Freja Holm went from having zero major honours in seven years of football management to winning three in her first season at Fiorentina in 2032/33. The 43-year-old kept an eye open for new opportunities in the summer, but nothing appeared – other than Australian roles that never get taken and a Japanese role she couldn’t even apply for – so she stayed for a first crack at the Women’s Champions League.
The absolute mess that is women’s club finances on FM26 saw Fiorentina come into Holm’s second season with just £36k in the bank balance. However, they had a £1.4m transfer budget and £9k spare in the £32k wage budget. They lost left back Martina Toniolo on a free to Seattle, and that was the only area of the squad that needed addressing. So Holm brought in Italian Chiara Calderan for £60k from Real Madrid and Monica Sédogo on a free. She also signed goalkeeper Vitória Filho from PSG, striker Aissata Sadikou from Lyon and strengthened the midfield with Tenerife’s Paula Hernández.
Holm stuck with the standard 4-3-3 approach that worked nicely last season, with superstar Verena Oberdorf and Kentissia Bacoul Juillard flanking striker Neide Guedes. Midfielder Anna-Lena Acikgoz continues her development as a playmaking right back, with Oda Johansen filling the empty left back slot.
Fiorentina’s Serie A Title Defence
Fiorentina began Holm’s second season with another strong First Division League Cup showing, led by the exceptional Oberdor’s 6 goals and 5 assists in 4 games. They also beat French giants Lyon 5-2 in a friendly, which offered hope for their European exploits. The bookies made Fiorentina 8/13 favourites to defend their title, followed by Juventus (7/2), Roma (8/1), Inter (20/1) and Lazio (25/1).
The title defence began with Juillard, Guedes and Hernández earning a dominant 3-1 win at Sassuolo. Three weeks later, Guedes’ late flicked finish nicked a win over Inter, Acikgoz scored both in a 2-1 win at Roma, before Juillard’s hat trick, which surpassed her league tally all of last season, inspired a 3-1 victory at home to Como, then her brace led a 4-1 success at Ternana. The winning start ended with a rotated side drawing 0-0 at Lazio,
Fiorentina added the fifth piece of silverware during Holm’s reign in early January, as another 4-1 win over Ternana secured the Italian Super Cup. But their stranglehold on Italian competitions ended with a Coppa Italia semi-final exit to Genoa.
The Serie A domination continued in the new year, with Jouillard and Oberforf doubles inspiring a 7-0 annihilation of Sassuolo, which took them 11 points clear with 10 games remaining. A solid 2-0 win at home to Juve portrayed Fiorentina’s dominance over the rest of Italy, after which the Italian media heralded the rise of “Holm-ball.” And a Jouillard double at Inter virtually guaranteed another title with 8 games remaining.
Another dominant 3-1 win at home to Ternana, thanks to a Hernández brace, and a wasteful 1-1 at Genoa were enough to claim back-to-back titles.
Holm threw reserve teams in to rest players for Europe (see below). But they still managed to beat Lazio 3-0, Parma 3-2 away, in which academy striker Mariam Zouon became Serie A’s youngest ever goalscorer aged 16 years 344 days, Milan 4-3 with Zouon scoring two more. And they wrapped up an invincible season with a club record 8-0 crushing of relegated Brescia.
Fiorentina finished on 62 points after 20 wins, 2 draws and 0 defeats, scoring 77 (3.5 per game) and conceding just 18. Juillard topped the league with 16 goals, with Guedes joint 6th with 11, and Oberdorf topped the assists chart with 13, ahead of midfielder Signe Antvorskov and Acikgoz on 10. Juillard also had a ridiculous 8.08 average rating, ahead of Acikgoz and Oberdorf (7.76).
Goals Galore as Fiorentina Join Europe’s Elite
The season started with Holm getting her first taste of the Champions League proper as they went straight through to the league phase. And they got handed a tough set of fixtures.
