Ann Cecilia Sandell (born 10 June 1968) is a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

former

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

who won 62

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for the

Sweden women's national football team The Sweden women's national football team ( sv, Svenska damfotbollslandslaget) represents Sweden at international women's association football competitions and is controlled by the Swedish Football Association. History The Swedish team has be ...

, scoring three goals. She represented Sweden at the inaugural Olympic women's football tournament in

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

and

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

Club career

In 1999 Sandell collected the

Diamantbollen Diamantbollen, Swedish for the ''Diamond Ball'', an annual award for Sweden's best female football player. The award is currently awarded by the Swedish Football Association and Sydsvenskans newspaper, in conjunction with its male equivalent, ''G ...

award for Sweden's best female footballer. She had signed for Älvsjö from Lindsdals in 1993 and been part of the team which won five consecutive

Damallsvenskan The Damallsvenskan, Swedish for ''ladies all-Swedish'' and also known as OBOS Damallsvenskan for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of women's football in Sweden. It is also referred to as the women's Allsvenskan. The term Allsvenskan ...

titles from 1995 to 1999. Although signed as a

, she was successfully converted to a central defender.

International career

Sandell made her senior

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

debut in August 1992; a 3–3 draw with

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. Her early national team career was marked by injury and she did not play at

UEFA Women's Euro 1993 The 1993 UEFA Women's Championship, also referred to as Women's Euro 1993 was a football tournament that happened between 1991 and 1993 (with the qualifying round). The final games was held in Italy. The UEFA Women's Championship is a regular tour ...

or the

1995 FIFA Women's World Cup The 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup, the second edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, was held in Sweden and won by Norway women's national football team, Norway, who became the first European nation to win the Women's World Cup. The tournament fea ...

, which Sweden hosted. Restored to the squad for the

1996 Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

, Sandell also played at

UEFA Women's Euro 1997 The 1997 UEFA Women's Championship, also referred to as Women's Euro 1997 was a football tournament held in 1997 in Norway and Sweden. The UEFA Women's Championship is a regular tournament involving European national teams from countries affilia ...

, the

1999 FIFA Women's World Cup The 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup was the third edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the world championship for women's national soccer teams. It was hosted as well as won by the United States and took place from June 19 to July 10, 1999, at ...

and the

2000 Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

. She went to

UEFA Women's Euro 2001 The 2001 UEFA Women's Championship was the eighth UEFA Women's Championship, a competition for the women's national football teams and member associations of UEFA. It took place in Germany between 23 June and 7 July 2001. It was won by Germany wi ...

as Sweden's

press officer A press secretary or press officer is a senior advisor who provides advice on how to deal with the news media and, using news management techniques, helps their employer to maintain a positive public image and avoid negative media coverage. Duti ...

, as she had retired from playing to take up a position as Älvsjö's assistant coach.

Personal life

Sandell has a

twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...

, Camilla, who is married to former footballer

Victoria Svensson Victoria Margareta Sandell Svensson (born 18 May 1977) is a Swedish football manager and former player. Nicknamed Vickan, she was team captain on the Swedish women's national team and Djurgårdens IF Dam, captaining the national team during the ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sandell, Cecilia 1968 births Living people Swedish women's footballers Sweden women's international footballers Olympic footballers for Sweden Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup players Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Damallsvenskan players Women's association football defenders Sportspeople from Karlskrona Lindsdals IF players