Have you ever wondered who are the Barça Universitas students? What are their professional backgrounds? Where are they from? Keep reading to find out more about of one of our newest students, Mia.

Mia Eriksson is a sport professional and a passionate football connoisseur, she lives in Linköping, Sweden. She has a background in communication and press, and currently freelances in football photography and journalism. She takes photos of the highest division of women’s football in Sweden called Damallsvenskan, and as a member of the election committee in Linköping FC, Mia also serves as their match photographer. As a football journalist she focuses on women’s football, writing for VAVEL, HerFootball Hub and Analytics FC. In her spare time, she enjoys running, playing tennis and spending time with her dogs, as well as being a student of Football Tactical Analyst.

Like Mia, many Barca Universitas  Football Tactical Analyst students do not specifically have a background in analytics but take the course to gain knowledge and expertise in the analytics field. Reasons may include to start or further their career in the sports industry. It familiarises the students with the technological tools and teaches them how to be capable of using a holistic analysis process (self-analysis, analysis of rivals, training, matches, competitions, etc.)

We asked Mia what specifically attracted her to the course. Interestingly, she told us as her sports journalist focus is on women’s football, she struggles to find analytical information to back up her storytelling, explaining there is a lack of available data on female players and teams. Facing this challenge, she decided to take matters into her own hands, saying “I am taking the course to understand analytics and therefore be a better story teller when writing an article”.

Additionally, we asked Mia about her experience and insights about women in the sports industry. She explained that as a female football photographer at matches she usually finds she is the only woman there. “I was at the Sweden vs Australia game the other night shooting for Football Australia and I was the only female photographer. When I was at the UWCL final in Gothenburg, we were 16 photographers. 2 women.” In regard to analytics, she comments “there are a lot of reasons why I think more football analysts should be women. Women are great at reading people, and an analyst must be able to read how players feel in certain moments to know how to approach them, to help them to perform better, to reinforce and highlight things we need them to do more or less of. And sometimes it’s more important on how you transmit information to a person, rather than what information is shared.”

We will be catching up again with Mia after she completes the course to see how it went, stay tuned for part 2! Good luck to Mia and thanks for your hard work!

For more information on Football Tactical Analyst click here.

If you would like to learn more about Mia, follow her on twitter: @mia_eriksson.