So you found their address first and the looked it up on the register? 😅
Yes.
A fun fact was that we in school at one point were given an assignment like this. The teacher told us about a house, the price it was sold for, size, etc. and asked us to find the house. I think most of our class got it right, but we had also been shown how to find a sold house, so that is why I knew how to find it 😅
If you told Magda 13 years ago when she got to linkoping that she's going to buy a vacation house in denmark with this very danish girl she would've told you you're crazy
Yea especially when said dane was her 'straight' teammate
THE USA WOMENS TEAM GOT A PHOTO FINISH FOR THE GOLD IN HOCKEY. CAROLINE HARVEY GOT MVP. LAILA EDWARDS BECAME THE FIRST BLACK AMERICAN TO WIN A MEDAL IN ICE HOCKEY. HILARY KNIGHT GOT ENGAGED TO BRITTANY BOWE AND DOMINATED IN HOCKEY THE PAST 5 OLYMPICS. ALYSSA LIU WON GOLD FOR US WOMEN IN FIGURE SKATING FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2002
An afternoon in November, a light breeze, clouds drifting over the hills. Above the rooftops of Turin, a narrow asphalt track runs in a circle, as if searching for a way out. Up here, on the legendary test track of the Fiat Lingotto factory, Lia Wälti, captain of the national team, looks out over a city that is still unfamiliar to her and says: ‘It was a rollercoaster ride, an unforgettable one.’ It's her quote of the year. And she doesn't just mean football. She means everything.
Down in the city, on the banks of the Po, is the flat where she has been living out of two suitcases for a few weeks. Today, the boxes from London have finally arrived. Also today, she has founded a company, her second, a labour of love that she has been thinking about for a long time.
We'll get to that. And then there's the news from the association that it is parting ways with Pia Sundhage, the coach of her European Championship summer.
It's a bit much for one day, and it was a bit much for one year. But it was also good. And now Lia Wälti wants to talk about it.
‘I feel that it is only now, looking back, that I understand what happened.’
It began with a diagnosis that sounded serious but seemed treatable. At the end of 2024, Lia Wälti suddenly felt a pain in her buttocks that she couldn't explain. At the hospital, she was diagnosed with an abscess and underwent emergency surgery that same evening. What she only found out later was that the infection was already quite advanced. ‘Luckily, they caught it in time,’ she says, ‘it could have been life-threatening.’
She was told she would be able to play again after three to four weeks. So she approached her rehabilitation in the way she knows best: with discipline. First, she had to lie down a lot so that the wound could heal, then she did some light strength training and a few passes in Langnau im Emmental on the sofa of her parents, retired secondary school teacher Andreas and special needs teacher Monika. ‘They took care of everything for me,’ says Wälti. ‘All I had to do was keep still. That was almost the hardest thing for me.’
At the beginning of January, she was back in London with Arsenal, her club for seven years, where she was the brains of the team at number six. She had bought a flat, made friends and fallen in love with the city. ‘I could well imagine ending my career there,’ she says.
And she had a big week ahead of her: Arsenal were playing in the Champions League, and the European Championship was on the horizon – an event that a footballer only experiences once in a lifetime.
And big weeks lay ahead: Arsenal was playing in the Champions League, and the European Championship was looming on the horizon – an event that a footballer only experiences once.
Lia Wälti didn't want to give anyone any reason to doubt her – not her body, not her as a person. She trained hard and performed well. But her body wasn't as ready as she had hoped. She felt strangely exhausted by small things and tired after short runs.
Cruciate ligament tears, muscle fibre tears, fatigue fractures – physios and doctors in football are familiar with these things. But an open wound on her buttocks that had to heal slowly because an abscess had been removed?
That was too much to handle. Arsenal's squad was depleted, with many players out injured. Wälti was open about how she felt, but she wasn't one to let the team down. She could see that she was needed.
At first, she played almost every game. But from March onwards, when the injured players returned and the coach also changed the tactical approach – a more offensive player was to be used in her position – she was used less and less.
