#emma kullberg

[alexbkrieger13]

[msndrstd-wolff]

ah sì il blocco scandinavo

[midnight-ramblingswfc]

Sweden gets ready

[pernillecfcw]

@nathalieebjorn - Enjoying life 🫶🏻

[batllethinker]

Please, they're so cute

[pernillemagda]

I have to admit the Swedish looks better even though i like the classic Danish one

[magdasabs]

‘It’s brilliant to have found a club willing to sign us both’

Molly Hudson on how Brighton offered the perfect package for couple living the dream on and off the field

Zigiotti, left, and Kullberg, who are engaged, have the same contract length at Brighton

PETER TARRY FOR THE TIMES

Molly Hudson

Friday January 13 2023, 12.01am GMT, The Times

On the wall of the relaxation room at Brighton & Hove Albion’s new state-of-the-art training complex, there is a proverb: “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.”

It is fitting that this is the location in which Julia Zigiotti and Emma Kullberg have chosen to share their story with The Times. The two Sweden internationals, who recently got engaged after Zigiotti proposed, are speaking for the first time about their relationship on and off the pitch since moving to the south coast club a year ago.

They joined in January 2022, after leaving BK Hacken in Sweden in November of the previous year. Their contract length is identical, signing with Brighton until the end of this campaign. Their move was announced together, and their unveiling press conference held simultaneously.

In the women’s game, the relationships of players can influence their transfers. Magda Eriksson was already at Chelsea before her partner, Pernille Harder, signed from Wolfsburg in 2020. The relationship, and the fact that Harder had already watched Chelsea games — both from abroad and at their Kingsmeadow stadium — helped to assure the London club that she would be a good fit.

For Zigiotti and Kullberg, being at the same club was always a preference, but never to the detriment of their individual development. Brighton offered the perfect package, with the pair seeking a move away from their homeland to a more competitive league.

“It’s hard because of course the club has to want both of us — we had so many talks about this, and if one gets a contract there and the other [somewhere else] we do it,” Kullberg says. “We have to always think what’s best for ourselves [but] could I live without her?

“You don’t want anyone to give up on their dreams. Our [agency, Neverland] did a great job in finding Brighton, who wanted us both.”

Couples who are open about their sexuality and their relationship within a professional football team are rare

Zigiotti, the 25-year-old midfielder, and Kullberg, the 31-year-old defender, met through mutual friends three years ago having been aware of each other from playing in Sweden, but it was Hacken who bought them together as team-mates.

“You were more of a star,” Kullberg tells Zigiotti, with a smile. “The club, they called me and wanted to sign me but they didn’t know anything about us [being together], which also felt good. Because then it wasn’t like, [only] because Julia was there . . . They wanted both of us.”

It becomes evident that while the pair are proud of their relationship, they are also passionate about being seen as individual players with separate careers and goals, which influenced how they handled playing together at their first club.

“After she signed I went to the coaching staff and said, ‘I didn’t want to tell you [that they were a couple] before because I didn’t want it to impact anything,” Zigiotti says. “I just said, ‘We are together.’

Mead, right, and her partner Miedema also turn out for the same club

PERRY VAN DE LEUVERT/NES IMAGES/DEFODI IMAGES VIA GETTY IMAGES

“We are a couple and it’s not going to affect anything, but I still wanted them to know because it can be hard. I just wanted to be honest about it so it doesn’t come up later as a problem.”

Couples who are open about their sexuality and their relationship within a professional football team remain rare, even in the women’s game which is much more welcoming towards LGBTQ+ people than men’s football.

Perhaps the most high-profile couple are the Chelsea duo Harder and Eriksson. The Sweden defender greeted Harder, who is from Denmark but was wearing a Sweden shirt in support of her partner, in the stands after a match in the round of 16 at the Women’s World Cup in 2019. The picture of the couple sharing a kiss went viral as a rare moment of open homosexuality at a major tournament.

Since then, others have also publicly revealed their relationships including the Arsenal duo Vivianne Miedema and Beth Mead and the Chelsea striker Sam Kerr and her girlfriend Kristie Mewis, who plays in the National Women’s Soccer League in America.

Last year, Jake Daniels, the Blackpool forward, became the first active male UK professional footballer to come out. The only openly gay top-flight male football player is Josh Cavallo, who plays in the A-League in Australia for Adelaide United. “It’s important to be open about it and let people see that it’s accepted,” Kullberg says. “Also, in the women’s game, so many people are open about it — it doesn’t have to be such a big thing.”

