International transfers rounded 08/19

Transfer market activity continues! While other transfers have been confirmed, we take a look at another group of big international moves for the 2022/23 season, including Finland women’s national team goalkeeper Krista Nieminen, Czech women’s national team defender Nela Jirakova and Swiss men’s national team striker Pascal Michel.

Women

Finland women’s national team goalkeeper Krista Nieminen moves to the Swedish Superligan with Akersberga. Krista spent last season playing in Switzerland with Berner Oberland where they reached the first round of the playoffs before losing to Piranha Chur. Krista has represented Finland at the previous two Women’s World Championships (in 2019 and 2021) winning a silver medal in 2021 and a bronze medal in 2019. In 2021 she was one of the tournament’s top goalkeepers with an 85.71% save percentage and stopping 60 shots in all of Finland’s games.

Czech women’s international Nela Jirakova follows Krista Nieminen as she moves from Switzerland to Sweden from Piranha Chur to Endre IF in Sweden’s top women’s league. Nela has competed three times in the Women’s World Championships with the Czech Republic in 2017, 2019 and 2021, finishing 4th in each event. Nela also represented the Czech U19 team at the 2016 U19 Women’s World Championships in Canada. She brings a wealth of experience and leadership to her new Swedish team and will look to push them into a deep playoff run and a challenge for the playoff title.

Another player who left Switzerland for Sweden is the former 2020 U19 Women’s silver medalist, Philippa Blom. Philippa finished the WFC U19 2020 as the 2nd top points scorer with 13 points in just 5 matches for Sweden, 7 of which were goals. She will be looking to use her goalscoring knack to help push her new team Nacka into a deep playoff run after failing to make it out of the first round last season.

Hannah Berschinger makes the long trip from New Zealand to Switzerland as the New Zealand striker travels to Europe to help develop her game even further. Hannah will represent New Zealand at the upcoming 2022 Women’s U19 World Championships in Poland in August, as she is still only 19 and therefore eligible to play for the New Zealand U19s. She was also part of the senior women’s team at the 2019 WFCQ AOFC Women’s Qualifier where New Zealand finished in 6th place.

Men

Swiss men’s national team player Pascal Michel leaves his home country for Sweden and Swedish Superligan team Mullsjö. Pascal represented Switzerland at the 2020 Men’s World Championships in Finland, where they lost a tight game to the Czech Republic for 3rd and bronze, finishing 4th. Mullsjö finished last season in the first round of the playoffs and will look to build on the international quality of players like Pascal to challenge Sweden’s top SSL teams.

Morten Talviste is an Estonian national team player who recently represented his country at the Men’s WFC 2020 in Finland. He also represented his country at two U19 Men’s World Championships (Division B in 2015 and 2017). He makes the move to Swedish Superligan side KAIS Mora from Estonian side Sparta with whom he won the previous two Estonian championships in 2021 and 2022.

More transfer news will be announced throughout the summer, so stay tuned for more interesting and maybe even surprising transfers!

All confirmed and TBC transfers can be found here floorball.sport