Kosovare Asllani facts for kids

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Kosovare Asllani

Asllani training with Sweden in 2015
Personal information
Full name	Kosovare Asllani
Date of birth	(1989-07-29) 29 July 1989 (age 34)
Place of birth	Kristianstad, Sweden
Height	1.66 m
Playing position	Striker, attacking midfielder
Club information
Current club	AC Milan
Number	9
Youth career
2004–2007	Vimmerby IF
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
2007–2009	Linköpings FC	37	(21)
2010	Chicago Red Stars	13	(2)
2010–2011	Linköpings FC	26	(7)
2012	Kristianstads DFF	15	(7)
2012–2016	Paris Saint-Germain	59	(39)
2016–2017	Manchester City	15	(2)
2017–2019	Linköpings FC	27	(8)
2019–2020	CD Tacón	17	(5)
2020–2022	Real Madrid	46	(19)
2022–	AC Milan	17	(9)
National team‡
2005–2006	Sweden U17	6	(1)
2007–2008	Sweden U19	15	(5)
2008–	Sweden	176	(45)
Honours Women's football Representing  Sweden FIFA Women's World Cup Bronze 2019 France Team Bronze 2023 Australia/New Zealand Team Olympic Games Silver 2016 Rio de Janeiro Team Silver 2020 Tokyo Team
Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 24 July 2023. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 19 August 2203

Kosovare Asllani (born 29 July 1989) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a striker or an attacking midfielder for Serie A club AC Milan and the Sweden national team.

Asllani began her club career with Vimmerby IF and has played in the Damallsvenskan for Linköpings FC and hometown club Kristianstads DFF. In the 2010 season she played in the United States, with Chicago Red Stars of Women's Professional Soccer (WPS). She returned to Sweden to play for Kristianstad, before moving to Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City and then back to Linköping.

Club career

Childhood and early career

Asllani is of Kosovar Albanian descent, born in Kristianstad to Kosovar parents who had migrated to Sweden. Asllani grew up playing both football and ice hockey, but chose to focus her talents on football. At the age of 15, Asllani started her career at second division team Vimmerby IF. During her time at Vimmerby, she scored 49 goals in 48 matches, establishing herself as a football prodigy. Former coach Cecilia Wilhelmsson praised Asllani's football technique and fitness. After receiving offers from many clubs, Asllani accepted a move to Damallsvenskan team Linköpings FC in 2007, where she made quick progress.

Linköpings FC

During Asllani's first season, she generally came off the substitutes' bench early in the games to help her settle into the Damallsvenskan. During the following season, Asllani established herself as a regular starter and was an increasingly valuable member of the squad. In 2009, she helped Linköping win both the Svenska Cupen and the club's first ever Damallsvenskan title. On 4 December 2009 American Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) club Chicago Red Stars confirmed that they had signed Asllani from Linköpings FC.

Chicago Red Stars

Asllani spent a single season in the WPS. She was established as a fan's favourite and in the 7th week of the season, Asllani received the WPS Player of the Week award after Chicago Red Stars' defeat of FC Gold Pride. After her season with the Red Stars, Asllani returned to Sweden and Linköpings FC.

Return to Linköping

Asllani's presence boosted Linköping, especially in the UEFA Women's Champions League. She scored goals against Sparta Praha and Arsenal. However, her season was disrupted by a thigh injury and she departed Linköping at the end of the campaign.

Kristianstad DFF

In December 2011, she moved back to her hometown Kristianstad to play with Kristianstads DFF who had finished seventh in the previous year's Damallsvenskan.

Paris Saint-Germain

Asllani (right) playing for PSG against FCF Juvisy in December 2012

When Asllani had a month left on her contract with Kristianstads she was subject to a transfer bid from Paris Saint-Germain. Although the teams were in dispute over the size of the transfer fee, Asllani flew to Paris and signed a two-year contract in September 2012, after completing a medical. At PSG Asllani was presented to the media by sporting director Leonardo and player Zlatan Ibrahimović, who declared: "If you want to win you need a Swedish striker." Asllani scored 17 goals in her 19 appearances in the 2012–13 Division 1 Féminine, as PSG finished second in the table behind Lyon. On 4 January 2016, Asllani announced on her Instagram account that she had ended her contract with Paris Saint-Germain, where she had played for three-and-a-half years.

