Mallbacken veteran makes comeback

Linda Ranström, a 27 year-old defender/midfielder, has returned to Mallbacken after a few years maternity leave and playing on a lower level. The 10 season veteran with Mallbacken can be used on a lot of positions and will bring a lot of experience to the team.
Mallbacken:
COMEBACKEN VI VÄNTAT PÅ!

KIF Örebro signs two USA players

KIF Örebro's head coach Pia Sundhage announced today the signing of two American players, both with experience from US youth national teams .

Kelly Schmedes, forward, and Keeley Dowling, defender, both played with Charlotte Lady Eagles in the North American W-league last season. They will arrive in the beginning of May and stay for the rest of the season. The US national team captain Kristine Lilly has been active in connecting the players with Örebro.

Sundhage says she's very happy that Schmedes and Dowling want to come and play for KIF Örebro and hopes they will help the team out of the goal draught that has plaughed them during the preseason.

KIF Örebro:
Två amerikanskor till KIF Örebro

New Zealand midfielder trying out for Sunnanå

New Zealand national team midfielder Priscilla Duncan is in Sunnanå, trying out for a spot on the team. Sunnanå head coach Kega Israelsson says she looks good on paper; great work capacity, vision and creativity, but that he wants to see her in action before he can tell if she is the midfielder he is looking for. Duncan will participate in Sunnanå's training matches against the Norwegian clubs Medkila and Grand Bodö this weekend.

Priscilla Duncan, who has been a regular starter for New Zealand the last two years, is 22 years old and has been playing college soccer in USA for Southwest Baptist University in Missouri. She got in touch with Sunnanå through her New Zealand teammate Rebecca Smith, who is now on her second season with Sunnanå.

Norra Västerbotten:
Priscilla Duncan ny spelare i Sunnanå?

Djurgården/Älvsjö turns down Musu Bangura

Djurgården/älvsjö has decided not to offer the 25 year old Sierra Leone player Musu Bangura any contract. She has shown a good eye for the game and fine technique during her two week trial with the Swedish Cup champions,  but needs to develop more as a player to be able to compete in a Swedish top side. "She might have the potential to get there, given time and proper training, but we prefer to give that time to our local talents", the club states on their website.

Djurgården/Älvsjö:
Inget kontrakt för Musu Bangura

Umeå signs Lise Klaveness

Umeå IK and Norway's Lise Klaveness has agreed on a one year contract. Klaveness states that she want to return to her club Asker next year, when they hopefully have returned to the Norwegian top division, but she is very keen on playing for "the best team in Europe" instead of spending a year in Norway's 2nd tier division. Umeå decided to sign the 35 time Norwegian international in spite of already having their full 18 player squad in place.

Budstikka:
Klaveness valgte Umeå
Västerbottens Folkblad: Klaveness till Umeå IK

Lise Klaveness training with Umeå

Lise Klaveness from Norwegian Cup champions Asker is currently training with Umeå. Klaveness, who after Asker's relegation is no longer tied by her agreement to the club, will stay in Umeå "for a couple of days". Neither Klaveness nor Umeå IK has made any committments for the future, but Umeå is expecting a decision shortly.

Damfotboll.com:
Klaveness provtränar med Umeå

Six Swedish clubs hunting Norway's Lise Klaveness

"Several Swedish clubs have contacted me the last days", says Norway's Lise Klaveness and names Umeå IK, Malmö FF, KIF Örebro, QBIK, Jitex BK and Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC. Since the decision by the Norwegian Football Association to relegate her club Asker from Norway's top division she has been contemplating her future. She now says that if she stays in Norway, she will play for Asker. But if she goes to Sweden, the 24 year old says it will be for a top team, and rules out at least Jitex and QBIK.

Adresseavisa:
Ønsket av "hele" Sverige
Värmlands Folkblad: Jagar storstjärna

Iceland's Dora Stefansdottir chose Malmö FF

Iceland's and Valur's Dora Stefansdottir has decided to accept an offer from Malmö FF after being persued by other clubs, among them Jitex. The 21 year old has 16 full caps for Iceland and can play both defense and midfield. Malmö's Jörgen Petersson calls her "ambitious and strong-willed" and she has been said to resemble Malin Andersson as a player.

Malmö FF also comments Rachel Unitt's decision to turn down Malmö's contract offer. Malmö will keep in touch with Rachel, since "both parties wish to see Rachel playing for Malmö in a not to distant future".

Malmö FF:
Internationell landslagsspelare klar för MFF Dam!

