The Big Interview: My Cato
The young midfielder is the latest to break into the Sweden senior squad after an impressive season with her hometown club. I speak to her ahead of Tuesday's crunch clash with England...
Sweden’s latest breakthrough talent has been through plenty on her journey from small town hopeful to senior national team.
Glandular fever, appendicitis, concussion, a season playing no minutes and a relegation from the second division to the third division as recently as 2020.
You’d be forgiven for thinking having dealt with so much she must be a seasoned veteran.
In fact, she only turned 22 in April, and her name is My Cato.
In 2023, she was the only player to be named in the Damallsvenskan team of the year out of the big three of BK Häcken, Hammarby and Linköping, playing for newly promoted IFK Norrköping, her hometown club.
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At 21, she was also the youngest team captain in the league, scored seven goals, was nominated for Breakthrough Player of the Year and earned a call-up to the Sweden Under 23s side for the first time.
“I think everything has gone so fast for me,” Cato laughs. “It was just two years ago I was playing in the second division and now I’m in the national team and playing in the top division with the club I love the most. It has been a really fun journey.”
Cato’s rise has been so rapid she doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page, despite now being in the national team for back-to-back camps, and could still make her senior debut when Sweden hosts England on Tuesday night in Gothenburg, with a place at Euro 2025 on the line.
Her unique name comes from her parents who chose to use her great, great grandmother’s name rather than their own more common Swedish names.
Her dad also felt the family name was too long for signatures, hence her first name My, and her sister who was named Moa, so they could share kit with the same initials.
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