My Best XI: Lotta Schelin

The second part of WFC's new series, Sweden legend Lotta Schelin names her best eleven and offers a unique insight into some of the legends she has played with in her career.

During an incredible career, Sweden’s Lotta Schelin made close to 200 appearances for her national team and with 88 goals is her country’s top scorer.

At club level, she won eight straight league titles in France with Lyon, as well as three Champions League titles and five Coupe de France trophies.

An Olympic silver medal followed in 2016 and a whole host of individual awards, including being named in the all-star team at both a World Cup and a European Championship.

Reflecting on some of the incredible talents she has graced the field with, Schelin discusses the best eleven players she played with during her esteemed career.

Lotta Schelin played with some true greats during a distinguished career for club and country. Image: Jake Badger / Sportimage

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Goalkeeper

Hope Solo

I played with Hope in the beginning of her career, in 2004 with Göteborg. She went to the Olympics but didn’t play. She was one of the main reasons we were one of the best. We won a lot of the games and we could see she was going to be this amazing goalkeeper. She had it all. Even mentally, which was kind of cool, she had a different mentality. She reacted really fast, you thought you’d scored and you were happy and suddenly you didn’t because Hope was there. She was so good, even then. She could jump really high, she was good with the ball, she had it all and she went on to be one of the best.

That was my first year with the national team, so it was a big year for me. Hope pushed me so hard in training, you could see a lack of confidence sometimes because she had a way of stopping every ball. She pushed me, helped me develop, I couldn’t just slot the ball in, I had to be 100% focused all the time.

Defenders

Sonia Bompastor

Everyone knew Sonia was going to be a coach. She was the captain, but she was a captain who took so much responsibility. She had her speeches, that’s for sure, she knew how to push the team, but she was hard. If you didn’t do your job, she was on you, in a good way because the team got better. You felt like she was allowed to do that because she always went into the game with 100%, she gave it all, all the time. It’s so easy when you’re a person like that to demand it from others, because others see you give everything. One of the best left foots I’ve ever seen too. She was small, but you could feel her presence in the game. She was technical, for me she’s a perfect left-back.

Hanna Marklund

Hanna does a lot of TV work now. She was so good, she read the game amazingly well. She was good in everything. She had all the basics, but she could read a game so well that even if someone was a bit faster, when I trained against her she knew where I would be and how to stop me. She won a lot of best defenders in Sweden and it was well deserved because she was so good.

Wendie Renard

Hanna’s going to play with Wendie Renard, that’s for sure. I can’t pick anyone else, it’s obvious. When I came to Lyon, they played together for one year. She was young, but she was so good. With her height, I felt like she can be a real presence, but can develop in her game with her headers.

She still had this little bit of Abby Wambach style. It maybe took the first season, but then she started to take everything, in offence, in defence. She wasn’t just one of the best defenders, she’s an attacking piece in Lyon and the national team at the other end because of her presence. She has kept such a high level for so long, she’s one of the most professional players I’ve ever played with. I don’t know if you can find someone else who scores as much as Wendie does as a defender, it’s amazing.