Hedvig Lindahl

Rut Hedvig Lindahl (born 29 April 1983) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Swedish Damallsvenskan club Djurgården and the Sweden national team.

She previously played club football in Sweden for other Damallsvenskan clubs including Malmö FF, Linköpings FC, Kristianstads DFF and Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC as well as Chelsea in the English FA WSL.

Lindahl's national team career began in 1998 when as a part of the Sörmland team she participated at an Elite Girls Camp in Halmstad.

There she was selected for the Allstar Team, where the best football players born −83 participated.

Each 15-year-old footballer was measured on a five-point scale.

Lindahl received rarely awarded full marks; five out of five.

Lindahl started her club career at Gropptorps IF, outside Katrineholm in Södermanland, a boys' team.

Lindahl then played for Torp IF, DFK Värmbol and Tunafors SK.

Lindahl was on the U21 national team as of 1998 and subsequently progressed to the full Swedish women's national team.

She moved into the Damallsvenskan with Malmö FF Dam in 2001 after being scouted by Malmö and Sweden national youth team coach Elisabeth Leidinge.

During her three seasons at Malmö, Lindahl faced strong competition from the national team goalkeeper at the time Caroline Jönsson.

Since making her international debut in 2002, Lindahl has accrued 189 caps for Sweden.

Despite her position as second goalkeeper at club level, Lindahl gained the confidence of the then national team coach Marika Domanski-Lyfors, which led to Lindahl's 2002 debut in the senior women's national team and a silver medal in the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup.

Lindahl has indicated that her senior international debut came in January 2002, a 5–0 win over England in a behind closed doors match in La Manga.

Proud of her debut "clean sheet", she has expressed irritation at reports which sometimes confuse that match with Sweden's 6–3 win over England at the Algarve Cup six weeks later.

After moving to Linköpings and securing first team football at club level, Lindahl began to compete more equally with Caroline Jönsson and Sofia Lundgren for appearances at international level.

She finished the 2003 season on loan to IF Trion, then spent five seasons with Linköpings FC, joining Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC in 2009.

Despite 21 shutouts in 43 matches during two seasons with Göteborg, coach Torbjörn Nilsson did not renew Lindahl's contract.

Lindahl was the Swedish women's goalkeeper of the year in 2004, 2005, 2009, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021.

She understudied Jönsson at the 2004 Olympics.

By the time of UEFA Women's Euro 2005 in England, Lindahl was Sweden's first choice goalkeeper and played in all three group games, as well as the extra-time semi final defeat to rivals Norway.

Incoming national team coach Thomas Dennerby retained Lindahl and she featured at both the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup and 2008 Olympics in China and UEFA Women's Euro 2009 in Finland.

Instead she moved to ambitious Kristianstads DFF in time for the 2011 season.

She remained Sweden's number one goalkeeper for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany, where Sweden came third, and the 2012 London Olympics.

On 3 August 2014, Lindahl played her 100th cap for Sweden against England.

Lindahl signed for London-based FA WSL club Chelsea Ladies in December 2014.

After four "clean sheets" in her first five games, Chelsea coach Emma Hayes hailed Lindahl as the best goalkeeper in the WSL.

On 17 September 2015, Lindahl played her 113th cap and thereby broke Elisabeth Leidinge's record to become the most capped Swedish female goalkeeper.

She has kept goal for Sweden at the UEFA Women's Championship, the FIFA Women's World Cup and the Olympic Games.

She won the 2015 and 2016 Diamantbollen, after being one of three nominations for Damallsvenskan's Most Valuable Player in 2014.

At the 2015 FA Women's Cup Final, staged at Wembley Stadium for the first time, Lindahl kept goal in Chelsea's 1–0 win over Notts County.

It was Chelsea's first major trophy.

In October 2015 she also started Chelsea's 4–0 win over Sunderland which secured the club's first FA WSL title and a League and Cup "double".

In 2016, Lindahl was one of 5 nominees for Women's PFA Players' Player of the Year and was also picked for the WSL Team of the Year.

At the age of 13 Lindahl decided to focus on becoming a professional football player.

Previously Lindahl had played both as a forward and a goalkeeper, but eventually concentrated on goalkeeping.

Lindahl, who was raised in Marmorbyn, was selected to play on the Sörmland team.

This was a temporary team for which the best age group football players in Södermanland were selected to play.

In April 2019, Lindahl announced she would depart Chelsea at the end of the 2018–19 campaign after four seasons with the club.

On 17 July 2019, Lindahl signed a one-year deal with VfL Wolfsburg.