Kristianstad trio to Cyprus
Therese Björck, on her way to Cyprus
(c) Svensk Fotboll
Three Kristianstad players, Ifeoma Dieke, Therese Björck och Vlora Bajraktaraj, has accepted an offer to play for Salamina, the second best team in the Cyprus' women's league. Björck and Bajraktaraj will take the trip to the Mediterranean island as soon as the Swedish season is completed while Dieke will play for Scotland in their play-off for the 2009 European championships. "It will be fun, a little adventure", said Bajraktaraj.
The season in Cyprus is from November to May, but the Swedish players will not stay that long: "These are players we want back", said manager Ulf Berglund.
Kristianstad has ties with Salamina since they played each other during the Swedish club's Cyprus training camp in April. Women's football on Cyprus doesn't hold very high standard. Salamina lost 10-0 to Kristianstad when they met during the training camp. But there still seems to be some money involved. The players gets the flight paid, free food and lodging and an allowance.
Kristianstadsbladet: KDFF-trio väljer spel på Cypern
There is already a group of Swedish players in another Cyprus club, Salamina's main competitors A.E.K. Kokkinonchorion. Read more about them here.
Four professionals to Cyprus
Sandra Örtendahl, Mikaela Örtendahl, Frida Andersson och Emina Curt before leaving Göteborg
(c) Linden Larseric, GT
The four players were in Aiya Napa, where the club resides, for a try-out in August and impressed greatly on the locals. A.E.K has been going through a slump the last year, but the management wants to see the club dominating in Cyprus and playing in UEFA Women's Cup and are not afraid to invest.
The standard of women's football on Cyprus is not very high, but the Swedish players are very satisfied with the training facilities and club organization.
No wage figures has been mentioned, but they seem to be high enough for the girls to devote themselves entirely to training and playing.
For those who want to follow the girls, they have opened a blog at cypern.sportsevent.se. If you don't understand Swedish, you can always try to throw the text in Google Translate and see what happens.
