Record-chasing Mittag joins Paris from Rosengård
Thursday, May 28, 2015
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Anja Mittag has joined 2014/15 runners-up Paris Saint-Germain from FC Rosengård as she bids to become the competition's all-time leading scorer next season.
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Germany striker Anja Mittag has joined UEFA Women's Champions League runners-up Paris Saint-Germain from Swedish leaders FC Rosengård as she bids to become the competition's all-time leading scorer next season.
Mittag has agreed a two-deal with Paris, beaten 2-1 by 1. FFC Frankfurt in the Berlin final on 14 May but back in Europe next season as French runners-up. The 30-year-old will link up with compatriots Ann-Katrin Berger, Annike Krahn, Josephine Henning, Linda Bresonik and Fatmire Alushi, who announced after the European final that she was taking a break from playing due to pregnancy.
A 2005 and 2010 UEFA competition winner with 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam, Mittag's career had taken a dip and she had lost her Germany squad place before her 2012 move to FC Malmö (since renamed Rosengård) proved a shot in the arm. Mittag aided the club to Damallsvenskan titles in 2013 and 2014, finishing as league top scorer in 2012 and 2014. She bowed out with her 74th goal for the club in last Thursday's 7-0 win against Kristianstads FC that kept up Rosengård's perfect start and left them five points clear at the FIFA Women's World Cup break.
Moreover in that time Mittag has scored nine European goals to add to the 37 she managed for Potsdam. That has taken her to within two of the record held by her former Turbine and Germany team-mate Conny Pohlers, and in 2015/16 Mittag could well become the first player to 50. UEFA.com looks at Mittag and the others in the magnificent seven that dominate the all-time goalscoring charts.
1 Conny Pohlers (1. FFC Turbine Potsdam/1. FFC Frankfurt/VfL Wolfsburg) 48
Pohlers hit 14 goals on the way to victory in Potsdam's debut season of 2004/05, a record since only matched by Margrét Lára Vidarsdóttir in 2008/09 and Frankfurt's Célia Šašić this season. After joining Frankfurt, Pohlers scored three goals in the 2008 final and added two more titles at VfL Wolfsburg in her last two playing seasons of 2012/13 and 2013/14, her tally of four wins shared only by Viola Odebrecht. Pohlers's tally of 48 goals took just 45 appearances.
2 Anja Mittag (1. FFC Turbine Potsdam/FC Rosengård) 46*
Mittag scored for Potsdam in the 2005 final against Djurgårdens IF DFF and was also part of Turbine's 2010 win before her move to Sweden. She has never struck fewer than four goals in any of her eight European campaigns – do that again and she will be the first to bring up 50 goals.
3 Marta (Umeå IK/Tyresö FF/FC Rosengård) 41*
While Mittag moves on, Marta remains firmly at Rosengård and will spearhead their 2015/16 European push. The Brazil striker was 18 when she made her European bow for Umeå, scoring in both legs of their 2003/04 semi-final win against Brøndby IF and three more in the two defeats of Frankfurt in the final. Surprisingly Marta has not won the trophy again, losing finals with Umeå in 2007 and 2008 and then in 2014 with Tyresö. Marta moved across to Rosengård and got four in their run to the quarter-finals last season including one in both legs of the away goals exit to Wolfsburg.
4 Nina Burger (SV Neulengbach) 40
Austria striker Burger made a bit of history in 2014/15 as she became the first player to score 40 goals for one team in UEFA women's club competition, having returned to Neulengbach from a spell in the United States with Houston Dash. However, Neulengbach will be absent from Europe for the first time since 2002/03 next season after their run of 12 straight Austrian titles was ended by FSK St. Pölten-Spratzern.
5 Hanna Ljungberg (Umeå IK) 39
The single-club record had long been held by Ljungberg, and indeed the Sweden forward topped the all-time competition rankings for a decade from 2002/03, when she scored ten as Umeå secured their first title, until Pohlers finally overhauled her in 2012/13. Had injury not contantly disrupted and then finally ended Ljungberg's career aged 30 in July 2009, she would surely still lead the table having scored at a rate of exactly one per game in Europe.
6 Inka Grings (FCR 2001 Duisburg/FC Zürich) 38
Her loyalty to Duisburg means Grings did not play in Europe until their own victorious debut in 2008/09. She did hit the ground running with 12 in that campaign including a final first-leg hat-trick at WFC Zvezda-2005. Grings continued to score freely and in 2010/11 topped the ranking with 13 goals. Grings switched to Zürich and added four more in 2012/13; now retired and coaching Duisburg, her 38 European goals came in only 29 games, a strike-rate typical for a career as a whole in which she scored more than 500 times for club and country.
7 Lotta Schelin (Olympique Lyonnais) 37*
Sweden striker Schelin, like Mittag, Marta and Burger, may never have topped the scorer's chart for a single season but her consistent goal-getting has been a feature of Lyon's campaigns for the last seven seasons. That included victories in 2011 and 2012, though oddly in three final appearances Schelin has never scored. The 31-year-old aims to put that right next season with Lyon having suffered two surprise round of 16 exits in a row to Potsdam and Paris while remaining supreme in France.
Bubbling under
8 Margrét Lára Vidarsdóttir (Valur Reykjavik, 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam) 34 [from 21 games]
9 Kim Little (Hibernian LFC, Arsenal LFC) 32
10 Patrizia Panico (SS Lazio, ASD CF Bardolino Verona, ASD Torres CF) 31*
*Current club set to play in 2015/16 UEFA Women's Champions League
Clubs indicated only those who player represented in Europe, even if they did not score.