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Biography
Lisa Karolina Viktoria Dahlkvist (born 6 February 1987) is a Swedish professional football midfielder who plays for KIF Örebro and the Sweden national team. She previously played in the Swedish Damallsvenskan for Umeå IK, Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC and Tyresö FF, in the Norwegian Toppserien for Avaldsnes IL and in the French Division 1 Féminine for Paris Saint-Germain.
Dahlkvist made her Sweden women's national football team debut in 2008 and has accrued more than 90 caps. She represented her country at the 2011 and 2015 FIFA Women's World Cups, the 2012 Olympics, as well as the 2009 and 2013 editions of the UEFA Women's Championship. Her father, Sven "Dala" Dahlkvist, played for AIK and won 39 caps for the Sweden men's team between 1979 and 1985.
Club career
After one season in KIF Örebro's Damallsvenskan team, 18-year-old Dahlkvist signed for national champions Umeå IK in December 2005. She found the adjustment to a higher standard of football difficult and was close to quitting Umeå on several occasions during the first two seasons. After settling into the team Dahlkvist developed into one of Sweden's best central midfielders, winning three Damallsvenskan titles with the club.
Dahlkvist also played in Umeå's two UEFA Women's Cup final defeats in 2007 and 2008. She scored a penalty in the away leg of the 2008 final.
In autumn 2009 Dahlkvist decided to leave Umeå and received offers from leading Damallsvenkan clubs Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC and Linköpings FC. She accepted the offer from Göteborg. When Dahlkvist's contract expired in 2011, Göteborg wanted to keep her, but she was linked with a transfer to league champions Malmö. Instead she decided to join big spending Tyresö FF on a two-year contract.
Tyresö won the Damallsvenskan title for the first time in the 2012 season and Dahlkvist collected her fourth league winner's medal, in addition to three won with Umeå. Dahlkvist and Tyresö were upset in the final of the Svenska Cupen, by her former club Göteborg who won 2–1 after extra time. Dahlkvist started Tyresö's 4–3 defeat by Wolfsburg in the 2014 UEFA Women's Champions League Final. Her first-half collision with Wolfsburg's Lena Goeßling left the German playing with a bandaged facial injury.
Tyresö suffered a financial collapse in 2014 and withdrew from the 2014 Damallsvenskan season, expunging all their results and making all their players free agents. The Stockholm County Administrative Board published the players' salaries, showing Dahlkvist was one of the higher earners at SEK 39 000 per month.
Former club Umeå were not interested in re-signing Dahlkvist, claiming they already had better players than her. Dahlkvist told the Expressen newspaper that salary was of secondary importance and she was prepared to take a pay cut in order to join the right team. In July 2014 she agreed to join Norwegian Toppserien club Avaldsnes IL, who also made an unsuccessful attempt to sign her former Tyresö teammate Marta.
After the ending of the 2014 season Dahlkvist chose to leave Avaldsnes IL, returning to Sweden's Damallsvenskan and KIF Örebro, the club that she played for at the beginning of her senior career. After just half a season back at Örebro, Dahlkvist moved on again, joining compatriots Caroline Seger and Kosovare Asllani at Paris Saint-Germain Féminines of the French Division 1 Féminine.
International career
Coach Thomas Dennerby gave Dahlkvist her senior Sweden debut on 12 February 2008, a 2–0 win over England in Cyprus. She attended the 2008 Beijing Olympics as one of the squad's reserve players and had been considered for the main squad when the more experienced midfielder Caroline Seger had a pre-tournament injury scare.
The following year, Dahlkvist was included in the main squad for UEFA Women's Euro 2009 in Finland. She started all three matches and performed well as Sweden topped their group, but was dropped to the substitutes' bench for the 3–1 quarter-final defeat by Norway, making way for Nilla Fischer.
In June 2011 Sweden included Dahlkvist in their squad for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup. She was a notable success at the tournament, scoring in three successive games: the only goal in Sweden's second group match against North Korea; putting the Swedes ahead from a penalty kick against the United States; and adding a goal in the 3–1 quarter-final win over Australia.
Sweden finished third after losing their semi-final to Japan in Frankfurt then beating France 2–1 in Sinsheim. Third place in the World Cup also ensured Sweden's qualification for the 2012 Olympic football tournament in England. Dennerby kept Dahlkvist in Sweden's squad for the games, where they lost to France in the quarter-finals. Dahlkvist's form had dipped since the previous year's World Cup.
During the build up to UEFA Women's Euro 2013 in Sweden, Dahlkvist recognised that new coach Pia Sundhage preferred Caroline Seger and Marie Hammarström as the national team's first choice central midfield pairing. Despite questionable fitness Dahlkvist was included in Sweden's squad for the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada. Sundhage described the decision as "a gamble" and hoped Dahlkvist could rediscover the excellent form she had shown at the previous World Cup four years earlier. Sweden were eliminated in the first round after they drew all three of their group games, with Dahlkvist in the starting 11.
Playing style
Dahlkvist is a central midfield player whose main strength is her range of passing. UEFA.com wrote that Dahlkvist also reads the game well and takes responsibility during matches, a trait apparent even when she was a youngster. During the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, the Dagens Nyheter newspaper described the industrious Dahlkvist as a "tough workhorse in both defence and attack". She is seen as a player who thrives on the big occasion and won praise for calmly converting her 2011 World Cup penalty past the United States' celebrated goalkeeper Hope Solo, a feat she repeated in the Rio Olympics.
Personal life
Dahlkvist identifies as a lesbian and came out publicly in 2008. She's married and has a daughter.
Honours
Club
- Umeå IK
- Damallsvenskan: 2006, 2007, 2008
- Svenska Cupen: 2007
- Svenska Supercupen: 2007, 2008
- Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC
- Svenska Cupen: 2011
- Tyresö FF
- Damallsvenskan: 2012
International
- Sweden
- FIFA Women's World Cup Third place: 2011
- Summer Olympic Games: Silver Medal, 2016