She was also on the bench for the most important game of all: the Champions League final. 24 May 2025, Lisbon. The mighty FC Barcelona as opponents. Arsenal won 1-0. They had reached their goal, at the end of a long journey. When Wälti joined the club, Arsenal were far from the top of European football. Now they were at the top. ‘I knew I had played my part in that,’ she says, ‘No one can take that away from me.’ She would have liked to play, but she understood the coaches' decision to rely on fitter players. Her strength had slowly returned, but she was never 100 per cent.
‘Mentally, I was okay during that time,’ she says. ‘Maybe because I didn't understand what it all meant for a long time.’ The abscess was much more complicated than first thought. She still lives with the consequences today, with a small drain that permanently removes pus. Even before the operation, fistulas had formed, small, inflamed passages that can only be treated with patience and several procedures – if at all. "It will occupy me for years to come. Maybe for the rest of my life." She says this without drama, speaking almost matter-of-factly about the many uncertainties, the monthly check-ups she now has to undergo, the doctor's appointments and MRIs she is trying to get used to, organising specialists in England, Italy and Switzerland.
She could keep quiet about it; no one would expect her to be open about such personal matters.
But Lia Wälti wants to talk, just as she did in the past about her mental health issues. Because sport has so many taboos. But Wälti hates taboos. She wants to show that even top athletes go through difficult times.
At the same time, she doesn't want to talk about it too much, especially for her sake. She is someone who sticks to the good, who wants to see the good. How else would the summer of 2025 have been possible?
A few days after the Champions League final with Arsenal, she joined the national team. Nations League match against Norway, early June. She played, overstretched her medial ligament in a tackle without noticing. It was the sixth international match this year that Switzerland did not win. For a long time, the public had paid little attention to this, but now, so close to the tournament, in which Switzerland would face Norway again on 2 July, questions began to arise. Was Pia Sundhage the right coach? Was the team too inexperienced, too predictable?
Lia Wälti says it was impossible to ignore the talk. "We felt that our team had potential. But why were we making so many mistakes? We asked ourselves that too."
Looking back, she is almost grateful that this phase came early – and not in July. At the time, it felt miserable, but today she knows it was instructive. ‘We lost some games really naively.’ She smiles.
The cliché that you learn more from defeats than from victories? ‘It's true. Sure, you can fail because you're simply bad. But that wasn't the case with us. We had to understand that at this level, you don't dribble as the last player at the back; you just don't do certain things. We didn't make mistakes like that at the European Championships.’
Due to her medial ligament injury, it was unclear until the last minute whether Wälti would be able to play. She took it easy, missing the last test match, but when the European Championship came around, she taped up her knee and gritted her teeth. Even though she knew:
‘When your opponents see where you're vulnerable, they'll kick you right there.’
It may not have been a fairy tale, but it was close. Full stadiums. Fan marches through Bern's old town. A country that bowed down to its female footballers, whom it had long ignored. And right in the middle of it all: her. The captain. One of the most senior players. The team's calming influence. But also the voice that speaks plainly. ‘I was very proud,’ says Lia Wälti. It was the summer of her life. ‘Those weeks in Switzerland, when anything seemed possible, will remain in my heart.’ And yet: ‘In a perfect world, we could have achieved just a little bit more.’
She is not referring to the quarter-final against Spain. ‘In the end, it was a class difference. We did well for a long time, but honestly, we didn't have many chances. Our only option would have been penalties. Or a lucky punch. But at some point, we ran out of steam.’ She is talking about the group stage, about the opening match against Norway. ‘I thought we were better. Not individually, but as a team. We dominated them for long periods. A win in that game would have put us in a different position. And then more would have been possible against Italy than against Spain. I'm not saying we would have won, but it would have been more realistic.’
At the beginning of August, she was back in London. But not to prepare for the new season with Arsenal, but because another operation was necessary. The second of perhaps many.
Rehabilitation again. Waiting again.
She still had a year left on her contract. And because the European Championship had gone so well, several big European clubs came calling. But Wälti saw no reason to change. On the contrary: she still believed she wanted to end her career at Arsenal – but preferably continue playing until the 2027 World Cup.
But then, she herself doesn't know exactly why, something changed. ‘It was a gut feeling,’ she says.
