Aussies in Nordic football has been a recurring theme over the years and 2023 is no different. Read on to see how Aussies in the Nordic leagues (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland) fared during the past week!
FC Nordsjælland are back on top of the Kvindeliga after a 3-0 home triumph over Aalborg BK. Malia Steinmetz started and played 86 minutes, but Winonah Heatley was not on the team sheet due to injury.
Although Heatley didn’t get on the pitch, she was very active in the below clip where she interviews her teammates.
View this post on Instagram
Only goal difference separates second placed HB Køge from Nordsjælland at the top of the table. Køge travelled to Kolding and won 2-0: Daisy Cleverley came on in the 59th minute, Deborah-Anne de la Harpe remained on the bench and Claudia Bunge wasn’t listed for the game.
View this post on Instagram
AGF were unable to earn points at home, losing 3-1 to Thy ThistedQ. Ally Green played the first half, while Matilda McNamara was not selected – she is possibly still suspended after her red card from a couple of weeks ago. The Aarhus side have a four point buffer to the relegation playoff zone (the bottom two spots) with three games remaining in the league’s first phase.
View this post on Instagram
It was a busy week for Larissa Crummer with the final Brann Kvinner game of the Toppserien season played three days after their Champions League group stage away win.
Fellow Aussie Ella Mastrantonio came on in the 84th minute for SKN St. Pölten as her Austrian team was defeated 2-1 by the Norwegians, with Crummer yellow carded in the course of playing the entire game.
View this post on Instagram
Crummer backed this up with 79 Toppserien minutes in a 2-2 draw against LSK Kvinner, picking up her second yellow card of the week. Even though both teams finished in the top four, the match outcome had no bearing on the final placings for season 2023.
Throughout her 2023 Norwegian adventure, Crummer started 19 Brann Kvinner league games and came off the bench four times during the team’s 27 rounds. She scored three times and assisted in a further three goals.
Crummer and company still have plenty of Champions League action to look forward to in the next few months.
View this post on Instagram
Ladder
Hammarby – the team that Kyra Cooney-Cross called home for much of 2023 before departing for the WSL – won this year’s Damallsvenskan competition by the narrowest of margins. They finished on the same points total as Aivi Luik‘s BK Häcken, prevailing with a goal difference of +44 (as opposed to Häcken’s +43).
Häcken will be rueing a run of average post-Women’s World Cup results which saw them squander a comfortable lead at the top of the ladder. They now look ahead to the remainder of their Champions League campaign.
Luik started in 19 league games for her club (in a season of 26) and came off the bench once. Her team was also runner-up to Hammarby in the Svenska Cup final.
View this post on Instagram
Chelsie Dawber scored two goals along the way to 24 appearances for 9th-placed IFK Norrköping this season. More than half of those games were off the bench, with a full second half the coaching team’s favoured tactic in employing Dawber’s talents.
This effort from the touchline is one that Dawber will always remember.
View this post on Instagram
The final game of the 2023 competition marked a period of transition for the three Aussies who have spent 2023 in Vittsjö GIK colours as their team finished fifth. Both Charli Grant and Katrina Gorry have announced their departure from the club. Grant played 23 league matches this season, scoring twice and assisting three others, having joined the club late in 2022 on loan from FC Rosengård.
Gorry leaves the club alongside fiancé Clara Markstedt, a prolific striker who took part in more than 140 games for Vittsjö. With two full seasons with the club under her belt, Gorry made 19 league appearances in 2023, scoring four goals.
Clare Polkinghorne took the field twelve times in the league this year, scoring once in her third full season with the club.
Amy Sayer proved to be a fine late squad addition for Kristianstad DFF with her team’s fortunes rising during her stay along the way to sixth position on the ladder. Sayer made nine league appearances (including seven starts) during her time in Sweden this year, scoring one goal.
View this post on Instagram
Another later starter to the 2023 season, Angie Beard appeared seven times in the Damallsvenskan for her very competitive club, as Linköping FC ended the year third.
View this post on Instagram
Ladder
Although the 2023 Besta Deild Kvenna competition (rebadged last season from the Úrvalsdeild) kicked off on April 26th, as yet no Aussies have signed up to compete. If the situation changes, the Aussies in Nordic Football wrap will be sure to cover it!
Follow all our coverage of Aussies and Ferns Abroad here, and read more of our Nordic coverage here.
