Elin Hanna Caroline Jönsson (born 22 November 1977) is a Swedish former football

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting ...

who played for

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal popula ...

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 ...

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 ...

and

Chicago Red Stars The Chicago Red Stars are a professional women's soccer club based in Bridgeview, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. A founding member of the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league, they have played in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) ...

Women's Professional Soccer Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) was the top-level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded six teams for the 2011 sea ...

(WPS). She played 80 times 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 ...

between 1999 and 2009.

Club career

Youth career

Jönsson, a farmer's daughter, grew up and began playing in her locality of Sövestad. She played for Sövestads IF, which was her first club, until she left to join

Veberöds AIF Veberöds AIF is a Swedish football club located in Veberöd in Lund Municipality, Skåne County. Background Veberöds Allmänna Idrottsförening were founded in 1929 with the main focus of the sports club being football. A main highlight for ...

before the 1993 season. Jönsson remained with Veberöds until signing for Malmö FF Dam prior to the 1996 season.

Malmö FF Dam and LdB FC Malmö

Jönsson began her Malmö FF Dam career in 1996. She continuously played there, even through the renaming of the squad to LdB FC Malmö in April 2007. She won an award for Sweden's Best Goalkeeper in 2003 and 2006 and was given the Football Figure award in 2003. Injuries slowed down Jönsson in 2007 and parts of 2008 when she tore her

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligaments (the other being the posterior cruciate ligament) in the human knee. The two ligaments are also called "cruciform" ligaments, as they are arranged in a crossed formation ...

. Jönsson left the team in 2008, when she seemingly announced her retirement from both club and international football.

Chicago Red Stars

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

selected Jönsson in the 4th round of the

2008 WPS International Draft The 2008 WPS International Draft took place on September 24, 2008. It was the first international draft held by Women's Professional Soccer to assign the WPS rights of international players to the American-based teams. For the 2009 season, teams ...

on 24 September 2008, despite Jönsson's claims of retirement earlier upon her departure from LdB FC Malmö. It was announced on 3 February 2009 that she had signed with the American club, where she would be joined with fellow Sweden National Team member

Frida Östberg Frida Christina Östberg (born 10 December 1977) is a Swedish retired football midfielder who played for Umeå IK, Linköpings FC and Chicago Red Stars of Women's Professional Soccer. She is a former member of the Sweden women's national footbal ...

from

. In the inaugural

2009 Women's Professional Soccer season The 2009 Women's Professional Soccer season served as the inaugural season for WPS, the top level professional women's soccer league in the United States. The regular season began on March 29 and ended on August 9, with the postseason being held ...

, Jönsson played every minute of Chicago's campaign, allowing 25 goals in 20 games. Chicago failed to make the post-season tournament. On 28 September 2009, Chicago announced that they had exercised the team option for 2010 on Jönsson's contract. But in January 2010 she decided to join Umeå IK on a three-year contract, combining play with studies.

Umeå IK

Jönsson left Umeå and retired from football in June 2013, aged 35. She said her body was no longer able to withstand the rigours of top-level football.

National team

Jönsson made her debut for the Sweden National Team on 16 March 1999 against

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 ...

. She's represented Sweden at the

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanistan ...

and

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris (dwarf planet), Er ...

editions of the

UEFA Women's Championship The UEFA European Women's Championship, also called the UEFA Women's Euro, held every four years, is the main competition in women's association football between national teams of the UEFA confederation. The competition is the women's equivalen ...

s. She participated in the

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 ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

, and

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing ...

versions of the

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 multi ...

. She also made one

FIFA Women's World Cup The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's international governing bo ...

tournament in

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, disintegrated during reentry into Atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an 2002– ...

. Due to her ligament tear in 2007, she missed the

2007 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup, the fifth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, was an international association football competition for women held in China from 10 to 30 September 2007. Originally, China was to host the 2003 edition, but th ...

. Jönsson returned to full fitness and was named to the Sweden team for the 2008 Summer Olympics. She retired from international play in 2009, having made 80 senior team appearances.

References

External links

*
2007 Sweden Football player profile

Chicago Red Stars player profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jonsson, Caroline 1977 births Living people Swedish women's footballers Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Sweden Chicago Red Stars players Sweden women's international footballers Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Damallsvenskan players Umeå IK players FC Rosengård players Swedish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Sportspeople from Lund Women's association football goalkeepers 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup players Women's Professional Soccer players Swedish expatriate women's footballers