International transfers continues all summer as players change clubs and get ready for the new season ahead. This week we take a look at some more big transfers from across Europe.
Finns from Classic fly south to Switzerland and to new home at SV Wiler-Ersigen
More players are heading south to the Swiss League in search of a new challenge this upcoming season. Another massive name in the world of Floorball on the move this summer, is former SC Classic captain and Finnish Men’s national team forward, Nico Salo. Salo is a 2 time World Champion and 2 time Silver Medalist with Finland at the Men’s World Championships and also has a Silver and Bronze medal from two appearances at The World Games. He is one of the most recognisable faces in Finland for Floorball and after 14 seasons at SC Classic near Tampere, he will make the move to a new club, in a new country with SV Wiler-Ersigen. A versatile two way forward who excels in both offensive and defensive position Salo really is the “Swiss (Finnish) Army Knife” of floorball, a player who can do it all. It should make the switch over to a new club more seamless and easy for the 5 time Finnish Champion. Joining Salo at SV Wiler-Ersigen is teammate Albert Koskinen. Koskinen is a bit younger than Salo at 27 years old but has also spent his entire career so far at SC Classic. Koskinen has grown in strength in recent seasons at Classic with his best season being 2022/23 where he achieved 40 points in 33 games with 25 goals as part of that total. He also made his Finnish national team debut at the 2022 WFC Qualifications with an impressive 9 points in 4 matches and will look to get back into the national team with some strong performances for his new side in the Swiss L-UPL.
German Internationals head for new challenge in Finland with SaiPa
It’s great to see players move from countries outside the “top 4” to the best leagues in the world and SaiPa in Finland will have 2 new German players to reinforce their squad as they look to fight for the Women’s F-Liiga title this coming season. A big name is Forward Anna-Lena Best who has impressed both domestically in Germany for multiple time German champions Dümptener Füchse and for the German national Women’s team. Best also recently represented Germany at the 3v3 WFC where they went to the semi-finals before losing to Sweden. She has impressed at every WFC she has played in with the most recent in Singapore being her best individual performance so far with 11 points in 6 matches, leading Team Germany in points. Despite only being 25 Best has already appeared at 4 Women’s World Championships and has 3 German championships to her name. Her next step will be the highest Women’s league in Finland with new team SaiPa but she won’t be alone… Joining Best is fellow German Lara Schubert who moves over from SC Potsdam in the highest German division also to SaiPa. Schubert is fresh off the back of representing Germany at the 2024 U19 WFC in Lahti and was also part of Germany for the U19 WFC in Katowice in 2022. Schubert was drafted by SaiPa in the first ever Women’s F-Liiga draft back in May, right after the U19 WFC where her performances impressed the team from eastern Finland, with the team taking her as their first ever selection. Schubert will look to break into the F-Liiga side to play her first taste of top division Finnish league floorball this season alongside new German teammate Lena-Best.
More Czech influence and reinforcements for EräViikingit
In recent years we have seen more Czech players make the move to EräViikingit, as the side from the Finnish capital look to foreign shores to bolster both their Women’s and Men’s top division sides. On the men’s side joining other Czech players in the squad, Matej Penicka, Simon Stransky, Bohumil Piskacek and Lukas Kriz will be former Sparta Praha forward Josef “Pepa” Juha. “Pepa” as he is more commonly known is one of the most recognisable players on social media and has a large following online. He is also a strong attacking forward with several years of experience in the highest level of Czech floorball with Sparta Praha. Most famously Juha became a cult hero at home in the Czech Republic as he led the Czech team as captain at the 2019 U19 WFC to Gold and to the first ever World Championship gold in any category for the country of Czech Republic. He is also a 2 time NAFL champion with the Florida Vikings over in the US in the first 2 seasons of the NAFL. Joining the EräViikingit Women’s side from Tatran Stresovice is new recruit Katerina Vachudova who after 4 seasons at Tatran moves over to get her first taste of club floorball outside of the Czech top division. With Tatran Vachudova helped them to 4 consecutive Playoff Semi-Final appearences but just couldn’t quite get to the Playoff final. One of her biggest acheivements was as part of the Czech Women’s U19 team that got Silver Medals at the 2022 U19 WFC in Katowice, where they agonisingly lost in a shootout in the final, to Sweden. However that 2nd place finish is still the highest result for a Czech Women’s or Women’s U19 team at any World Championships. A strong, composed defender Vachudova will look to help her new Finnish side themselves make it past the Semi-Finals of the playoffs, which they haven’t done since they were previously know as Tapanilan Erä with a Finnish championship in the 2006/07 season.
Norwegian goalkeeper heads to the SSL with Warberg IC
A new man between the goalposts for Warberg IC as they fight in the top division of Swedish Men’s Floorball will be Norwegian Nicholay Halvorsen who moves over from recent Norwegian champions Tunet IBK. Halvorsen has been strong in the Norwegian net for several years already and at the age of just 24 will head over to Sweden to continue his development. 2 Men’s World Championships appearances alongside the U19 WFC in 2019 with Norway has established Halvorsen as one of the premier goalkeepers in his country. Already hitting the heights on the World stage with some great performances (Particularly at the 2020 WFC in Helsinki), he hasn’t gone unnoticed with some more great matches in the Norwegian club playoffs helping his Tunet side to another championship this past season.
More transfers will be covered every Tuesday this summer on Floorball.sport and you can see the full list of confirmed transfers so far here:
