Maija Karoliina Saari (born 26 March 1986) is a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

international footballer who plays as a defender. She previously represented

AIK AIK Fotboll (), more commonly known simply as AIK (), an abbreviation for Allmänna Idrottsklubben (meaning ''the public'' or ''general sports club''), is a Swedish football club competing in Allsvenskan, the top flight of Swedish football. The ...

Mallbackens IF Mallbackens IF is a football club from Mallbacken, 15 kilometres north of Sunne in Värmland, Sweden. The club was established in 1942 and played in the Women's premier division (Damallsvenskan) for the first time in 1986. They currently play in ...

and

Umeå IK Umeå IK () is a professional association football club based in the city of Umeå, in northern Sweden, and currently playing Damallsvenskan, the first tier of women's football in Sweden. They were one of the most successful football clubs in ...

in Sweden,

Kolbotn Kolbotn is an urban area in Norway's Nordre Follo county. Kolbotn is in the centre of the traditional district, Oppegård. The population is about 6,000. Kolbotn has several elementary schools, four middle schools and a high school. Town is loca ...

Stabæk Fotball Kvinner Stabæk Fotball Kvinner is Stabæk IF's women's football team, started on 23 October 2008 with a core of players from Asker. Asker had lost its licence to play in the top league after a failure to meet financial targets, and Stabæk's chairman ...

, and Vålerenga in the Norwegian

Toppserien The Toppserien is the top level of women's association football in Norway. It was founded in 1984. History Women's league football was introduced on a county basis in 1977. These leagues acted as qualification for the regional (South) league in 1 ...

and

FC Honka FC Honka is a Finnish football club based in Espoo. It was founded in 1957 as Tapion Honka, and changed its name to FC Honka in 1975. The club currently play in the Finnish premier division (''Veikkausliiga''), having been promoted for the fir ...

and HPK in her home country. Since making her debut for the

Finland women's national football team The Finland women's national football team, also known as nickname The Boreal Owls ( fi, Helmarit), represents Finland in international women's football. The team, controlled by the Football Association of Finland (SPL/FBF), reached the semi ...

in 2007, Saari has won over 85

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 ...

and captained the team.

Club career

A strong, left-sided defender, Saari won three consecutive domestic titles with

in 2006, 2007 and 2008. She joined the club aged 10 after moving to

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

from her birthplace of

Vaasa Vaasa (; sv, Vasa, , Sweden ), in the years 1855–1917 as Nikolainkaupunki ( sv, Nikolajstad; literally meaning "city of Nicholas),

and rose to

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

the club. In December 2008 Saari signed a two-year contract with Swedish club

. In 2011, she played for

Kolbotn Fotball Kolbotn IL Fotball is a sub-section under the sports club Kolbotn IL from Kolbotn, Norway. The club started football in 1916 and organized football as a semi-autonomous sub-section in 1960. The women's team plays in Toppserien and is one of t ...

in the Norwegian

, before returning to Sweden with

. Saari returned to AIK for the 2014 season, having spent 2013 with

. In December 2015 she agreed a return to Norway, signing a two-year deal with

International career

She made her debut for the senior

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

team on 7 March 2007; playing 90 minutes against

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 ...

in the

Algarve Cup The Algarve Cup is an invitational tournament for national teams in women's association football hosted by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF). Held annually in the Algarve region of Portugal since 1994, it is one of the most prestigious and ...

. Saari also played in all four of Finland's matches at

UEFA Women's Euro 2009 The 2009 UEFA Women's Championship, or just Women's Euro 2009, was played in Finland between 23 August and 10 September 2009. The host was appointed on 11 July 2006, in a UEFA Executive Committee meeting in Berlin and the Finnish proposal won over ...

, including the quarter final defeat to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. In June 2013 Saari, by then the national team captain, was devastated to be ruled out of

UEFA Women's Euro 2013 The 2013 UEFA Women's Championship, commonly referred to as Women's Euro 2013, was the 11th European Championship for List of women's national association football teams#UEFA, women's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament ...

with a

cruciate ligament Cruciate ligaments (also cruciform ligaments) are pairs of ligaments arranged like a letter X. They occur in several joints of the body, such as the knee joint and the atlanto-axial joint. In a fashion similar to the cords in a toy Jacob's la ...

injury.

International goals

References

External links

* * * * * * 1986 births Living people Expatriate women's footballers in Sweden Expatriate women's footballers in Norway Finnish women's footballers Finnish expatriate footballers Finland women's international footballers Sportspeople from Vaasa Damallsvenskan players Umeå IK players AIK Fotboll (women) players Mallbackens IF players Toppserien players Kolbotn Fotball players Kansallinen Liiga players FC Honka (women) players Finnish expatriate sportspeople in Norway Stabæk Fotball Kvinner players FC Kiisto players Women's association football defenders {{Finland-women-footy-bio-stub