the Umeå of Norway.
Young midfielder Lisa Dahlqvist also had to do a lot of thinking and some feeling of home-sickness tempted her to move south, but she finally decided to accept a new one year contract with Umeå. The 20 year old has more or less made her break-through in the team during the 2007 season, her second with the team, and is now a regular starter.
Young attacker Erika Karlsson was one of the few Umeå players that did not get an offer for a renewed contract. She has had problems breaking into the squad and the competition for forward positions doesn't seem to be easier next year. She hasn't signed anything, but will almost certainly be moving to Sunnanå, where she is hoping to get more playing time.
Umeå now seems to have signed 19 players for 2008, but that includes one 16 and one 17 year old players that might not be first team material yet. The club haven't yet declared that they are finished with the 2008 squad and the 2007 18 player side proved vulnerable to injuries, so there might still be some movement.
Västerbottens Folkblad: Dahlkvist stannar i Umeå IK
Västerbottenskuriren: Frida Östberg skrev på för UIK
Asker FK: Lise Klaveness til Asker
Norra Västerbotten: Erika Karlsson till Sunnanå

Instead of their expected retirement, two of Djurgården's most influental players decided to take up offers from other teams. As earlier reported defender Jane Törnqvist decided to go to Göteborg and keeper Bente Nordby has gone to French champions Olympique Lyonnais. And in Lyon, Nordby will be joined by former Djurgården full-back Dorte Dalum Jensen.
As a pretty much straight forward replacement Djurgården signed AIK's 24 year old full-back Madelene Göras (former Umeå and Bälinge) for Dorte Dalum's position and Emma Lundh (who signed for AIK) found a replacement in Finland's 19 year old attacker Linda Sällström. Sällström has been watched by Djurgården's management for some while and trained with and played a friendly for Djurgården this summer. Sällström has so far three caps for the full Finland national side.
OLweb: Bente Nordby rejoint l'OL, Dorte Jensen rejoint à son tour l?OL
Djurgården: Dubbel SM-guldsvinnare Djurgårdens nyförvärv, Finsk sisu till Djurgården

AIK impressed press and competitors alike with their very ambitious signings for the 2007 season, getting starters from Umeå, Djurgården and Göteborg to join the newcomers. Nonetheless, it almost ended in disaster when AIK just barely managed to renew their Damallsvenskan contract. But this hasn't slowed down the club's plans to win the championship in 2010. They started in November by picking midfielders and defenders - Mäkinen and Sembrandt from Bälinge and talented Louise Fors from Hammarby. But the team's main problem during 2007 has been goalscoring. And over a few days they could announce the signings of three proven offenvise players: Djurgården's Elin Ekblom and Emma Lundh and Annica Sjölund from Åland United in the Finnish league.
Elin Ekblom, a gifted winger who has been behind a lot of Djurgården's goals with her on-target crosses from right, had almost decided to retire at 26. But she was convinced by AIK's offer, which she said was a good offer from a football and financial view, while at the same time being possible to combine with her day-job.
18 year old Emma Lundh has in spite of her young age been close to regular for Djurgården with 13 starts this season, often pairing up with Victoria Svensson in the attack. But she explained at Djurgården's website that even if she has learned a lot during the year, she doesn't feel that that she is ready to play at that level yet. Annica Sjölund finally, is a Finnish 22 year old forward with 5 years in the Finnish top league and 13 caps for Finland.
Finally the club added a 16 year old full-back from Brommapojkarna's highly rated youth programme, Elin Karlsson.
Dagens Nyheter: Ekblom tung värvning i AIK:s satsning
AIK: Elin Ekblom Bak till AIK! , Anfallaren Emma Lundh till AIK, Annica Sjölund till AIK, 16-årig back klar för AIK
Djurgården: Emma om sitt år i Djurgården

Newcomers Kristianstads DFF did, after much talk, finally sign midfielder Erla Arnadottir. The 24 year old brings a lot of experience to the young Kristianstad team with 22 caps for Iceland, four damallsvenskan seasons (Stattena, Sunnanå and Mallbacken) and recently one season in the American W-league with Jersey Sky Blue. Arnadottir became Kristianstad's second signing, Göteborg keeper Maria Edman was the first, and was soon followed by a third, the 21 year old defender Therese Persson from 1st division side Husie. The club knows this isn't enough to make their stay in Damallsvenskan more than one year long and made steps to try to convince national team attacker Maria Aronsson (11 caps), recently dropped by her club Linköping. But Kristianstad's sport director Ulf Berglund is cautious: "We are not the only ones that are interested. She is a very good player and there ought to be several clubs wanting to see her on their team".
Kristianstadsbladet: Allt klart för Erla i KDFF, Landslagsspelare till KDFF