She realised that her type of player in defensive midfield might not be as sought-after in the planning for the next season as she had been in the past. She sought a conversation with the coaches and those responsible at the club. ‘They told me how much they valued me. Nevertheless, I sensed that they might no longer be counting on me.’
Then everything happened very quickly. In just a few days, Wälti realised that if she wanted to continue to control her own career, she had to take action. She gave her management the green light, asked whether Arsenal would agree to a transfer, reviewed the offers once again – and decided on Italy. For Turin. For Juve. She thought: ‘If I'm leaving my home in London behind, then at least I'll be closer to my first home – to Langnau, to my parents, to my sister Meret, one of the most important people in my life.’
She had a week to say goodbye.
Every day, in the club's training ground, people came up to her – staff, employees, teammates. They thanked her not only for the successes she had brought Arsenal, but above all for the person she had been over the years.
She cried every day.
‘It was painful,’ she says. ‘But also beautiful. I never thought it would hurt so much.’
Her heart said stay. Her head said go.
In mid-September, she handed over the keys to her London flat to another Arsenal player and moved to Turin, where everything was new, absolutely everything. New doctors. Where do you go to the hairdresser? Where can you get good bread?
No more friends ringing the doorbell spontaneously. And above all: new football. Less tactical, more old school. Italy is a football country, but still not a women's football country. When the daily 80-page Gazzetta dello Sport reports on women's football at all, it's remarkable.
At the beginning, Wälti often sat on the bench in the league, but she played regularly in the Champions League. The coach likes to rotate players, so you usually play either here or there. Wälti is 32 – and she realised that it's not easy to embrace new things. But she can still do it.
And now, on this November afternoon, she is standing here on the old Fiat test track for a photo shoot for Frau Müller. The year behind her has been incredibly exhausting, but also incredibly beautiful. Lia Wälti seems both exhausted and invigorated at the same time. She says that as a footballer, she works around fifty hours a week. ‘This job is so engaging. And on top of that, I'm studying business administration with a specialisation in sports management.’
If she didn't have her sister Meret and her close friend Salomé Barrer by her side – both former footballers – she wouldn't know where she would be. For two years, the two have been handling her media and marketing enquiries, coordinating interviews, sponsorships and appearances. ‘Without them, none of this would be possible,’ says Wälti. ‘I'm glad that all I have to do is decide what I want to do – not how I'm going to get there.’ It is precisely this experience that led to the creation of her new company, which was officially founded this morning. It's an idea that matured during the European Championship year. ‘We noticed how little support women often receive in this area. Not just female footballers, but women in sport in general.’
Even at the highest level, the difference is enormous. Female footballers still earn only a fraction of what men earn, not only in terms of wages and bonuses, but also in terms of sponsorship money. Anyone who lives in the world of sport knows that women need to build a second career early on. And yet many lack the support to do so.
They want to change that. By women, for women. That's why the three of them set up the agency, which is more than just an agency. ‘We don't negotiate contracts with clubs,’ says Wälti. ‘We help with media, sponsorship, personal branding – all the things that are becoming increasingly important and so often get overlooked.’
In her case, it was a children's book that she published with her sister this summer before the European Championships. They sold more than 12,000 copies – a remarkable number, especially from Switzerland. For others, it might be a social project, a collaboration with a fashion brand or a commitment as a speaker.
‘It's about becoming visible. And being prepared for what comes after your career.’
Wälti knows how exhausting that is. ‘I get so many requests. If you do it all on your own, it's hours of work every week. And at the same time, you have your full-time job, your studies. At some point, there's nothing left of your life.’ The company is called WNXT Agency – WNXT stands for ‘we are next’ or ‘women are next’, a call to women in sport to take the space they deserve. ‘We are in contact with several players, and it's crazy how high the demand is,’ says Wälti. ‘Many of them have had no support in these matters until now. Zero.’
She laughs, a little tired, a little satisfied. Who knows what next year will bring.
was mario okay after the game? on tv it didn't look like she pulled anything before coming off and it looked like she walked normally but i don't know if something different was seen from the stadium
jbbartram-illu
izzy806
origamiaround
kianamaiart
snowghoul
