Arsenal Women beat WSL rivals to recruit Sweden’s star striker and Ballon d’Or nominee Stina Blackstenius
Arsenal Women beat WSL rivals to recruit Sweden’s star striker and Ballon d’Or nominee Stina Blackstenius … and boss Jonas Eidevall insists the deal does not affect Vivianne Miedema’s future
- Arsenal Women have recruited striker and Ballon d’Or nominee Stina Blackstenius
- Blackstenius scored 17 goals last season for FC Hacken in the Swedish league
- Gunner’s manager Jonas Eidevall said that the deal has no effect on Vivianne Miedema
Arsenal Women have completed the signing of the highly ranked Swedish international Stina Blackstenius.
The 25-year-old striker, who scored 17 goals and eight assists in the Swedish league last season, was without a contract after leaving BK Hacken this week.
The Gunners kept out the competition from Manchester United, who had been tracking Blackstenius since the summer, and Tottenham.
Arsenal Women have revealed the signing of the Swedish striker Stina Blackstenius
Arsenal boss Jonas Eidevall (left) hailed Ballon d’Or nominee Blackstenius as “excellent”
Blackstenius, nominated for the Ballon d’Or, also scored five goals at the Tokyo Olympics to help his country win silver.
“It feels great to be here,” Blackstenius said. “I’m so happy to be in a club as big and big as Arsenal.
– I got a really good first impression of this club, they play really good football and I wanted to be a part of it. I feel I can become a better player in this environment.
Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall said that an important reason for recruiting the striker was her big game mentality. – An award for Stina, especially when you see how she has performed in the national team, is her ability to score goals in really, really big matches.
Blackstenius stood out at the Olympics in Tokyo and scored five goals to help Sweden take silver
– It obviously depends on many factors, but I think maybe the main factor is that she is an excellent player who runs behind when she is exposed to a lot of space.
“For example, the matches we played against Barcelona, I think we really lacked that quality in the squad, to punish teams that play with such a high defensive line. She will help us with that as well.
Eidevall added that Blackstenius’ arrival will have no effect on Vivianne Miedema’s future at the club. Miedema is out of contract at the end of the season and has interest from Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain.
Asked if there is a way for Miedema and Blackstenius to play together, Eidevall said: “I hope there is, it is definitely one of the scenarios I see. Some opposition, maybe even a match like Birmingham on Sunday, when the space being limited in the initial phases of our possession, a player like Viv, it might be a good idea to have her a little deeper, maybe play as a 10 to help we get on the ball and create.
Eidevall said that Blackstenius’ arrival “has nothing to do” with Vivianne Miedema’s future at Arsenal
Then, when we create, and that’s what we missed against Birmingham last Sunday, we have no one in the box, we can not end the attack.
“For me, Stina’s arrival has nothing to do with the future of Viv. To recruit Stina, make her an addition to the squad, I think is the right way to go. In one of the scenarios, if Viv stays, which we hope she will do , or if she does not stay, then we have to go out and find a replacement for her and for that type of player as well.
“We look at the scenario where they can play together but also that they can play at different times and it depends a lot on how we set up the team.”
The Arsenal manager also teased that there will be more arrivals to the club before the end of January.
“We’re not done yet in this window,” he said. “We can reveal it when everything is ready. Hopefully we can give you some more news in the near future.”
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