LTA’s Italian National Team Goalkeeper, Anna Maria Picarelli, has just completed a highly successful three-weeks loan spell with Kristianstads DFF (KDFF) in Sweden’s Top League.

American born Picarelli who will now return to California powerhouse Ajax America in the Women’s Premier Soccer League (WPSL) was contracted to step in when KDFF was left with no experienced keepers for almost a month due to injuries. The unorthodox keeper proved an instant hit by saving a penalty from Sweden’s best player and a perennial WPS target Therese Sjögran albeit KDFF narrowly lost to the League leading LdB FC from Malmo. Picarelli went on to feature in two more games with KDFF (who also boast LTA’s New Zealand international Kirsty Yallop in their ranks), both of which were wins, and she left the Sweden’s south coast outfit in the highest ever third place in the Damallsvenskan table behind LdB FC and Göteborg FC.

“Sweden was a fantastic experience,” Picarelli said. “The soccer there is treated as it should be, very professional and very competitive.  KDFF is a great club that suited me as a player because it is not the team everyone expects to be at the top but is making its mark in the Swedish League, and I am grateful to have been a part of that.”

Picarelli, who has been capped 18 times by Italy will next feature for Le Azzurre on June 19th and June 23rd in crucial FIFA Germany 2011 Women’s World Cup qualifiers at home to Slovenia and away to Finland.

The 23-year-old all-action midfielder joins the Southern Sweden outfit following the 2010 Cyprus Women’s Cup final appearance where New Zealand National Team won their group and narrowly lost to Canada in the championship match. Yallop, who has already earned 36 senior national team caps (9 goals), had an outstanding 2009 club season winning two National League Championships with Auckland in her native New Zealand and with Pali Blues of California in the USA W-League.

She becomes currently the only Football Fern and the first LTA Agency represented player in Swedish Top Division. In KDFF, she joins an ambitious young team led by the former Icelandic Champion and Cup Winning coach with FC Valur Elísabet Gunnarsdóttir. “Kirsty is a highly skilled player with impressive international experience. She played at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, and captained New Zealand at the 2006 FIFA U20 World Cup in Russia. Additional advantage is that we can use her in several different positions in midfield. We are very happy with her signing,” said Gunnarsdóttir.

During the official presentation to the press, Kirsty Yallop explained why she chose Sweden as the next step in her career: “The Swedish league is one of the three best in the world. I see it as a new and exciting challenge to play here. Now I get to play against quality opposition in every match.” “I am very happy here already. Kristianstad is a nice city, I have wonderful teammates, and our coach is great,” she added.

Kirsty Yallop made her Swedish debut in the 1:0 pre-season win over Danish powerhouse Brøndby IF.

See the video summary of Kirsty’s first impressions of Sweden and her goals for the upcoming season here:

We, at LTA Agency, are satisfied with 2009 and are looking forward to an even more eventful and successful year for our company and all our clients. In the past year, we signed a number of top international players from different countries, began representing coaches, established important ties with a number of leading football organizations around the world, launched our company Website, and attended a number of important competitions.

Among the highlights of 2009 we can point out the performance of our Spanish striker Laura del Rio who after becoming the best goalscorer in the US W-League with FC Indiana ended the year as the hottest striker of the most renowned German Bundesliga team 1. FFC Frankfurt by consistently scoring goals (1 goal every 70 minutes) in a completely new environment and in competition with a number of World and European Champions.

Our coaches Shek Borkowski and Kaloyan Petkov have taken charge of the three-time Russian Premier League defending Champions and last year’s UEFA Women’s Cup finalists – Zvezda-2005 in a very ambitious project.

Our strikers Pam Conti and Mery, and South African defender Jomo helped the new US W-League franchise Buffalo Flash to qualify for the play-offs in the first year in the League. Conti and Mery have followed that by leading RCD Espanyol of Barcelona to the top of the Spanish Superliga standings.

Conti and fellow Italian international goalkeeper Anna Maria Picarelli were part of Italy’s sensational run to the quarterfinals of the UEFA EURO 2009 Finals in Finland in September.

Our New Zealand international Kirsty Yallop won two unprecedented League championships in one year with Pali Blues in the USA and Auckland Football in New Zealand.

Our Nigerian international Ifeanyi Chiejine was the best player and the key in PK35 (led by the newly appointed coach of the WPS champions Sky Blue FC – Pauliina Miettinen) promotion to the Finnish Premier League.

Our Mexican standout Fatima Leyva has completed another stellar season with FC Indiana and is currently close to signing with a top European club.

Finally, our youngest player South African international winger Busi Ndimeni has been the leader of the U20 WNT Basetsana’s continuous run in the FIFA U20 World Cup Germany 2010 qualifiers.

After making scouting and negotiation trips to Finland, Bulgaria, Russia, and Germany in the second part of last year, we plan on visiting Turkey, Italy, Cyprus, Spain, Macedonia, and other countries as we continue to improve our network and our service commitment to our clients and partners.

Apart from exciting new signings we currently work on a number of interesting projects including expanding our presence in Europe, Africa, and the Far East, getting more involved in men’s football, and launching personal Websites of our clients.

Please, stay tuned with lta-agency.com as we continue to share with you our undertakings in the new year.

]]> http://lta-agency.com/2010/01/happy-new-year/feed/ 0 http://lta-agency.com/2009/12/yallop-wins-two-league-championships-in-one-year/ http://lta-agency.com/2009/12/yallop-wins-two-league-championships-in-one-year/#comments Sun, 20 Dec 2009 09:32:17 +0000 admin http://lta-agency.com/?p=957 LTA’s New Zealand international midfielder Kirsty Yallop has capped a highly successful 2009 by leading her club Auckland Football to the sixth overall Lion Foundation Women’s League title in her native country in the 5:1 final defeat of Capital Football in Pukekohe.

Earlier this year, Yallop helped American Pali Blues win the second straight USL W-League Championship by beating Washington Freedom 2:1 in the final in Maryland. She recorded all-important assists in both Championship matches.

In addition to the League success, Yallop started every game for New Zealand Women’s National Team in 2009 earning her 30th cap and helping the Football Ferns achieve great results including the first ever victory on the European soil, solid performance against World power Japan, and reaching the semifinals at a strong Cyprus Women’s Cup in March.

Yallop will again be in action for her national team as New Zealand prepare to host Australia in a pair of friendlies on the 17 and the 20 of February in Auckland, and she will look to continue her club career in one of the professional teams in Europe or the USA.

See the full New Zealand football news release about the Lion Foundation Women’s League Final here:

2009 NZ Women’s League Final