Manchester City

On 22 January 2016, English FA WSL club Manchester City revealed that they had signed Asllani to a two-year contract.

Second return to Linköpings FC

On 10 August 2017, it was announced a two and a half-year contract had been agreed for Asllani to return to Linköpings FC. She departed the club by mutual consent on 15 July 2019.

CD Tacón/Real Madrid

After her departure from Linköpings FC, Asllani signs with CD Tacón/Real Madrid on 18 July 2019. Upon Real Madrid's purchase of their license, CD Tacón will operate as Real Madrid's women's team starting from 2020, making Asllani the first Galáctica. Asllani scored 5 goals in 17 league appearances for Tacón in the prematurely ended 2019–20 Primera Iberdrola season. After the rebrand of the team to Real Madrid CFF, she started the season explosively, scoring 8 goals in the first 8 league appearances despite playing in an unfamiliar out-and-out-striker role. In 2021-22, Asllani struggled for form, scoring just 3 league goals. She lost her place in the team, and when she did start games, was often substituted relatively early having made little impact.

AC Milan

On 30 June 2022, Asllani joined Italian club AC Milan. She scored 9 goals in her first season in Serie A. In January 2023, she missed a penalty against bitter rivals Inter, as Milan lost 4-1.

International career

In September 2008 Asllani made her debut for the Sweden national team against Romania, and in 2009 she was called up to represent Sweden in UEFA Women's Euro 2009. Asllani was an important member of the national team during the qualification rounds of the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup but coach Thomas Dennerby controversially did not select her in the squad sent to Germany for the finals. Football pundits, including Pia Sundhage, the Swedish coach of the United States national team, expressed surprise at Asllani's omission.

Asllani playing for Sweden in 2012

Dennerby recalled Asllani to the national squad for the 2012 London Olympics.

Asllani played for Sweden at the 2016 Summer Olympics, where the team won a silver medal. She failed to score a single goal during the tournament, despite playing in all six of Sweden's games. She scored in the penalty shootout against the United States in the quarterfinals, in which Sweden won the shootout 4–3 after being tied 1–1 during extra time. She again stepped up to take a penalty against Brazil in the semi final, but her weak effort was saved.

As of 2017, Asllani had made more than 90 appearances for the Sweden national team.

She scored in the 5–1 win over Thailand at the 2019 Women's World Cup.

In 2021, Asllani was selected for the Sweden squad at the 2021 Summer Olympics. Like in 2016, her only goal was a penalty, this time in the quarter final vs Japan. She took a crucial penalty in the final against Canada, but missed the target from twelve yards, as Sweden lost the shootout, and once again had to settle for silver medals.

On 13 June 2023, she was included in the 23-player squad for the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023. She made the final goal in Sweden's match against Australia on 19 August 2023. Sweden won and secured the bronze medals for the team.

Personal life

Kosovare Asllani is an ethnic Albanian from Kosovo. Her parents moved to Sweden where she was born. Asllani has a tattoo of a black double-headed eagle, symbolising Albania, on her ankle. She also has the words "Stay Strong" tattooed on the inside of her right biceps.

Career statistics

Scores and results list Sweden's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Asllani goal.

