Linda Sällström’s road to where she is today has been a long one. At the age of 15, he dreamed of becoming a millionaire. Even as a soccer player, there have been bumps in the road to yet another prestigious tournament.
Manu Myllyaho,
Roope Visuri
Linda Sällström excited the Finns in a great way, when Finland started the European football championships with a match against champion candidate Spain. Sällström hit the ball into the Spanish net after 48 seconds. The goal was historic, because the last time a goal was scored in the opening minute of the EC final tournament was in 1995, when England hit the German net.
Sällström, who has scored the most national team goals of all time in a Finnish shirt, has had a long way to where he is today.
Urheilu met Sällström at the end of 2018, when the goalkeeper played in France for Paris FC. At that time, a laptop was pushed into his lap, and a 15-year-old video started playing on it.
– In futis, my dream is to become a professional. Go play in the USA, 15-year-old Linda Sällström said in the video, face with basic readings.
– In pole vaulting, I want to make it to the Olympics. And then I want to get a really good job, one that pays a lot of money. Become a millionaire and stuff.
Sällström was laughed at. He said that he wished that the episode of the Idrottsbiten program from 2003 would have been forgotten and dusted in ‘s archives.
– Hahaha, I guess you have to take that with humor. Oh little Linda. I guess it’s good to have dreams and goals. But maybe it would be good if there was a little humility involved. What were the parents doing when they let me talk like that! Sällström stated in Paris.
Anyone might be ashamed to watch their own high-flying teenage dreams on video as an adult. In Sällström’s case, however, the dreams weren’t just wishful thinking.
– I’m not a millionaire now, if we start from that. And I haven’t pole vaulted at the Olympics. But I play futsal as a profession, Sällström smiled.
Watch the video of the situation above from the main picture of the story.
As a professional soccer player in her thirties, Linda Sällström is an effective international level striker. If he were a man, he’d probably be a millionaire too.
Sällström will certainly be able to do it, and Sällström, who studied medicine in addition to being a professional football player, will also have a guaranteed income after his sports career. However, thirty-year-old Linda has a different attitude to worldly mammon than “little Linda”.
– I guess when I was younger I had the image that success is measured by it and that money is terribly important. Now I have gained a different perspective on life. The richness of life is not measured in money, Sällström recalled three and a half years ago.
However, it was not far that Linda Sällström’s career would have ended at the same time when Helmarit last played in the European Championships in 2013. Sällström missed those competitions.
The striker injured his knee three times between 2013 and 2015, and didn’t think he would ever get back to top form. Ending his career was on Sällström’s mind.
– It was a really difficult time. Before the first knee injury, my career was on the rise and I felt almost immortal, that I could do anything. Then came the terrible return to the surface of the earth, Sällström recalls.
With the third knee injury, Sällström thought that there was no point in playing football anymore. Although he felt he was doing everything he could, a new, serious injury double-zeroed all the work done. Sällström was absent for practically three years. He thought the other players had gained a lead that could no longer be caught up.
Sällström started thinking about a backup plan. He got excited about medicine and directed his passion towards it.
– That’s when I started my medical studies. If I had already had those studies, my career could have ended there. But when there was nothing else, I gave football another chance.
It paid off, as the striker felt he was a better player than before the injuries. Although the knee injuries were particularly mentally draining, they were also a stroke of luck for Sällström’s life.
– Even then, I was afraid of what I would do after my career. Do I get depressed when all I want to do is play football? Sällström told.
– I am grateful that, in addition to football, I also have a plan for the time after my sports career. Before the injuries, I was completely focused only on football.
The cycle of injury ended when Sällström learned to listen to his body’s sensations.
– Often the body does signal that something is wrong. Maltan now skips training if I get signals that everything is not in order. When I was younger, I might have gone to practice despite my feelings. Now that you listen to your body, you might miss one of the workouts, but you don’t risk being on the sidelines for weeks.
The experience brought by age and the knee injuries that slowed down career development have made it clear to Sällström that nothing should be taken for granted.
– For me, the most important thing in life is that I feel well and have a good time. That I get to do things that I enjoy and I get to fulfill myself.
Sällström knew how to tell that a football career can end with one unbalanced landing or an unlucky collision. He said that he lives in the moment, and did not want to think about his career beyond one season.
Sällström played in the under-20 world championships in Moscow in 2006 and in the home European championships in 2009. The 2013 European championships were missed due to a knee injury. He says that he only realized later how big a deal the EC home games were.
In an interview with Urheilu at the end of 2018, Maaltikki had one dream.
– I really hope that I could experience one more value competition. I was so terribly young in the only value races of my career. At that time, the focus was so strongly on the future and taking the next step that I didn’t know how to make the most of the experiences.
Now the title race dream has come true – and really fast, even though the defeat was 1-4 in the end.
Every match of the European Football Championship can be seen on ‘s channels. Competition games, background stories, news, highlight clips can be found on ‘s competition pages.
Finland will play its next match on Tuesday against Denmark from 19:00. Live broadcast on TV2 and Areena from 18:15 and on Puhe at 18:30.