Emma Westin

Emma started playing football at the age of five or six with her hometown club, Boo FF.

She reached Boo FF's senior team at just 13 years old and was suddenly sharing the pitch with players around twice her age.

Away from the pitch, she was initially quite shy and preferred to listen rather than take up much space in the dressing room.

At 18, she packed her bags and moved almost 9,000 kilometres from Stockholm to California to begin her college career. Before moving to the United States, she scored 43 goals in 63 Division 1 appearances for Boo FF.

Her first months in Berkeley were challenging because she had to adapt simultaneously to a new language, culture, football system and academic environment.

Speaking English initially made her feel as though she lost part of her personality because she could not react as quickly or express herself in quite the same way. Maths was one of the subjects she had to effectively learn again in English, including unfamiliar terminology and symbols. She eventually found her academic rhythm and was admitted to UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business that she later completed.

After finishing her five-year college career, she returned to Sweden and signed her first professional contract with Hammarby.