Sierra Leone player trying out for Djurgården/Älvsjö

Musu "Pelé" Bangura, national team captain for Sierra Leone and playing for Soccer Angels FC, is currently trying out for a possible contract with Djurgården/Älvsjö. Djurgården/Älvsjö's head coach Benny Persson hopes to see "a strong, fast, technical goal-scorer", but adds that it will be a lot of new impressions both for Bangura and Djurgården/Älvsjö before thay know if they have a match.

Djurfgården/Älvsjö:
"Pele" tränar med Djurgården/Älvsjö

Malmö FF giving up hope on Unitt transfer

In an interview with local newspaper Sydsvenskan, Malmö FF head coach Jörgen Petersson says he doubts England and Everton defender Rachel Unitt will join the team. He also says that he has not yet made up his mind concering the American trialists Huff and Magliulo, who returned from their try-out to USA last friday.

One of Petersson's priorities since he took over as head coach late last year has been to find an experienced defender with a good left foot. Unitt trained with the team in December 2005 and both team and management as well as the contract offer pleased her. Eventually she, according to an diary entry at a fan-site, has decided that the workload (65-70 matches for the 2005-06 season) would be to much. She doesn't want to risk burning herself out, the more since it's an important year for England with a spot in the 2007 World Cup finals at stake.

No link to the interview with Petersson, since it was only in the printed paper, but Rachel Unitt writes to her fans
here.

Goalkeeper talent chose Bälinge

20 year old goalkeeper Christina Lundholm, 6 matches for Sweden's U19, has signed for Bälinge. Reasonably this is for a spot as backup keeper for Maja Åström, but Christina, who played with Bälinge's main promotion competitors Gideonsberg last year, says she goes to Bälinge to compete for the starting position.

Damfotboll.com:
En riktig vinnarskalle klar för Bälinge
UNT: Lundholm ny målvakt i allsvenska Bälinge

QBIK hunting relegated Asker's Lise Klaveness

Norway national team forward Lise Klaveness is considering offers from French top side Lyon and Damallsvenskan's QBIK after her club Asker's final appeal against the decision on relegation failed yesterday.

The 25 year old law student says that she want to play for Asker, but not in the second tier division. She has recieved offers from most clubs in Norway's Toppserien, but is very tempted by the offers for professional contracts from Sweden and France. Klaveness turned down a Lyon offer last fall, but Lyon has renewed it following Asker's relegation. The international transfer period finishes tonight, so if she wants to go to Lyon she's in a hurry. Both Norway and Sweden accepts transfers for yet a couple of months.

Adresseavisen:
Klaveness vurderer to profftilbud

Bälinge signs Finnish stars

Bälinge IF seems very serious in their ambition to reestablish themselves in Damallsvenskan after a year in the 1st division. In December 2005 they signed UEFA Women's Cup 2005 finalists Djurgården/Älvsjö's goalkeeper Maja Åström and experienced former Sweden U21'er Emma Lindqvist from Umeå's bench. The last week they've found 3 American players, Kacey White; Julianne Sitch and Fanta Cooper.

Today the club announces the signing of two Finnish national team players, 28 year old striker Minna Mustonen and 27 year old defender Heidi Matinlassi, both from finnish Cup winners FC United. Mustonen is the more experienced, has 55 caps and played for New York Power in the WUSA and scored Finland's consolation goal  in their European Championship semifinal against Germany. Matinlassi has 10 caps, participated in several of Finland's qualification matches, but just failed to make the European Championship squad.

"We are now done with our foreign transfers", says Bälinge chairman Conny Sjöberg, happy to have captured the Finnish signatures in competition with both Swedish and Norwegian sides. "We just have a few spots left for local talents. The team is looking really good now."

Damfotboll.com:
Finska A-landslagsspelare till Bälinge
Bälinge Damfotboll: Bälinge värvar finska A-landslagsspelare

Two Americans training with Malmö FF

Two players from University of Nevada Las Vegas, goalkeeper Jenna Huff and midfielder/forward Annii Magliulo, are training with Malmö FF this week. Both have recieved several individual awards for their college play and have both been regular starters for clubs in the WPSL, Las Vegas Tabagators and California Storm respectively. Malmö coach Jörgen Petersson says they will be interesting to watch.

