This week, we look at the Elitettan or second tier professional league in Sweden, which has started with a very tight group of clubs vying for promotion; after 8 rounds, Lidkoping leads the table with 20 points while three teams sit within four points of the top spot and another five clubs are between 6 and 10 points out of first place in the 14-team league. We look at the rosters of each team in the Elitettan, with particular focus on their players from other countries.
TribalFootball.com also talks exclusively with Dessi Dupuy, a Bulgarian international midfielder, who moved to Vaxjo this season from top tier side Orebro, and discusses her thoughts on the Swedish second division and her path to the Bulgarian national team. We also update the reader on the current state of the game in Bulgaria.
Swedish Second Division Elitettan Review
The Elitettan or Swedish second division for women's football has, since the beginning of the 2022 season, appears that it will be strongly contested for the three promotion positions through to the final games, with Lidkoping sitting on top with 20 points and nine other clubs between 2 and 10 points of the leader. The top two finishers qualify automatically for promotion with the third-place side entering the playoffs for another possible place in the top league, while three teams will be relegated to the third tier. Note: The W-D-L and points record are as of May 22, 2022 at the conclusion of round 8.
Current Elittettan leaders Lidkoping (6-2-0—20 points) has Nigerian international forward Sarah Michael (31) returning to the club where she played in 2018, after a year with Kvarnsveden and two at Mallbacken in the Elitettan; she previously played in the Damallsvenskan with KIF Orebro, Djurgarden and Pitea, first coming to Sweden in 2009. Michael played for her country at the 2011 WWC Finals in Germany and at the 2008 Olympic Games Finals in Beijing. Michael has two goals in six appearances this season.
Forward Samantha Murphy (22) of Canada, who played at the University of Memphis in Tennessee, is in her second year with the club. The club also has a pair of imports from Germany: midfielder Maeve Burger (25) and forward Dorothea Greulich (25)—both in their second year at the club—with Greulich having played at Turbine Potsdam in the past at home. Both players also spent time at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock, while Burger spent time at Butler University in Indiana as well. Lidkoping also has two imports from Finland: defender Frida Lahteenmaki (24)—who played for four seasons at home at TPS and is in her second season at the club and was capped at the U-19 level in 2015—and midfielder Venla Kindfors (18), who moved from Honka in Finland after the 2021 season.
Swedish forward Ida Pettersson (25) leads the league in goalscoring with 9 goals in 8 games in her third season at the club, with seven scores coming in her last three matches—she scored 8 goals in 26 games last season. She won an Elitettan title in 2018 with Kungsbacka and spent the 2019 season with the club in the Damallsvenskan.
Lidkoping just missed promotion last year, finishing in fifth place and four points behind Bromma, who were in the third promotion spot and went up with Umea and Kalmar to the Damallsvenskan.
Alingsas FC United (5-3-0—18 points), who are tied for second, has an all-domestic roster as does sixth place Jitex (3-3-2—12 points) and Bergdalens (2-1-5—7 points), who are tied for tenth place.
Also tied for second and undefeated this season, IK Uppsala (5-3-0—18 points), who finished fourth last season and three points out of a promotion berth, is based in the Swedish college town of Uppsala about an hour north of Stockholm and has American forward Taryn Ries (23) from Vancouver, Washington—across the Colombia River from Portland, Oregon—signing on at the end of January. Ries scored 34 goals at the University of Portland (11th in program history) along with nine assists and her 77 total points is 14th all-time in program history. Ries contributed 15 game-winning goals for the U of P Pilots for seventh place all-time and has one goal in eight games for Uppsala this season.
Midfielder Roita [Rosa Herreros] (29) of Spain was with Umea in the second-tier last season and played with four clubs in Finland; Roita spent a year in Italy with Cuneo
She won the Elitettan title in 2021 at Umea, a top division title with Aland United in 2020 in Finland and a second-tier title in Finland with Kokkola in 2016. She has four goals in eight matches this season.
American forward Nicole Robertson (25) currently has eight goals in eight games with Uppsala this season and is second the Elitettan Golden Boot race (to Lidkoping's Ida Pettersson who has nine goals)—including a hat trick in their 8-1 won at home against Sundsvall on May 21—and has played in Denmark with B93, Brondby and AaB last season, where she scored five times in eleven games. She also had a spell with Glasgow City in Scotland. Collegiately in the States, she played at Purdue University in Indiana, San Diego State and Concordia University in St. Paul Minnesota.
