After three-and-a-half seasons in Sweden and four-and-a-half seasons in England, Freja Holm had done a great job rebuilding the fortunes of Alingsås IF and Everton Women. However, the dominance of Arsenal and Chelsea left the 42-year-old feelling a little jaded with life in England. So, when Italian side Fiorentina came calling, she jumped at the new opportunity.
Holm moves to Florence armed with a new three-year contract and a 50% wage increase to £1,500 per week. And she was excited about getting started at her third club in a third nation.
Who Are Fiorentina Women?
Fiorentina women’s team was founded in 2015, when the men’s club ACF Fiorentina acquired the Serie A licence of existing side ACF Firenze. This saw Fiorentina become the first professional women’s team in Italy. Le Viola won its first Scudetto in 2017 and won Coppa Italia in 2017 and 2018, but it’s not won anything since. During this save, it’s largely been a mid-table side, but finished down in 10th in the second season and 4th last season. Despite that, their manager departed at the end of the season to join Italian rivals Roma.
Fiorentina play at the 3,000-capacity Stadio Curva Fiesole, which is located within the Fiorentina training complex, Viola Park, built in 2023. Surprisingly, it has poor training facilities, below average youth facilities, which Holm requested be improved during her interview, average youth coaching and above average youth recruitment. There’s £1.7m in the bank, with £1.3m in the transfer budget and £10k of a £30k weekly wage budget going spare. Ironically, the club has a worse reputation than Everton (national v continental), but Serie A looks far less competitive. And there’s some pressure on Holm, as the board expects the club to finish in the top three.
The best player at Fiorentina is French winger Kentissia Bacoul Juillard, the club’s record signing for £200k from Como in 2029, along with Danish midfielder Signe Antvorskov, Finnish centre back Nanne Ruuskanen, Czech winger Krystyna Ruzickova, left back Martina Toniolo, Swedish midfielder Elsa Pelgander, Icelandic winger Dilja Yr Zomers and Norwegian midfielder Sigrid Antonsen Gamst. Holm was slightly concerned about the age of the first team, and there was a real lack of potential in the youth squad, with 21-year-old striker Federica Silvioni being the best prospect.
Holm wasted no time moving on some of the older players, bringing in a profit of £250k. There was no pressing need for new signings, and she had no scouting team when she arrived, but she did bring in right back Cristiane on loan from Everton and promising Spanish centre back Mónica Munuera. One area they were lacking was in attack, so Holm spent £165k on pacey Portuguese attacker Neide Guedes, who scored 8 in 17 on loan at Juventus last season and becomes the best player at the club.
Holm opted to go with a 4-3-3 approach, with Ruzickova and Juillard providing the width and Pelgander sitting behind Gamst and Antvorskov in a strong midfield three.
Holm Gets Started in Italy
Holm’s time in Italy began well in the pre-season First Division League Cup, beating Parma 5-1 and Ternana 2-1 and drawing 2-2 at Inter. They went on to beat Roma 4-2, led by a Ruzickova brace, to tee up a final against Genoa. They started well, with Zomers’ shot deflecting in before Antvorskov headed in from a freekick and swept in Zomers’ low cross. Ruzickova headed a fourth 58 seconds after the break, they switched off a little but won 4-2 – to win Holm’s first major trophy!
The bookies made Fiorentina 2nd favourites to win the 12-team Serie A Women Athora with 5/2 title odds. Juventus are 6/4 favourites, ahead of Roma (7/2), holders Inter (15/2) and Lazio (33/1).
Guedes scored 9 minutes into her league debut before Pelgander’s penalty earned a 2-1 win at Ternana. Three weeks later, they faced a huge game away to Juventus and another late Pelkander goal earned a point in a pretty tedious match. The Fiorentina fans finally got their first look at Holm as they entertained Como in late October, and were loving it as Ruzickova’s looping cross picked out Guedes to head home inside 8 minutes. And the second goal was even better, with Guedes passing to Antvorskov to curl deliciously into the top corner. Guedes added a second and Gamst made it four either side of halftime, Antvorskov bagged her second and they cruised to a 5-2 win, despite having less shots and xG.
The good start continued as Ruzickova hit a brilliant hat trick to down Brescia 4-1 away, Guedes scored the only goal at home to Lazio and at Genoa, before coming from behind to nick a draw at home to Roma. Guedes and Gamst both bagged braces in a 4-1 away thumping of Sassuolo, to take Fiorentina into 2033 three points back from Juventus having played one game less and with both teams still unbeaten.
Battling Juve For The Title
Holm chose to splash the cash in January, bringing in potential superstar winger Verena Oberdorf for £75k from Bayern. She also signed midfielder Anna-Lena Acikgoz, who she planned to retrain as a right back, for £25k from Hoffenheim, and loaned in striker Flávia Galrito from Benfica.
