Not long after she had been picked up by the Houston Dash, Lotta Ökvist has now been traded to the Orlando Pride in exchange for a third-round pick in the 2019 NWSL College Draft.
The former Piteå IF defender first came into the National Women's Soccer League with the Boston Breakers before being selected by the Dash in the 2018 NWSL Dispersal Draft after the Breakers folded.
Sermanni looks forward to bolstering his ranks with Ökvist
The Pride's head coach, Tom Sermanni spoke to the club's official website about the Ökvist trade. Sermanni stated that he was happy to have "another young, left-footed and versatile player" to add to his roster and that he felt Ökvist's style of play was in line with how the Pride will look to "compete on the field".
Ökvist does not count towards Orlando's salary cap or roster maximum due to her being a pick from the Dispersal draft, which means that Orlando have an excellent defender who will enrich their squad for practically nothing. A steal by in almost every way you can look at it.
Ökvist's career in a snapshot
As previously mentioned, Lotta Ökvist first came into the NWSL after signing with the Breakers before the 2017 season. Before that, she played in the Damallsvenskan for Piteå IF in her hometown of Piteå, Sweden. During the 2016-2017 Damallsvenskan season, Ökvist made 25 appearances for Piteå before deciding to move on from Sweden. Before that, she had played for Umeå IK in the 2016/2017 season and did enough to earn herself a move back to her hometown team.
Ökvist has yet to feature for the senior Swedish national team but she won the UEFA U-19 Women’s Championship with the U-19 team and also featured for the U-17 team. https://www.vavel.com/en-us/tag/nwsl will be hoping that her time with the Pride will push her into national team contention at the highest level.
Quotes via Orlandocitysc.com