Blackpool’s Daniels last year became the first male professional to come out but sexuality is much more on an open topic in the women’s game

LEE PARKER/CAMERASPORT VIA GETTY IMAGES

Both Kullberg and Zigiotti believe growing up in women’s football and being within an environment where being gay was accepted helped their own journey in coming to terms with their sexuality.

“It’s so hard to picture it, if it wasn’t open in the women’s game,” Zigiotti says. “There’s been so many people before us — like in Sweden where we come from, it’s very open — and the people before us have taken all the shit. Now it’s so common and I haven’t had a problem with anyone ever saying that I’m gay, and I’m in love with a girl.

“For me, and for us, I can’t see it as a problem. But unfortunately, it is [in the men’s game] and I just hope it changes. Because I wouldn’t be able to feel good or play my best game if I couldn’t be honest with myself.”

From first-day nerves to the language barrier, the pair find positives in being together at a new club. But it has not always been this way, having initially struggled to separate their football from their home life.

“Both of us we have always been professional about it,” Zigiotti says. “But because both of us are very competitive, it’s easy to take it a bit too seriously sometimes and I think we learnt that we don’t try to take it home. When we’re here [at the club], we’re here as equals; it’s a job. But when we get home, we try to let go of the football and whatever happened in training and just be us. In the beginning, it was quite hard to find that balance, but now it is no problem at all.”

While their relationship has not hindered their adaption to the Women’s Super League, English food is proving a little more challenging. They often visit the Totally Swedish shop in London with the aim of satisfying their biggest craving from home — sauce.

“We love sauce,” Kullberg says. “Here in England, you don’t have the sauces.” I ask whether they are referring to tomato ketchup, mayonnaise, or even gravy. “No, not gravy,” Kullberg adds. “Like Bearnaise sauce. We have so many different sauces, to have with things like fish. It is lovely.”

Their Brighton team-mates have been gently introduced to Swedish food, with the pair baking cakes and cookies for the team, which have proved popular.

For now, the couple are living their dream as professional footballers, for the same club, having settled into their seaside surroundings. They know that upon the expiry of their contracts they may not be able to find another club to suit them both, and that makes the moments they spend on the pitch even more precious.

“I know what she’s going to do when she gets the ball,” Zigiotti says. “I know how she thinks if the ball’s coming — it’s a nice feeling to have.”

[glimmerofawesome]

[femftbllvr]

[lessirussolvr]

[alexbkrieger13]

julia and kullis who can spend 24 hours together, cute

I'm too sentimental right now

[ofwings]

I was pointed in your direction as a person to ask for this. Do you know if there is anywhere to watch the games Sonnett played in Sweden?

you did come to the right place!

here is a playlist of all 11 games that sonnett played in from the second half of goteborg's 2020 season. there's one swedish cup game vs jitex that has swedish commentary and also was, i assume, recorded on a toaster by the local newspaper. there's also one league game vs kristianstads that loses sound almost immediately. but the rest of the games are just field noise and player chatter. goteborg were very dominant in most games (and if you like sonnett, this ridiculous game is on the playlist) and win the league in the 2nd to last game, so that's fun.

there's a bunch of players on this team that now play in bigger leagues that might be fun to watch if you like their new teams: stina blackstenius (arsenal), rebecka blomqvist (wolfsburg), emma koivisto (liverpool), natalia kuikka (portland thorns), julia zigiotti olme + emma kullberg (brighton), filippa angeldal (man city), vilde bøe risa (man united), and julia roddar (2021/2022 washington spirit my beloved). there's some nwsl cameos on opponent teams as well - off the top of my head i remember lauren barnes, ali riley, and hailie mace.

[kellys-leftovers]

2022 christmas engagements

1. bella linden and lile 9/12/22

2. cecilie hauståker fiskerstrand and christer 18/12/22

3. martha thomas and ellie leek 21/12/22

4. samantha tierney and aden 22/12/22

5. stephanie mccaffery and erin robertson 24/12/22

6. remi allen and carly davies 26/12/22

7. emma kullberg and julia zigiotti olme 31/12/22

[ffschweden]

Emma Kullberg till Juventus

Snart 33-åriga Emma Kullberg som lämnar Brighton & Hove Albion har kritat på för Italiens topplag Juventus. “Jag har lärt mig mycket under min karriär, och nu ser jag fram emot att lära känna Italien och italiensk fotboll, som jag har sett och tittat på många gånger,” säger svenskan som tidigare spelat för Umeå IK, Vittsjö GIK, Kungsbacka DFF, KIF Örebro och Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC aka BK Häcken.

[batllethinker]

Wag #3?

[magdasabs]

Nattis, Megan, Ippe stories (31/12/22)