From Iceland, former U-19 and U-17 international midfielder Andrea Thorisson spent the last two seasons with Kalmar in the Elittettan, who were promoted to the top tier in 2022. She won a second division title with Kungsbacka in 2018 and a Damallsvenskan crown in 2015 with Rosengard. She grew up in Sweden and played for Sweden U-19's and could also play for Peru through heritage, thought has announced that she wants to play for Iceland at the full level. Thorisson has scored twice in seven matches this season.
Danish youth international goalkeeper Sandra Bjorn (22) is in her second season at Uppsala and won two league titles with her previous side at home—Fortuna Hjorring.
For fourth place Vajxo (4-4-0—16 points), who are undefeated but have tied four of their last six matches, signed defender Anna Haffenden (20 of Australia), which we discussed in last week's column (see: The Week in Women's Football: Interview with beach soccer star Leslie; A-League moves; Afghani national team in Melbourne - Tribal Football) while midfielder Olivia Mattsson (21) of Finland was with Orebro in the top tier in 2021, appearing in four matches, after five years at Aland United at home, where she won a league title in 2020.
Bulgarian international Dessi Dupuy moves to Vajxo for the 2022 season
Vajxo has also brought in an experienced midfielder in Bulgarian international Dessislava (Dessi) Dupuy (28), who played three seasons in Italy (two with Verona and one with Florentina) and also played last season with KIF Orebro in the Swedish top flight. Dupuy was raised in the U.S. and went to college at the University of Lynchburg in Virginia and then started her career with ETG Ambilly in France. She has been capped four times by Bulgaria, making her debut last year in a 7-0 away WWC Qualifier loss to Germany as a second half substitute. This year she played in the Turkish Cup in February and in a 2-0 UEFA WWC Qualification home loss to Turkey in April. She has two goals in seven games this season for Vaxjo, including a goal in their 7-1 win at home versus Gamla Upsala on May 21.
TribalFootball.com talked exclusively to Dessi Dupuy recently. She discussed how competitive she has found the Elitettan in her first season in the league, "So far definitely it is close [promotion race]. Vaxjo was relegated last season and our focus is definitely to get promoted as soon as possible—that was always the goal coming into the team." The only difference that she has seen between the two Swedish professional leagues has been in the limited number of imports and internationals compared to other teams in Sweden, particularly in the Damallsvenskan, "I was surprised that there were not more Americans or [players] from the U.K.—other teams have more [and more internationals]. Note: Kalmar, promoted after the 2022 season and now in the top flight, has 8 Americans among a total of 13 internationals (along with one each from Canada, Estonia, Finland, Germany and Iceland, along with 8 natives of Sweden). The signings are puzzling because a team can utilize only 9 internationals at a time in a league game (including bench and starters) due to FA rules. (Note: To date, Kalmar sits two points above the Damallsvenskan relegation zone on 9 points from 10 games with three wins and seven losses, just ahead of Umea (7 points), Brommapojkarna of Stockholm (6 points) and bottom side AEK of Stockholm (3 points); AEK have recently changed their coach and general manager to turn around their stuttering start to their second season in the top flight, since being promoted after the 2020 season. However, a 3-2 win over Pitea on May 21 allowed Kalmar to jump out of the relegation zone with 9 points from 10 games.) Dupuy did feel that the approach of mass importing of a number of players from abroad by some clubs is not always effective as, "The Swedish league is different and when you bring in some many international players, it changes how things work." She feels that Swedish soccer is more tactical and American soccer relies on speed and physicality from what she remembers, though she has been playing in Europe exclusively for the last seven seasons.
So far, she is quite pleased with her new club despite playing down a league, "It is just as professional and the training is just as hard and exhausting. I don't feel like I've taken a step down [in terms of competition]. It's just different—there are a lot of younger players, not as many national team players; on Orebro we had Swedish and Canadian national teamers." For the training regime, she said that the club, "Trains once a day and twice on Tuesdays, with strength and speed work sessions [that day]." As far as the professional status, the players are full-time at the club, "Some players have jobs but they are still professional and getting paid, but they wanted other things to do as well and [earn] extra money."