The European adventure began by hosting Spanish champions Real Madrid. The visitors had the better of the early stages, but Fiorentina struck first with Acikgoz’s delicious 20-yard strike and doubled their lead with Antvorskov seizing on a loose ball after a great run by Guedes. But Madrid dominated from there on, getting one back through Felicia Schroder – who won the World Golden Ball two weeks later – then equalising after an hour. Holm took a more cautious approach and, just as they looked to be losing their grip on the game, a wonderful Elsa Pelgander pass put Antvorskov in to double her tally and nick a 3-2 win!
Next up, they headed to Denmark to face Nordsjaelland and got a flyer as Juillard raced through to score after 5 minutes. Acikgoz teed up Guedes for a second, Juillard’s second was cruelly ruled an own goal and Zomers headed in from a corner to seal a strong 4-0 victory. A few weeks later, Fiorentina entertained Paris FC and cruised to a 3-1 win with midfielder Sigrid Antonsen Gamst’s opener and second-half Antvorskov and Hernández strikes. That was backed up by Oberdorf scoring her first European goal to open the scoring at home to Brann, before her superb run teed up Juillard for a second inside 11 minutes, Johansen made it three a minute later. Guedes’ shot was oddly ruled an own goal to make it 4-0 inside 18 minutes and, despite some concerning defending, they racked up a ludicrous 7-4 victory.
That secured a place in the knockout phases with two games remaining. That was followed by a thriller at Barcelona, with Oberdorf scoring a hat trick in a 4-3 away victory, before a heavily rotated side won 4-1 at Benfica with Sadikou scoring her first goal for the club. Fiorentina topped the group with a perfect record, scoring a league-high 25 goals, while Lyon were knocked out.
That took Fiorentina into the quarter finals, which began well as centre back Freja Lindwall and a late Oberdorf strike secured a 2-0 at Atlético Madrid. Oberdorf finally put them in front with their 16th shot after 51 minutes at home and doubled her tally before Antvorskov made sure of progression.
Next up was a tough test against FC Bayern in the semis, while Barcelona took on Arsenal. An international break, during which Juillard obviously got injured, meant a month off before the first leg in Florence. As a result, the game started slowly, but both keepers made decent saves before the break. Bayern hit the post with a superb free kick, but Fiorentina landed the first blow, with former Bayern player Oberdorf’s wonderful jinking run ending with her curling into the top corner. Guedes had a goal narrowly ruled and Bayern, probably deservedly, equalised 7 minutes from time.
Fiorentina started the second leg well, having 11 shots to 0 and 7 on target in the first half… but failed to score. They again struck first as young left back Alberte Rathe got down the left and passed inside for Juillard to convert… only for FM26’s non-existent full back defending to cost them an immediate equaliser. Bayern grew into the game but Guedes should have nicked it late on, as her shot was pushed wide. That took it to extra time and, 7 minutes in, Fiorentina again had their noses in front as another Rathe cross was nodded in by Oberdorf, only to give away another goal from a long ball in the 2nd minute of one minute of injury time. And more appalling defending – not marking or closing down the attacker – gifted Bayern a winner 8 minutes from time.
More Italian Glory… But Time to Change?
Holm secured her second domestic title as she made it consecutive Serie A successes in Florence in truly dominant fashion. The outrageously good Oberdorf was their star player this season, scoring 26 with 23 assists in 36 matches. Juillard was also superb with 21 goals and 9 assists, along with Guedes (20 goals and 11 assists), Acikgoz (12 goals and 13 assists), Hernández (12 goals and 7 assists), Gamst (11 goals and 7 assists) and Antvorskov (7 goals and 19 assists).
However, despite that success, Holm wasn’t sure it was worthwhile staying in Italy. She’d already ticked off the Italian league and gave it a really good go in Europe, so she though it was time to go in search of a second national title. And she took matters into her own hands by resigning a few days on from the Serie A success.
Holm departs Fiorentina after 76 matches, of which she won 61, drew 10 and lost just 5, with a ludicrous 80% win ratio. Her teams scored 242 goals and conceded 87, as they won 2 Serie A titles, 2 First Division Cups, a Super Cup and a Coppa Italia.
Where would Holm end up as she departed Italy and went in search of a new adventure? Join us on Monday to find out!
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