One of the favorite teams for the Women’s Euro Football Championship, which runs until the end of July in England, is Sweden. Last Saturday, the Swedes tied the game with the Dutch defending champions: 1-1. This Wednesday, July 13, they play against the Swiss. Caroline Seger, 37, iconic player not only for Sweden, but for European football. She is quite simply the European player with the most national team caps.
Players who celebrate the broken record, when the milestone of 215 selections for the national team was crossed for Caroline Seger. The Swedish player now has 229. Just to compare, Cristiano Ronaldo is still far from 200.
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Caroline Seger shone with Olympic Lyon and PSG, but with her longevity, she has also become a voice that weighs in women’s football. She is no stranger, for example, to the fact that this year, for the first time, male and female footballers from the Swedish team have signed the same contract, with the same bonuses.
With Sweden, Caroline Seger has often experienced the final stages of international competitions, rising to the last four. But paradoxically, without winning a title. Sweden is one of the best selections. She won the very first edition of the Women’s Euro in 1984. But after that, nothing more, apart from lost finals. The symbolic moment of this difficulty in taking the last step is this one.
Missed Penalty
During the final of the Tokyo Olympics, Caroline Seger misses the penalty that could offer the title to Sweden against Canada. This is what she says today: Then the only thing I think about is:What did I do !” We lose the Olympic final, so it’s just more or less hell. You have to manage all these emotions and find your way back to the joy of football. “So, the objective of the Swedes is clear: to win this European championship and erase this trauma.
In Sweden, like everywhere, women’s football struggles to bring together the same audience as men’s football, but where it’s mostly played is on pitches all over the country. During the last survey carried out in 2020, there were more than 130,000 licensed players.
If we do a ranking of sports in Sweden by gender, there is first men’s football, men’s hockey, and in third place, women’s football. Caroline Seger will be able to retire quietly, the succession is assured.