Nati Scandinavian Smilla Vallotto: She moved to Oslo at the age of 16 to play football

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It is a special week for Smilla Vallotto (19). The national team talent lives in Stockholm, now came to Pfäffikon SZ to move together, flies back to Sweden and plays with Switzerland in Gothenburg against their adopted home in the Nations League on Friday (SRF info live, 6.30 pm).

Vallotto is our Scandinavian national team. The striker has only been playing as a professional in Stockholm for Champions League candidate Hammarby for two months. But before that she spent almost her entire life in Norway. She was born in Geneva, where her Norwegian mother and Italian father married and lived for twenty years. “We moved to Norway when I was four,” says Vallotto. She grew up in Stavanger with three brothers. And football takes place in the country of the 1995 Women’s World Cup.

Your talent is discovered and promoted. “When I was 16, I left my family and went to Oslo,” she says. She comes to a national center for all kinds of sports, where the best athletes train and go to school. This is possible for Vallotto because, in addition to the Swiss and Italian passports, she also has the Norwegian passport.

Because of Corona, she is often alone in Oslo at first

Alone as a teenager in the distant capital? The beginning is difficult. “It was in the middle of the Corona period, I was often alone. That took some getting used to when you come from a large family. But now that I’m here, it hasn’t done me any lasting damage,” Vallotto says, laughing.

It goes without saying that the focus is actually on the Norwegian national team. But it is difficult. Vallotto is only occasionally called up for the U teams. ‘I thought it was unfair. So I wanted to try something new. “I got an opportunity in Switzerland and I’m really enjoying it now. The culture here is more open than in Norway,” she says.

Two of her brothers had to bury Profitraum early

It is coach Inka Grings who included her in the team for her first call-up last February. For the first time with idols such as Ramona Bachmann and Ana Maria Crnogorcevic on the field, but Vallotto quickly loses his restraint. “Now I am here for the third time and I know my teammates and the coaching team better, which gives me confidence.”

She is now the only one in the family who is ambitious when it comes to kicking. Her two older brothers were already professionals, but both had to stop due to serious knee and back injuries. And after Friday’s game? Vallotto will fly back with the national team, play against Spain in Letzigrund on Tuesday and then travel back to Stockholm.

Source : Blick