Boston Breakers sign Swedish defender Lotta Ökvist

The Boston Breakers have signed 20-year-old Swedish international Lotta Ökvist for the upcoming 2018 season.

Ökvist comes from Piteå IF in Sweden’s Damallsvenskan and has played for Sweden’s U19 and U17 teams.

“Lotta is a very technically gifted player with a wonderful left foot,” said Breakers head coach Matt Beard via team press release. He also mentioned her ability to play in defense and attack, which you can see here in this helpful highlight reel.

Ökvist certainly does have a left foot, looks decent on speed, and seems pretty tidy on the ball. Most of her highlights show her at left fullback, but she pushes up into midfield too and the Breakers specified that she was a defender/midfielder. Assuming the Breakers hold on to Allysha Chapman, that would push Ökvist into the LM role, which is a spot that has needed some work especially after the departure of Norwegian Emilie Haavi. Attempts to fill that role by pushing up Amanda Frisbie or starting Tiffany Weimer haven’t yielded the desired results; Ökvist may be the reinforcement the left side needs.

If Boston retains all 19 players from their initial round of contract options and renewals, Ökvist makes 20 for a full roster, but the Breakers have the #2 pick in the 2018 college draft. Perhaps they’ll take a rookie who puts them over the roster cap and drop someone else in preseason based on performance; perhaps they’ll leverage that pick for a trade. Stay tuned for more offseason moves.