List of international goals scored by Kosovare Asllani

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition	Ref.
1	2009-08-28	Turku, Finland	Italy	2–0	2–0	Euro 2009
2	2009-09-23	Gothenburg, Sweden	Belgium	1–0	2–1	2011 World Cup qualification
3	2010-02-26	Vila Real de Santo António, Portugal	Iceland	4–1	5–1	2010 Algarve Cup
4	2010-06-23	Gothenburg, Sweden	Azerbaijan	10–0	17–0	2011 World Cup qualification
5	2011-01-21	Chongqing, China	United States	2–1	2–1	2011 Four Nations Tournament
6	2012-03-31	Malmö, Sweden	Canada	3–0	3–1	Friendly
7	2012-09-15	Gothenburg, Sweden	Netherlands	2–1	2–1	Friendly
8	2012-10-23	Växjö, Sweden	Switzerland	2–0	3–0	Friendly
9	2013-03-08	Albufeira, Portugal	Iceland	1–0	6–1	2013 Algarve Cup
10				5–0
11	2013-03-13	Lagos, Portugal	Norway	1–0	2–2 (pso 4–5)	2013 Algarve Cup
12	2013-07-13	Gothenburg, Sweden	Finland	3–0	5–0	UEFA Euro 2013
13	2013-10-31	Gothenburg, Sweden	Faroe Islands	3–0	5–0	2015 World Cup qualification
14	2014-03-05	Albufeira, Portugal	Denmark	1–0	2–0	2014 Algarve Cup
15	2014-04-05	Portadown, Northern Ireland	Northern Ireland	1–0	4–0	2015 World Cup qualification
16	2014-06-14	Motherwell, Scotland	Scotland	2–1	3–1	2015 World Cup qualification
17				3–1
18	2014-08-21	Starogard Gdański, Poland	Poland	2–0	4–0	2015 World Cup qualification
19	2015-01-13	La Manga, Spain	Norway	1–2	3–2	Friendly
20				2–2
21	2015-03-09	Vila Real de Santo António, Portugal	China	1–0	3–0	2015 Algarve Cup
22	2015-05-30	Toronto, Canada	Netherlands	2–1	2–1	Friendly
23	2016-06-02	Łódź, Poland	Poland	3–0	4–0	Euro 2017 qualifying
24	2016-06-06	Gothenburg, Sweden	Moldova	2–0	6–0	Euro 2017 qualifying
25				4–0
26	2017-03-08	Albufeira, Portugal	Russia	1–0	4–0	2017 Algarve Cup
27				3–0
28	2017-09-19	Varaždin, Croatia	Croatia	2–0	2–0	2019 World Cup qualification
29	2017-10-24	Borås, Sweden	Hungary	3–0	5–0	2019 World Cup qualification
30				5–0
31	2018-08-30	Gothenburg, Sweden	Ukraine	3–0	3–0	2019 World Cup qualification
32	2019-02-27	Faro/Loulé, Portugal	Switzerland	3–1	4–1	2019 Algarve Cup
33	2019-06-11	Rennes, France	Chile	1–0	2–0	2019 FIFA World Cup
34	2019-06-16	Nice, France	Thailand	2–0	5–1	2019 FIFA World Cup
35	2019-07-06	Nice, France	England	1–0	2–1	2019 FIFA World Cup
36	2019-09-03	Liepāja, Latvia	Latvia	4–1	4–1	UEFA Euro 2022 qualifying
37	2019-10-08	Gothenburg, Sweden	Slovakia	1–0	7–0	UEFA Euro 2022 qualifying
38	2021-02-23	Paola, Malta	Malta	1–0	3–0	Friendly
39	2021-07-30	Saitama, Japan	Japan	3–1	3–1	2020 Summer Olympics
40	2022-02-20	Algarve, Portugal	Portugal	3–0	4–0	2022 Algarve Cup
41	2022-04-07	Gori, Georgia	Georgia	13–0	15–0	2023 World Cup qualification
42				14–0
43	2022-04-12	Gothenburg, Sweden	Republic of Ireland	1–1	1–1	2023 World Cup qualification
44	2022-07-17	Leigh, Greater Manchester, England	Portugal	4–0	5–0	Euro 2022
45	2023-08-19	Brisbane, Australia	Australia	2–0	2–0	2023 FIFA Women's World Cup

Honours

Linköpings FC

• Damallsvenskan: 2009, 2017
• Svenska Supercupen: 2009
• Svenska Cupen: 2008, 2009

Manchester City

• FA WSL: 2016
• FA WSL Continental Cup: 2016

Sweden

• Summer Olympics runner-up: 2016, 2020
• FIFA Women's World Cup third place: 2019.
• Algarve Cup: 2018

Individual

• Swedish women's footballer of the year: 2017
• Swedish women's midfielder of the year: 2017
• Women's Golden Foot: 2022

See also

In Spanish: Kosovare Asllani para niños