Dessi Dupuy (far left) soars to head the ball into the goal for Vaxjo in Elitettan action in the 2022 season, though it did not count as Vaxjo was flagged for offside. Photo courtesy Dessi Dupuy and Linn Ahlex @ahlexoffside.
Her path to Europe after college at Lynchburg in Virginia was rather unconventional. She registered for the NWSL draft that year but knew she wouldn't get drafted (typically over 300 players register each year but only 48 were drafted in 2022 by the 12 teams—typically players with youth or senior national team experience in the U.S. and Canada are prioritized and then players from major programs like UCLA, Florida State, Virginia and Stanford. Dupuy was contacted by a player from Norway with the French side Ambilly and was told that she could stay with a nice host family so she went to Europe. Her next move was to Italy, explaining that, "I was in Italy for 2.5 years…. Italy was amazing, the food, and I traveled around a lot; it was worth it….Then COVID hit and I went home and was looking for a change and a new experience; Sweden was always a place I wanted to play in."
Dupuy is a relatively rarity for her country Bulgaria as the vast majority of the team is based at home. She was born in Bulgaria but adopted when she was two and raised in America. She said that the Bulgarian Football Union [Federation] reached out to her, "They contacted me at the end of last season and asked if I wanted to try it out. I knew that they hadn't been competitive for a long time. I thought I should try and see what it has to offer."
She was with the side in a WWC qualifier this year [a 2-0 loss to Turkey at home in April]—and at the Turkish Women's Cup. Regarding the Turkish Cup trip, she said, "That was a fun experience. We got to play Ukraine [a 2-0 loss on February 22], Latvia [a 1-1 tie on February 16] and Lithuania [a 3-2 loss on February 19]. Those games were pretty even so it was nice to see that we were building and see the team grow in a different way. The coaches were working on tactics a lot." Bulgaria is rated 85th by FIFA out of 178 rated nations (38th in Europe out of 52 member nations).
Dupuy would like to see more investment in the Bulgarian women's league, "They can get more funding so people don't have to have jobs. A lot [of players] work so they miss training or they don't train as often, so it is tough to build a good league."
Bulgaria does have a 16-team league—larger than many countries in Central and Eastern Europe—that plays one round and then splits into a championship round for the top eight and a lower table round for the other teams, but there is no relegation as there is no second-tier loop. She said about her teammates joining clubs in other countries, "Some are interested in moving abroad—it would be helpful for a lot of them to go overseas and get different experiences and bring it back to the league in Bulgaria."
NSA Sofia has dominated the league and won the last 17 titles in a row (since 2004/05) and 18 all-time, with Grand Hotel Varna second with 10 titles and Akademik of Sofia third with 4 titles from the 1980's.
This season NSA Sofia finished second in the opening round to Lokomotiv Stara Zagora. NSA had a 14-0-1 record for 42 points and a +101 goal differential (106 goals scored and 5 allowed) while the Railway team had a 15-0-0 record for 45 points with 110 goals for and 3 against (+107 GD). NSA lost to Lokomotive 3-1 away on April 2. The two teams drew in the final round and Lokomotive currently has a 6-point total advantage (55 vs. 49), while NSA has played one fewer game (19 vs. 18). Bulgaria currently is allocated only one UEFA Women's Champions League spot. NSA's head coach since 2020 is former international Silvia Radoyska, who doubles as the national team coach, and had 58 goals in 150 games and spent a sport spell as a player with Sporting Huelva in Spain.
As far as her future club career Dupuy said, "I don't know if I do see myself coming back to play in the States. I enjoy being in different countries. I enjoy meeting different people, having different coaches come from different countries. I don't know if I would go back to the U.S. and play. It would be difficult, but never say never." She also said that, with her international career with Bulgaria progressing, that the travel back from the States for games and camps could be hard, "That would be taxing on a player; you are not always in camp for a long period of time and then travel that far and get acclimated to the time, it would be tough but I haven't had that [experience, playing in Europe]."
Dessi Dupuy has played in three major European countries in seven seasons and also been capped by her birth nation—she has shown a solid career path for North American college graduates [North American as well as from other nations] in Europe, showing that the NWSL is by no means the only option for a player wanting to continue her career at a high professional level.
