The Chelsea Social

Club Career

Magdalena Eriksson started her football career with her local team Enskede IK in Stockholm. Although she was encouraged by her father to join Hammarby IF so she could improve her game. At the age of 17, Magda broke into Hammarby’s first team in the 2011 Damallsvenskan season and she made her debut against Umeå IK.

In November 2011, Magda Eriksson left relegated Hammarby for their Stockholm rivals Djurgården. After scoring one goal in 19 appearances in the 2012 Damallsvenskan, she left Djurgårdens, who were facing relegation to join Linköpings FC. In July 2017, with Linköpings FC, Magda captained the club to the league title in 2016 where the Swedish team remained unbeaten all through the campaign and despite her being in her early twenties. 

Chelsea Career

Magda joined Chelsea Women before the beginning of the 2017/18 WSL season and Magda gained Emma Hayes’ trust quickly when she took part in the Blues’ starting formation. Magda played a significant part in winning the Double in her first season as a Chelsea player. On the 20th of August 2018, Magda extended her contract until 2021.

Since Magda has joined Chelsea she has been a rock at the back, which has made the defence even stronger than it ever has been before. Magda now plays at centre back but in her early career at Chelsea, she played in different positions, when Emma would use a back three formation during the 2017 Spring Series in the WSL. At left-back, she creates chances with her accurate crossing and passing ability and there is no doubt she is very well established as one of the best all-round full-backs in the game.

In the 2018/19 season, Magda started more matches than any other player and she scored one of Chelsea Women’s best goals vs Liverpool with an amazing overhead kick. 

On 6 September 2019, Chelsea announced that Magda would be the new captain taking over from Karen Carney after she retired. Since Magda took over as Captain, she has even more become a fan favourite with the way she captains the side on match days and this has brought the team success since because she always ensures that the team are a strong group when playing, which helps them to perform to the best they can. Magda so far has made 81 appearances for Chelsea and has scored 7 goals. 

International Career

As a Swedish under-19 international, Magda was part of the victorious squad at the 2012 U-19 European Championship, finishing second in their group behind Spain but then beating Spain in the final 1-0. 

In November 2013 at the age of 20, national team coach Pia Sundhage called up Magda to the senior squad at their training camp at Bosön. Eriksson made her debut for the senior Sweden team in a 3 nil friendly defeat by France in Amiens on the 8th of February 2014. 

In early 2014, Magda had a knee injury after she collided with Linkoping’s goalkeeper, which left her injured for three months. Magda was also part of the Swedish squad that won silver at the 2016 Summer Olympics. 

In July 2017, Pia Sundhage named Magda in Sweden’s UEFA Women’s Euro 2017 squad and in 2018, Peter Gerhardsson picked Magda to go with Sweden to the FIFA Women’s World Cup in France, where Sweden beat England in the 3rd place playoff game to finish 3rd and she received a bronze medal. For Sweden, Magda has made 63 appearances and has scored 7 goals since her debut. 

Personal Life

As a young player at Hammarby, Eriksson’s pre-match ritual included listening to “Heroes” by David Bowie. Since May 2014, Eriksson has been in a relationship with Danish international, Pernille Harder, who is now playing alongside Magda here at Chelsea. 

During her childhood, Magda assumed her last name was spelt with a C because that was how her father spelt it but it wasn’t until she was 17 and looked at her passport that she realised it was spelt with a K. Often, Magda’s last name is often misspelt as “Ericsson” rather than the correct spelling “Eriksson” particularly during her spell at Linköping.

Magda has a Bachelor’s degree in Political science and has taken a course in Feminist Theory and Intersectional Power Analysis, whilst playing at Chelsea full time. 

Strengths

• Magda is strong defensively
• She is a powerful leader
• She makes the team stronger as a whole
• Rarely ever makes mistakes
• Calm and disciplined
• She is composed with the ball
• Aggressive

Honours

Chelsea

• FA Women’s Super League: 2017–18, 2019–20
• Women’s FA Cup: 2017–18
• FA Women’s League Cup: 2019–20
• FA Community Shield: 2020

Linköpings FC

• Damallsvenskan: 2016
• Svenska Cupen: 2013–14, 2014–15; Runner-up: 2015–16
• Svenska Supercupen Runner-up: 2015, 2016

Sweden

• Summer Olympic Games Silver medal: 2016
• FIFA Women’s World Cup Third place: 2019

Sweden U19

• UEFA Women’s Under-19 Championship: 2012

Written by Meg Aherne

Edited by Rob Pratley

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