Football|Linda Sällström received an honor from Fifpro.
Football Fifpro, the international umbrella organization of players’ associations, has awarded Helmareiden by Linda Sällström. The award comes in the player-activism category and is given to a player who works to bring about political or social change.
Umbrella justifies Sällström is chosen because he has spoken loudly about human rights issues, such as racism, gender-based discrimination and “sports laundering” and corruption. Sällström is also a member of the Human Rights Association’s athletes’ advocacy group, Team Human Rights.
Player has tried to intervene in injustices when faced with them. Among other things, he met fans who insulted his teammates after the game in Gothenburg in March. A group of fans shouted misogynistic slurs during the game, and no one intervened in any way.
Sällström asked the judge if something could be done about the matter, but the judge could only report on the matter. An angry Sällström felt that he had to go talk to the fans after the game.
“I went to confront these people to tell them that I do not accept this kind of behavior. It was impossible to talk to them, they just screamed and screamed. I tried until one of my teammates came and dragged me away,” Sällström said In the Fifpro article in April.
Sällström was shocked by the audience’s behavior.
“I’ve never encountered anything like this,” he said at the time.
Sällström also wrote about the incident on Instagram, where the publication caused a lot of discussion. He has also been active in human rights issues on social media.
A year Sällström says he is very grateful for the player activism award, but feels that using his own voice is the least he can do.
“If I see injustice, I want to say it out loud. As I got older I realized that we athletes have a voice that we can use. I thought I want to do that and maybe it will have an effect”, even a little.
“I don’t think that anyone can change the world alone, but when there are enough voices, it has power and influence,” says Sällström in Fifpro’s Instagram post.
Sällström, 36, who plays for Vittsjö GIK in Sweden, is the player who has scored the most goals for the Finnish women’s national team with 61 goals.