Malmö FF has lost 4 experienced players since the 2005 season finished, among them Sweden national team captain Malin Andersson and Iceland national team captain Asthildur Helgadottir, and has so far only signed a couple of teenage talents. Magliulo is supposed to have a good left foot, something Malmö has been looking for, and tallied 9 goals and 6 assists last WPSL season. Huff will probably not compete with Sweden national team goalkeeper Caroline Jönsson, but Malmö's backup keeper Jenny Olsson is out with a long-time injury and the position needs to be filled.

Malmö FF:
Amerikanskor provtränar

Sweden youth team player becomes Jitex' last signing

With the signing of 20 year old centre-back Caroline Lindblad, Jitex sport director Lennart Lindorsson declares that the club has made their last preseason signing. Lindblad, who comes from Sundsvall DFF, have several games for different Sweden youth teams and fits well in with Jitex other signings this preseason. "We would have liked to get an experienced Scandinavian national team player too, but we probably needs to establish ourselves in Damallsvenskan before we can get players like that to comitt", says Lindorsson.

Damfotboll.com:
Jitex har värvat färdigt

International transfers doubtful for Jitex

Jitex coach Hans Prytz tells local weekly Mölndalsposten that he doubts that neither Finnish national team attacker Minna Mustonen nor Icelandic midfielder Dora Stefansdottir will join the club. "It really drains your resources if you bring in foreign players", he says and adds that he is really satisfied with the squad he already got. The more since his team took the Olympic Committee fitness test last week at the same time as local Damallsvenskan competitors Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC and they manged to perform at least as good as the Göteborg players, among them several national team players.

Jitex has since they grabbed promotion last fall signed 6 new players: Jennie Svensson (Kopparberg/Göteborg), Therese Björk (Kristianstad/Wä), Therese Andersson (Linköping FC), Emma Herbring (KIF Örebro), Linda Fyhr (Östers IF), Amelie Rybeck (Holmalunds IF). Most interesting signing seems to be Swedish youth national team player Emma Herbring, who was a regular starter with Damallsvenskan side KIF Örebro last season.

Mölndalsposten:
Tveksamt om Mustonen går till Jitex

Yet another American U21-player to Bälinge

Newcomers Bälinge announced today that they've made an agreement with their third US player, 22 year old midfielder Kacey White. "We need to strengthen our team with a couple of stand-out players, and White is our best new signing so far", says Bälinge's very satisfied coach Magnus Wikman. White, described as a fast and technical midfielder, has played 8 matches with the US U21 team. She has developed at the college soccer powerhouse University of North Carolina and also played for W-league top side New Jersey Wildcats, being selected for the W-league All Star Team.

White is aiming for the US national team and one of her conditions for joining Bälinge was that the club will let her go if she gets selected for national team matches. "And how could we refuse that?", Bälinge's chairman Conny Sjögren says, smiling.

UNT:
Kacey White förstärker Bälinge

Frida Nordin stays with Malmö FF

Malmö FF's midfielder Frida Nordin, who has 24 full national team caps, has decided to extend her stay in Malmö with another year. Nordin has been surrounded by transfer rumours, with newcomers Jitex as the main contender for her signature.

Malmö FF:
Ytterligare en spelare klar!

Fanta Cooper returns to Bälinge

Fanta Cooper, a 28 year old american who played an essential part in Bälinge's centre defense last season, has signed a new contract with Bälinge for the 2006 season. Before she came to Sweden Cooper played college soccer at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and in the W-league for Chicago Cobras.

Bälinge:
Fanta Cooper återvänder till Bälinge

Icelandic midfielder on trial at Jitex and Malmö FF

Icelandic national team midfielder Dóra Stefánsdóttir is currently training with Malmö FF. The 20 year old, who has 16 caps, plays for Iceland's top side Valur, that reached the quarter finals in the 2005/06 UEFA Women's Cup. Malmö coach Jörgen Pettersson says she'll be trying out with the team for a week and he sees her just as much as a centre defender as a midfielder.

No link, since this appeared only in the printed version of the local daily Sydsvenskan.

Stefánsdóttir was last year mentioned in connection with Kopparbergs/Göteborg and has arrived in Malmö directly from a try-uot with newcomers Jitex. At Jitex she was accompained by two unnamed compatriots and Finnish 28 year old national team star Minna Mustonen. Concerning Mustonen, who has 55 caps for Finland, Jitex coach Hans Prytz says that a transfer might be to expensive, since she is under contract with Finnish top side FC United.

No link here either, since it's virtually impossible to link to stuff at Mölndalsposten's site. Go to
www.molndalsposten.se and do a search for Jitex.

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