Vaxjo also has two young Swedish forwards who have already scored this season; one is 20-year-old Evelyn Ijeh, who has three goals in seven games, and been capped at the youth level by Sweden. She split time last season at Lidkoping and Hacken [formerly Kopparbergs/Goteborg F.C.], which she joined in 2018 and was part of two league runners-up sides and then the 2020 Damallsvenskan champions. The other young interesting prospect in the side is Hanna Stokki (20), who has six goals in seven appearances and played last season at Sundsvall in the second tier and also with Djurgarden in Stockholm, first joining the latter side in 2018. She has been capped by Sweden at the U-17 level.
Norrkoping (4-2-2—14 points) is in fifth place and their midfielder Azumah Bugre (19) of Ghana is definitely one to track for the future, both at the club and international level; she signed a two-year contract for the 2022 and 2023 seasons. She played for her country at the U-17 FIFA Women's World Cup Finals in Uruguay in 2018, where Ghana advanced to the quarterfinal round, losing to Mexico on penalties after a 2-2 tie. Before moving to Sweden, she played at home with Hasaacas Ladies and at the same time was an officer in the Ghana Air Force. At Hasaacas, she was an impact player with the team that won the first CAF WAFU 'B' Women's Champions League qualifier in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, defeating regional rivals River Angels of Nigeria 3-1 in the final—with Bugre scoring the third goal of the game—after the Ghanaian side lost to River Angels 2-0 in the group stage. Hasaacas went on to finish second at the inaugural CAF TotalEnergies Women's Champions League in Egypt in 2021, losing the final to South Africa's Mamelodi Sundowns 2-0. Her side won the Ghanian league and cup double last year as well.
Azumah Bugre (right), in her Air Force uniform, won national and continental trophies while playing for Hasaacas in Ghana. Photo courtesy CAF.
Azumah Bugre in the uniform for her new club IFK Norrkoping in Sweden's second tier, after transferring from Ghana; she was a second half substitute in her team's 8-0 regular season victory over Ravasens IK on April 10. Photo courtesy IFK Norrkoping.
American forward Taylor Townsend (27) has played in the Swedish second tier since 2018, with three seasons at Lidkoping and last season at Alingsas. So far, she has three goals in five games, scoring a hat-trick in the 8-0 win over Ravasens IK in the regular season opener for her new club. Townsend played at the University of Central Florida and Florida Atlantic University. She played professionally in Peru in 2016 for four months and then signed for a side in Bulgaria but was injured before she left America to join the side and, after recovering, moved to Sweden. Taylor has told a local Florida media outlet in the States that she felt that, "Only about 10% of women's soccer players in the U.S. were able to play professionally after university due to injuries, exhaustion and lack of finances, which means that if they play professionally, it will be a short career."
Sundsvall (3-2-3—11 points) is in seventh place and has forward Ebere Orji of Nigeria (29), who has played in Sweden since 2017, with all but one season in the Elitettan—2020 with Linkoping. She won a 2019 Swedish second division crown with Umea and won a Hungarian league title in 2015-16 with Ferencvaros. At home she won league titles with Rivers Angels (2010 and 2014) and Delta Queens (2009) in Nigeria's Women's Premier League. Orji was on Nigeria's Women's World Cup squads at the U-17 (2008), U-20 (2008, 2010—who lost 2-0 in the Final to Germany—and 2012) and full level (2011). Orji has two goals in eight matches so far this season.
Defender Juulia Gronlund of Finland (25) is in her third season in the Elitettan, starting in 2020 with Lidkoping after winning a league title in 2018 at home with HJK. She has been capped at the U-17 and U-20 level by Finland.
Midfielder Anna Gornela (24) hails from Latvia, across the Baltic Sea. She played in the States at Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma. She also played in Austria at FC Dornbirn.
Mallbacken (3-1-4—10 points) is tied for eighth place with Gamla Upsala. Goalkeeper Alla Herasymchuk (24) is a Ukrainian international who won a title in 2015 at home with Zhytlobud-1; she has been capped at the U-17, U-19 and full level. Forward Lyudmyla Kunina (19) has been capped at the U-19 and the U-17 level by Ukraine and won a league title at home with Zhytlobud-1 in 2020/21.
