The Big Interview: Hanna Lundkvist
The impressive young Swedish defender speaks about how personal development has been the motivation behind her big career moves so far, plus the heartbreak of missing last summer's World Cup...
Hanna Lundkvist is almost as impressive off the field as she is on it.
Already a mainstay of the Swedish national team, the defender has made her way from the mini island of Djurö - inhabited by no more than a thousand people - to the big city lights of San Diego on the west coast of the USA, all by the age of 21.
Via a brief stop in the Spanish capital to play for Atlético Madrid in Liga F, Lundkvist’s career has already progressed at 100mph, her talent earning her a senior debut for the Swedish national team in February 2023 in the build-up to the World Cup.
While so much of it is through a combination of raw talent and avid determination, her choices and unique career path has not been by coincidence, but through her own design.
There are not many Swedish internationals playing in either Spain or the USA, with many playing domestically back home or in leagues such as the Women’s Super League in England, Germany’s Bundesliga or Italy’s Serie A.
“Yeah…I think it’s one of the worst days of my life, finding out I wouldn’t be able to play at the World Cup…”
But for Lundkvist, her decisions to be date have all been with one thing in mind, her own personal development.
“I love the sun,” she laughs, before going on to explain why she actually did choose USA when making the move over the NWSL off-season.
“Basically, the decisions for me are to develop as much as I can. I wanted to base my decision on that. I wanted to go the country and the team where I felt I could develop the most.
“With the league here being so intense, so physical and so quick, I felt that would be a good step for me and for me to experience that. I feel that’s a big part of what I need to develop in my own game, to face physical players and how to defend one vs one against them. It’s really all about my development.”
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It was a similar thought process when she left Hammarby behind for Atlético in 2021, but on that occasion it was in search of a different skillset, hence why she has chosen two polar opposite leagues since leaving Sweden, to try and enhance her all-round game.
“I saw it as a good opportunity. I felt I could fit in in that league with my technical skills, but it was something I wanted to improve on still and become even better at.
“Improve my passing, improve my technical skills, I saw it as an opportunity going there. It developed me a lot being there from a young age because there is the life experience too.”
It means she’s already had the best of both the worlds. The technical and tactical level of playing against possession-based sides such as the dominant Barcelona, and now a league in NWSL where physical attributes and athleticism play more of a part.
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