Regarded as one of the best center-forwards to have played women’s football, Lotta Schelin certainly has a career with just spectacular numbers glistening the record.
Sweden made it to the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2003 final in the United States, in what was the fourth edition of the FIFA Women’s Football World Cup, perhaps putting Sweden on the global map in women’s football. Merely three months earlier, across the Atlantic, in the country of Sweden, a tall, gangly young girl was making her comeback after nursing an injury for more than half a year.
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Lotta was 19 and her life had been tough as she battled a spinal problem in her youth. It was only through intensive training method that she retained her strength. A year later she was the Breakthrough player in the Swedish league, netting in 14 goals for Goteborg FC. It is at this very club that two of Women Football’s biggest stars Lotta Schelin and current US goalkeeper Hope Solo united and learned their trade.
It took her another four years to establish herself as one of the best in the business. She scored the highest number of goals in the league for two straight seasons in 2006 and 2007. As far as the national team was concerned, she was already enlisted in 2004. She was a part of the Swedish team that came fourth in the Athens Summer Olympics. Nevertheless, this tactically-agile striker had her fair share of injuries even while serving for the national side.
When she finally bid adieu to Sweden in 2008, she had slotted 105 goals in just 134 matches and had bagged some prestigious individual awards made it to the FIFA World Team of the Year in 2007.
France calling for the talented Swede
She decided to move to France to play for Olympic Lyon in the French top-flight, with an ambition as she said later on to capture the prestigious UEFA Women's European Championship. Though this move was criticised by the Swedish media at that time, she made her intentions clear, refusing to accept lucrative deals from the WPS (Women’s Professional Soccer) in the United States.
Nevertheless, it all started off a bit slow, as her own progress was hampered by a thigh injury. After enduring a torrid Summer Olympics in Beijing, where Sweden failed to bring home a medal, it was a torturous ride for Schelin.
However, it all changed once Lyon formed a formidable attacking duo of Schelin and Katie Teixeira of Brazil, to take them to their second consecutive French title and even into the semi-finals of the UEFA Women’s Cup. However, after that, she again fell into an abyss of injuries and had to sit out for most part of the 2009-2010 season. Lyon made it to the finals that year in the UEFA Women’s Champions League, only to be defeated in the final by the German club Turbine Potsdam.
However she did not have to wait long to ultimately win the most coveted prize, she craved so long.
Champions League glory
In the 2010-2011 Women’s Champions League final, she signalled her comeback with a tremendous tournament, finishing as the third-highest goal scorer and lifting Lyon to their first ever continental silverware. That year was made more special for Schelin after Sweden finished in the bronze medal position in the FIFA Women’s Football World Cup. They beat France 2-1 in the 3rd-place play-off.
The next couple of seasons made Schelin a merited and proven winner as Lyon completed a season treble winning the French League title, UEFA Champions League and International Women’s Club Championship. For Schelin, 2013 was the most impeccable year as she grabbed the Best player in France award, along with the Top-scorer in the French League award and the Golden Boot in UEFA Women's European Championship.
After a somewhat sub-par continental season next year with Lyon, in 2015 she again rose to her peak scoring an astounding tally of 34 goals in just 21 outings. In her final match for Lyon, in the finals of UEFA Champions League 2015-2016, she scored in the penalty shootout win over Wolfsburg, as she secured her third UEFA Women’s Championship Winners’ medal.
With Lyon, Schelin won eight consecutive Division 1 Féminine titles, five cups and three Champions League titles. She left as Lyon’s all-time record goal-scorer with 225 goals, a spectacular feat in a simply astonishing career.
This year at Rio, against all odds, Sweden stunned pre-tournament favourites USA and Brazil as a Schelin-led Sweden made it to the finals against Germany. Though the result was not in her favour, there is no denying the glittering career of Lotta Schelin, the all-time record Swedish goal-scorer and a phenomenal personality both on and off the field.
Presently, she has come back to her home country and is plying her trade for the current Swedish champions FC Rosengard.
