Far from all feel the same calm. This is shown by a new report that the clubs' interest organization Elitfotboll dam (EFD) has made in collaboration with the company Pulsen Group, where 210 players in the two highest leagues in Sweden – damallsvenskan and elitettan – answered a number of survey questions.
"This survey shows that players with a clear future plan feel less anxiety," says Fredrik Stengarn, acting secretary general of EFD.
Worked extra during the pandemic
Of the players who responded – of which around 40 percent play in damallsvenskan – more than one in three (35 percent) state that they feel "regular anxiety" about what will happen after their career. The anxiety is also more widespread among players who do not have a clear plan.
Cajsa Andersson understands the anxiety.
I can understand that it exists. But for my own part, I have something to fall back on, says Andersson.
She is well-equipped for what awaits when she is done with football. At the same time as she has taken the SM gold with both Linköping and Piteå, she has educated herself to become a civil engineer in medical technology.
During periods, she has also worked extra at the hospital alongside her goalkeeper job in damallsvenskan, among other things during the coronavirus pandemic.
I'm not doing that right now, it's a bit difficult with our training times. But I'm looking at the possibility of getting it back in.
Looking for "another purpose"
For many players, it is still a prerequisite to have another job outside of football, for it to work economically. Of those surveyed in EFD's survey, only just over a quarter answered that they can support themselves 100 percent on the compensation they receive from their club.
But that's not why Cajsa Andersson wants to have another job.
It's not like you put away millions, but I have enough to get by with the life I live right now.
But I would like to get more work experience. I'm not very young, even if I as a goalkeeper can continue to play for many years. And then I think it would benefit me as a person to have something else to think about, to meet some other people in between and have another purpose in life than just being a football player.
The survey was conducted in January and February this year.
