Lena Mari Anette Videkull (born 6 December 1962) is a Swedish former

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

forward who won 111 caps for the

Sweden women's national football team The Sweden women's national football team (), nicknamed ''Blågult'' ("The Blue-Yellow"), represents Sweden at international women's association football competitions. It was established in 1973 and is governed by the Swedish Football Associatio ...

, scoring 71 goals. Videkull can be seen in the

Sveriges Television Sveriges Television AB ("Sweden's Television aktiebolag, Stock Company"), shortened to SVT (), is the Sweden, Swedish national public broadcasting, public television broadcaster, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksd ...

documentary television series '' The Other Sport'' from 2013.

Club career

Videkull won the

Damallsvenskan The (; ), known as OBOS for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of women's football in Sweden. It is one of the best women's leagues in the world, and was founded in 1988. The division consists of a league of 14 teams. From 2013, t ...

championship six times in her career. She was the league's top goalscorer on a record six occasions.

International career

Videkull made her senior

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

debut in the final of the first UEFA championships for national women's teams in May 1984. Sweden beat

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

1–0 in the first leg at

Ullevi Ullevi, sometimes known as Nya Ullevi (, ''New Ullevi''), is a multi-purpose stadium in Gothenburg, Sweden. It was built for the 1958 FIFA World Cup, but since then has also hosted the World Allround Speed Skating Championships six times; the ...

, then prevailed in a

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

Kenilworth Road Kenilworth Road, known affectionately as The Kenny, is a association football, football stadium in the area of Bury Park, Luton, Bedfordshire, England. It has been the home ground of Luton Town F.C., Luton Town Football Club since 1905. The sta ...

Luton Luton () is a town and borough in Bedfordshire, England. The borough had a population of 225,262 at the 2021 census. Luton is on the River Lea, about north-west of London. The town's foundation dates to the sixth century as a Saxon settleme ...

after a 1–0 defeat. Sweden reached the final again in the next edition of the UEFA championships in 1987. Videkull scored in the final but the Swedes lost 2–1 to

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. In May 1989 Videkull scored in a women's international match at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

, adding to

Pia Sundhage Pia Mariane Sundhage (, born 13 February 1960) is a Swedish football manager and former professional player. Currently, she is coaching Switzerland. As a player, Sundhage played most of her career as a forward and retired as the top scorer fo ...

's opening goal as Sweden beat England 2–0 in a curtain–raiser for the Rous Cup. In 1991, Videkull helped Sweden to a third-place finish at the inaugural

FIFA Women's World Cup The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior list of women's national association football teams, women's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internationale de Footb ...

. Videkull was Sweden's top scorer at that tournament, and tallied her country's first ever World Cup goal in a 2–3 loss to the USA on match day one. She also scored the fastest goal in a women's World Cup after 30 seconds in an 8–0 win against

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. In 1993, she was given the Diamantbollen award for the best Swedish female footballer of the year. Coming on as a second-half substitute in the second leg of the 1995 Women's Euro semi-final, Videkull scored a hat trick in a 4–1 win, ensuring the Swedes a spot in the final as they defeated

7–5 on aggregate. She briefly retired after featuring for Sweden in the

1995 FIFA Women's World Cup The 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup, the second edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, was held in Sweden and won by Norway women's national football team, Norway, who became the first European nation to win the Women's World Cup. The tournament fea ...

, which they hosted, but was tempted into a comeback for the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

Matches and goals scored at World Cup & Olympic tournaments

Matches and goals scored at European Championship tournaments

International goals

Personal life

Videkull is a

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

and lives with her partner Nina and their daughter, Felicia.

Notes

References

;Match reports

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Videkull, Lena Living people 1962 births Damallsvenskan players Swedish women's footballers Sweden women's international footballers FIFA Women's Century Club 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup players 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup players Olympic footballers for Sweden Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Swedish lesbian sportswomen Swedish LGBTQ footballers Women's association football forwards Swedish women's football managers FC Rosengård players UEFA Women's Championship–winning players Footballers from Stockholm 20th-century Swedish sportswomen