Oberdorf looked superb on debut, laying on two goals for Guedes to down Parma 3-1, while Juve lost 4-1 at Lazio to take Fiorentina top of Serie A for the first time. They quickly lost it as Guedes’ late goal earned a point at Inter before Juillard scored the only goal at home to Ternana. That teed up a potential decider at home to Juve in a very snowy Florence in early February. Fiorentina started well as Oberdorf skinned her marker, and her cross bounced to Antvorskov to score an open goal. Juillard should have doubled the lead 10 minutes later, but skied it from 10 yards, but Gamst eventually did after Guedes’ header was parried by the keeper. Oberdorf hit the post 2 minutes after the break, before they conceded twice out of nowhere. Holm decided to go for it, throwing Galito up top alongside Guedes and it worked, as the latter laid on the former’s first league goal to claim a massive victory.
A few days later, they took full control of the title race as Oberdorf, Antvorskov and Toniolo earned a dominant 3-0 win over Inter. That moved Le Viola four points clear of Juve with eight games remaining. They built on that with Oberdorf and Guedes bagging hat tricks in a 6-1 hammering of Brescia and Oberdorf and Guedes earning a narrow win at Lazio. They struggled a little in a 1-1 at home to Genoa then threw away a two-goal lead to draw at Como in their game in hand, but that opened up a 6-point lead over Juventus with 4 games remaining.
Matchday 19: Roma (6th, away): Juventus also drew with Como ahead of Fiorentina’s trip to Rome, where Guedes earned a third straight draw.
Matchday 20: Como (12th, away): Fiorentina could secure the title with a point at relegation-doomed Como if Juve lost. They bossed the early stages at Como, and eventually went in front as a brilliant run and cross by Toniolo was powered home by Oberdorf. Juillard doubled the lead 2 minutes later, before Oberdorf went close after a sensational solo run. Pelgander’s penalty wrapped up all 3 points, centre back Freja Lindwall headed in from a corner and Galrito tapped in a fifth.
Despite the lack of a trophy lift animation, that big win was enough to secure the Serie A title based on results against Juve!
Fiorentina could win the league with an invincible season if they avoided defeat in the final two games, which, for some odd reason, both had three-week breaks between them. However, the players were very much on the beach as they suffered a bizarre 4-1 defeat at home to relegation-battling Sassuolo. And they wrapped up the campaign with Gamst scoring twice in a 4-0 win at Parma.
That saw Fiorentina win the title by 6 points, finishing on 51 points after 15 wins, 6 draws and 1 defeat, scoring 60 and conceding 26. Guedes was the top scorer with 18, with Gamst joint-8th top scorer on 9 goals, and Guedes (7.64), Oberdorf (7.52) and Ruzicková (7.37) were in the top six for average rating. And Guedes, Pelgander, Toniolo, Lindwall and Ruuskanen were named in the team of the season, and Holm of course won Managers’ Manager of the Year.
From Zero Trophies… To A Shot At Three
Having arrived in Italy without winning a single major trophy in seven years, Holm had a shot at winning three in one year at Fiorentina. They nicked a 1-0 win at home to Juve then beat Sassuolo 6-1 on aggregate, with Galrito scoring on debut in the second leg, to reach the Italian Cup semis. Guedes’ late strike nicked a win at Como in the semi-final first leg, before cruising to a comfortable home win to reach another final.
That teed up an Italian Cup Final against Ternana, for which Holm lined up:
Fiorentina got a flying start as Guedes’ backheel teed up Juillard to curl into the bottom corner from the edge of the box inside 3 minutes. It didn’t take long for the lead to be doubled as Antvorskov flicked the ball on for Guedes to race through and finish emphatically, and it was soon three as Oberdorf skinned her marker and curled deliciously into the far corner. They continued to dominate, missing more clear-cut chances, before Antovrskov wrapped up her assist hat trick to help Ruznicková put the icing on the cake late on.
Viola Domination!
Holm’s decision to ditch Everton for Italy was vindicated as Fiorentina cruised to a domestic treble, taking her from zero major honours in eight years… to three in one season. She was delighted with the instant impact and really enjoyed her first season in Italy, including the main target of ticking off the Serie A title.
Guedes led the way with 26 goals and 9 assists in 33 games, followed by the impressive midfield duo of Antvorskov (14 goals and 7 assists) and Gamst (13 goals and 4 assists). Oberdorf was an inspired signing with 8 goals and 10 assists in just 18 games, Ruzickova impressed with 8 goals and 6 assists, Juillard racked up a new club record 14 assists with 6 goals and Toniolo got 11 assists.
Holm wasn’t sure whether to stick with Fiorentina to lead them into her first taste of the Champions League or look elsewhere for a new opportunity, having ticked off the Italian title. At the end of the season, no interesting jobs were available, but Atlético and Barca jobs were insecure, along with her former job at Everton (after they finished in a lowly 10th).
Would Holm stay in Florence? Or would another job become available to tempt her away? Join us on Friday to find out!
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