Sara Margareta Mattsson (; born 13 May 1979) 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 football defender who played for

KIF Örebro DFF KIF Örebro DFF is a Swedish women's football club based in Örebro. Founded in 1980 as the women's football section of multi-sports association Karlslunds IF, the club's first team currently plays in the Damallsvenskan, the top level of the wome ...

of the

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 ...

league. She won 112

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 Ja ...

as a member of the Sweden women's national football team.

Career

She formerly played for Malmö FF Dam. In November 2008, her Woman's Professional Soccer playing rights were obtained by

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

who named her as a post-draft discovery player. She played fifteen games for the team in its inaugural season, then returned to Linköpings for the WPS off-season, during which she was drafted by the Philadelphia Independence in WPS's first

expansion draft An expansion draft, in professional sports, occurs when a sports league decides to create one or more new expansion teams or franchises. This occurs mainly in North American sports. One of the ways of stocking the new team or teams is an expansio ...

. After the 2010 season Larsson returned to Sweden, with

. She signed for

Elitettan Elitettan ( en, The Elite First) is the second highest division of Swedish women's football. Contested by 14 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are ...

club LB07 ahead of the 2014 season, but retired in April 2014 due to

pregnancy Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring develops (gestation, gestates) inside a woman, woman's uterus (womb). A multiple birth, multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins. Pregnancy usually occur ...

International

Larsson earned over 100 caps for the Sweden women's national football team. She won the rookie of the year (Sweden) in 2000, after making her national team debut in September 2000 in a 2–1 win over rivals

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 the ...

Matches and goals scored at World Cup & Olympic tournaments

Sara Larsson featured for Sweden in two

World Cups A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

: USA 2003 and Germany 2011. She was also on the roster for the 2007 World Cup, but did not appear in any of Sweden's matches. Larsson played in three

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

Sydney 2000 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 ...

, Athens 2004, and

Beijing 2008 The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

Matches and goals scored at European Championship tournaments

Sara Larsson appeared at three European Championship tournaments: Germany 2001, England 2005, and Finland 2009.

Personal life

Larsson married Jens Mattsson on 15 August 2015, with whom she already had a son. She subsequently took his surname.

References

;Match reports

External links

*
Sweden player profile

Linköpings FC player profile

Atlanta Beat player profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Larsson, Sara Swedish women's footballers 1979 births Living people People from Kristinehamn People from Kristinehamn Municipality Olympic footballers of Sweden Footballers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Saint Louis Athletica players Atlanta Beat (WPS) players Sweden women's international footballers FIFA Century Club 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup players Damallsvenskan players KIF Örebro DFF players FC Rosengård players Linköpings FC players Women's association football defenders Women's association football midfielders 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup players 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup players Women's Professional Soccer players Sportspeople from Värmland County