Anna Jakobsson: The goalscorer

From March 2015

It’s 2015, the year of women’s floorball moving towards its highlight WFC 2015 in Tampere, Finland. Sweden’s Anna Jakobsson scored a hat trick in the previous EFC final in Ostrava in 2013, and its is quite likely she will be one of this year’s brightest spots, too.

Floorball people in Finland are working hard to arrange the best women’s EFC this far.  Their dream is to top the Tampere week with the hosts victorious in the final but that would mean pushing aside mighty Sweden with four straight titles.
- In just one game, anything can happen but in the tournament as whole, I think Sweden will once again be the great favorite, Anna Jakobsson says.
But it is always special to play on one’s home rink as Finland gets to do and I really hope the games will draw large audiences.
Actually, Anna Jakobson who is is now 28, already has won a WFC title in Tampere. That was in 2004 when she was a member of the Swedish U19 squad beating Finland in the first ever juniors’ WFC final.
- Don’t remember that much about the town itself but I recall there were a lot of people on the stands giving the Finns strong support.

Disappointed about competitors' physical fitness
In the two previous WFC tournaments,  Finland has put up a good defensive fight against Sweden but has not been able to really challenge them in offensive play. Switzerland and Czech have played evenly against Finland as Sweden has still been in a class of their own.
- As I see it, the difference between Sweden and our competitors has remained the same since but it is not like we could not be beaten in one single game. The difference is not that big.
Between 1999 and 2005, Sweden only became World Champion once with Finland winning two titles and the Swiss the one in Singapore in 2005, but since 2007 in Fredrikshavn, it’s been all Sweden. That is no coincidence.
- Sweden has more good players who have a professional attitude towards the game. But especially, I’m quite disappointed about our competitors’ physical fitness. It seems to me that Swedish elite players are clearly more fit than other countries’ top players and I just can’t understand why. In the Finnish and Swiss national teams there are many good and most of all technically skillful players but there are too few of them and they cant perform the whole tournament at the same level.
In the national series, too, Swedish elite floorball is played on a higher level than in other countries.
- The biggest difference lies in the pace. Here everything happens in a higher tempo and the game is more physical. You have less time to make your moves with the ball.

Athlete's lifestyle the only option
Anna Jakobsson’s list of achievements in impressive. This year’s number one goalscorer in Swedish Svenska Superligans regular season, forward of the year in Sweden in 2005-2006, 2012-2013 and 2013-2014, World Champion with a hat trick in the final. With this being written, she is leading the Superligan’s play off scoring league with 12 points in five games.
Like so many elite athletes, Anna Jakobsson comes from an environment with love for sports.
- I grew up in a big family with eight children and the parents who all loved to compete. Our back yard was a regular arena for our own Olympic games and World Championship competitions. I started playing football at the age of four or five and I have also competed in athletics and badminton.
Floorball came along when Anna Jakobsson was 12.
- I first played with both girls and boys. Soon after that I got to play with the women’s team where my older sister Maria played and that’s when floorball got more serious.
Coincidentally, it was easy for Anna Jakobson to pick her sports idol.
- I have always had great respect for my sister Maria who is five years older than me and who was the big star of the team. She’s a player who always gives a hundred per cent and who is a real winner.
At 15, the future top scorer moved from Hansa Hoburg to Endre. She still also played football seriously so it was not yet time for just one sport. Only when Endre advanced Swedish elite level, Jakobsson gave up football and concentrated in floorball only. That was also when she got her first chance with the national team.
Now, she lives as much an athletes life as is possible without actually making a living out of sports. Besides her job as a real estate agent in Visby, its is floorball that lays the rules.
- During the season, I practice five to six times a week plus games and lead a life that makes it possible to perform your best at top level. That means going to bed early for enough sleep and eating healthy food.

Really hard on herself
Anna Jakobsson is known as a real winner type who is able to take responsibility, carry her team and score the decisive goals when they are most needed. She thinks some players are born with the mentality but it can also be developed.
- I  have worked on being able to control my thoughts in the rink. If I miss a scoring opportunity. I am able to put leave it behind and remember the things I choose to. Then again, when I get back home and analyze my performance I can be really hard on myself. I like to say that I have lost too many times to not do everything I can to win.
Born in Uppsala, Anna Jakobssons family moved to the Gotland when she was twelve. She has not picked up the local dialect in her speech but she has lived on the island long enough to be proud of Gotland and Endre. Like the whole community is.
- Endre is something special in Gotland indeed, she says.
- There are so many people who are committed to the club and interested. We draw big audiences and get a good deal of our media time here. What has been most important, there are fantastic key personalities who have worked hard for Endre to make all this possible.   

Could never play against Endre
Endre has also been a popular club among foreign players from Latvia, Finland and Sweden. This year’s roster includes Tanja Stella and Corin Rüttimann from Switzerland, Malgorzata Pazio from Poland and goalie Liisa Kokkonen from Finland.
- I think we take good care of our new players in things like learning Swedish and finding jobs of studying positions alongside floorball. I think it is great to have so many players from abroad. We get to chance to learn from the way we are all different and it makes us all stronger.
It is obvious a world class player like Anna Jakobsson gets offered contracts from other clubs in Sweden and other countries. She does not say ”never” to playing somewhere else.
But.
- If I played for some other club some day, it would have to be in another league, Anna Jakobsson says.
- I could never play against Endre, my Endre heart is just too big for that. I love playing here and it is most of all because all the great people in Endre.