American defender Jenna Zuniga (22) played collegiately at Stanislaus State University in California from 2017 thru 2021. She talked to the Stanislaus State University's media department about her move to Sweden this year, "It has been a dream of mine to combine my love for soccer and travel into one. I can't believe that it has finally come true. I'm grateful for the opportunity and excited to showcase myself on a bigger platform. If you know me, you know this is going to be one heck of a ride."
American defender Jenna Zuniga signs with Mallbacken in Sweden. Photo courtesy of Stanislaus State University Athletics Media site: Warriorsathletics.com
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Fellow American Kari Johnston (26) has four goals in eight games, tied for seventh in the league this season. The midfielder played at Virginia Tech University and then signed with Amazon Grimstad of Norway because, "I'm excited to continue growing as a player and explore European lifestyle, which is centered around football." Johnston moved from Amazon Grimstad to Mallbacken for this season; visa issues and COVID restrictions prevented her from joining Grimstad in 2020.
American midfielder Kari Johnston moved from Amazon Grimstad in Norway [above] to Mallbacken in Sweden. Photo courtesy Kari Johnston and Midloscoop.com [Midlothian, Virginia high school website].
Forward Rita Kivumbi of Uganda (26) has played in the Swedish second tier since 2016 and won a Elitettan title in 2017 with Vaxjo; she then spent the next two years in the Damallsvenskan with Vaxjo. She also featured for Uganda Christian University (UCU) Lady Cardinals in the Kampala Regional League and for the start of the FUFA Women Elite League in 2015 before her move to Northern Europe.
Uganda's Ritah Kivumbi in action for Vaxjo last season before her move to Mallbacken for the 2022 season. (Photo Courtesy of Vaxjo FC).
Lyudmyla Kunina (19) is a Ukrainian forward who won a Premier League title at home in 2020/21 with Zhytlobud-1 and has been capped at the U-17 and U-19 levels
Gama Upsala (3-1-4—10 points) and tied for eighth place has one import in their side in 32-year-old defender Elva Fridjonsdottir of Iceland; she is in her first season at the club and won two league titles at home with Stjarnan (2013 and 2014).
Team Thorengruppen Fotboll (2-1-5—7 points) of Umea is currently tied for tenth place and also has a lone import in midfielder Zabibu Nduwimana of Burundi (23), who played with Umea from 2016-2020, winning a Swedish tier 2 title in 2019. She joined Team TG this season from Sunnana of the Elitettan.
Bromolla (1-2-5 record for 5 points) is in twelfth place and in the relegation zone with a lone import in Patrycja Jerzak (24), a Polish youth international midfielder who won an Elitettan title last season with Umea and joined Bromolla in the offseason; she has one goal in seven matches for Bromolla.
Ravasens IK of Karlskoga (1-1-6—4 points) is in 13th place and has three imports. Goalkeeper Ann-Sofie Gripenberg of Finland (22) joined KIF Orebro in 2019 when they were in the top tier but did not play any regular season games in her two years at the club.
American forward Hannah McNulty joined Ravasen in March and has one goal in seven matches thus far for Ravasens IK this season. She played at Providence College in Rhode Island and finished her career ranked third all-time in career points (64) with 26 goals and 12 assists.
Canadian midfielder Christie Grey has played in all eight regular season matches this season. She finished her career last season at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. She had 10 goals in 10 games in the 2021 collegiate season and during the COVID year, when sports were shut down in the Province of Ontario, she trained in France with FC Girondins de Bordeaux.
Alvsjo AIK of Stockholm (1-0-7 record—3 points) is at the bottom of the table in fourteenth place. Goalkeeper Jennifer Wendelius was raised in Sweden but played at the University of Bridgeport in the States. Midfielder Camilla Olsson of Norway (27) played at Carson-Newman University in Jefferson City, Tennessee.
Swedish forward Moa Sjostrom leads the team in scoring with two goals in seven matches, including the only goal in the team's lone win this season against visiting Sundsvall on April 18 (1-0), when a win would have vaulted Sundsvall into sole position of fourth place at that time instead of then being tied for sixth; the club is currently in seventh (see above).
Tim Grainey is a contributor to Tribal Football. His latest book Beyond Bend it Like Beckham on the global game of women's football. Get yours copy today.
Follow Tim on Twitter: @TimGrainey
