After once again qualifying for a higher division, we had a very intense pre-season where everyone worked hard both individually and together with the rest of the squad. This year, the training camp went to scenic Västerås where we stayed at the Steam Hotel. Our accommodation contained great food and some much-needed relaxation between our training sessions. Our practice matches have been mostly positive and we have got the results we were aiming for. At the same time, we have looked further afield and built our platform in parallel to ensure we can achieve our future goals.
During the last couple of months, we have also looked over our squad and become aware that we need a bit of expertise added to our fast-growing team. Therefore, we finalised the signing of the young and wise Kristian Persson, who will join Never Offside as a CTO in April. Despite his young age, Kristian brings a lot of experience with him, most recently from his previous position as a CTO at Kundkraft Sverige. With Kristian, we get both wisdom and creativity, a not-too-common combination at this level, and it will be interesting to follow how he can raise the level of, above all, our attacking game.
Unfortunately, this time around, I also have some unfortunate news to share. Many other companies have kept their eyes on what we are doing here at Never Offside, and after our strong season last year, interest from elsewhere has been expressed in one of our key players. Henrik "Henke" Stenmo, who has been with us for four years, and developed enormously during that time, has received an offer from a team on the rise in the real estate industry. Therefore, it is with a saddened heart that we have to say goodbye to Henke in April. We can, however, be both happy and proud that we brought up a lovely guy who has been deeply involved in our climb up the divisions. Henke has meant a lot to all of us and the customers he has worked with, and we would like to congratulate him on this new opportunity. We will follow Henke’s progress closely and we wish him all the best in his future endeavours.
Our sporting director is, of course, already in the process of recruiting a replacement for Henke, and we hope to be able to present an exciting new signing shortly.
