Felicia Schroder: Why Real Madrid have made Sweden's teenage goal-machine the most expensive player in women's football history

Khadija Shaw is one of the best centre-forwards in the women's game, if not the best. Winner of three successive Women's Super League Golden Boots, and scorer of more goals than any other player in Europe's top five leagues since her move to Manchester City in 2021, it's no wonder that Chelsea were trying to bring her to west London as her contract neared its expiry this summer. But as it became apparent that the Blues were going to miss out on Shaw, it says a lot about Felicia Schroder that the Swedish teenager was next on their wish list.

• Getty Images

  Where it all began

  After spending her formative years playing with local side IFK Bjorko, Schroder signed for Hacken in April 2023, shortly before her 16th birthday. Within weeks, she was making her debut for the club and, in a sign of things to come, would mark it with a goal, netting in stoppage time as Hacken beat Vittsjo 3-0. It was one of 15 appearances she would make in that first season, scoring three times and providing one assist despite being granted just seven starts.

  In the time since, those numbers have improved at an impressive rate. In 2024, she made 24 appearances, 12 of them starts, and scored 12 goals while providing two assists. Then, in 2025, she exploded, racking up 30 goals and nine assists in 26 games, all of them starts as she blossomed into a key player for a Hacken side that won the Damallsvenskan for just the second time. Amid interest from all over Europe, it was midway through this season that Schroder signed a new contract until 2029, one which made her the highest-paid player in the league, aged 18.

  While she was steadily growing in stature at club level, the striker, who ranked third in the women's NXGN 2026 list, was also thriving with the youth national teams. Rising through from the Under-17s through to the U23s, Schroder scored 19 goals in 28 caps before a first senior call-up came in May 2025. She's now a regular in Tony Gustavsson's squads.

• Getty Images

  The big break

  As well as Schroder's remarkable 2025 Damallsvenskan campaign, it was her exploits in the 2025-26 UEFA Women's Europa Cup that really put her name on the map.

  In the inaugural edition of the new European club competition, the teenager scored eight goals in nine games to propel Hacken to the title, including four in the two-legged final as the Swedish champions defeated domestic rivals Hammarby. It was Schroder's goal that gave Hacken a slender lead in the first leg, away in Stockholm, and then she hammered in three more as her side lifted the trophy on home soil on May 1.

  That hat-trick only intensified the feeling that, despite that new contract, Schroder was going to be a pivotal figure in the upcoming summer transfer window.

• Getty Images

  How it's going

  And so it has proven. Chelsea put in their bid for Schroder just a few weeks later, as their pursuit of Shaw ran into a dead end after the Jamaica international signed a new deal in Manchester instead. The Blues are in desperate need of a focal point in attack, having bid farewell to both Sam Kerr and Catarina Macario in recent months, all while speculation regarding the future of striker Mayra Ramirez continues.

  However, it is Real Madrid who have won the race, paying in excess of €1.3 million (£1.14m/$1.5m) to bring Schroder to Spain instead. With top-scorer Caroline Weir having departed for Lyon, and forward Naomie Feller having also left, Real needed to reinforce their attacking options, and adding the 19-year-old to their squad does exactly that.

  Asked by GOAL about her future earlier this year, Schroder said: "I feel like, especially for me when I'm young, it's about taking the right decision and the right move. I'm just taking my time and hopefully taking the right decisions and not stressing anything."

  She will hope that a move to Real Madrid, where there is regular exposure to top competitions like the Champions League but perhaps less pressure than other clubs, is that right decision.

• Getty Images

  Biggest strengths

  So, what is it that has so many top clubs circling Schroder? Well, as the numbers might suggest, her goal-scoring instincts are a big reason. The 19-year-old has all the natural poaching traits a club wants in a striker, with her anticipation and reading of the game contributing to her prolific nature as much as her quality of finishing.

  Schroder thrives in the box, darting into space to convert crosses at a remarkable rate, but her ability to use both feet and a variety in her finishing allows her to score a lot of different types of goals, too. Her decisiveness is a factor as well, with her more likely to get a shot off earlier than a goalkeeper is expecting rather than dallying on the ball. She's not a perfect finisher by any means, but she's already a very, very good one at a young age.

  Away from the art of goal-scoring, Schroder is extremely quick and, as a result, a very useful asset in transition. This might not be a trait that top European clubs can tap into too much, at least not on a regular basis, because so few of them play on the counter. But it can still be effective because Schroder can drift a little wider and pick up the ball in the channels, to drive at opponents.

• Getty Images

  Room for improvement

  One of the obvious potential weaknesses in Schroder's game relates to her height. Standing at just 5'4", the teenager is not an aerial threat. Despite her age and size, she is strong, but she can improve in shielding the ball and holding it up. That's no rarity in a teenage striker and, if she can develop in that realm - which one would expect she can - it would likely help her carve out more of her own scoring chances than she already does, too.

  There are also questions around how some of the transitional aspects of Schroder's game will translate to a top club. A lot of Schroder's assists, of which she racked up an impressive nine in 26 league games last term, have come on the counter-attack. However, while those numbers may come down a little in the league with Real Madrid, as the club is one of the biggest in the domestic game and, as such, dominates the ball a lot, it is something that she will likely still be able to thrive in in Europe, where Las Blancas are still making their mark.

• Getty Images

  The next... Sam Kerr?

  It's really hard to settle on a satisfactory comparison for Schroder, largely because there are not many strikers at the top level who are of a similar height.

  One would be Sam Kerr, who is only a couple of inches taller, and there are some similarities between the two, particularly with the high volume of chances they find themselves on the end of, because of their great movement, and their ability to score so freely and with such variety. Kerr, however, is much better in the air, despite her smaller stature, and she is excellent at holding the ball up. Perhaps Schroder can get better in those areas as she gets stronger.

  There are also some shades to a younger Vivianne Miedema to Schroder, before the Dutchwoman became more of a playmaker who is deployed deeper, as was the case in Man City's title triumph this year. Again, that's because of the natural goal-scoring instincts the teenager possesses. Miedema is much taller, standing at 5'10", but she has never built her game around strength or aerial prowess.

• Getty Images

  What comes next?

  Having previously been perhaps the best women's league in the world and the home of so many of the sport's biggest stars - most notably Brazil icon Marta but also United States legends such as Christen Press - Sweden's Damallsvenskan has a new role in today's game, as a developer and, eventually, a seller of top young talent. Schroder is the next in a long line of them to depart for pastures new.

  It was refreshing, though, to hear her talk about that prospect before it was confirmed. There are many cautionary tales in recent years of exciting young talents in Sweden, and the Scandinavia region as a whole, who made the wrong move and have not progressed at the rate many expected, either because of the timing of the transfer or the choice of their next destination.

  There are others, however, such as Norway's Signe Gaupset, who bided their time, kept developing with regular minutes at home and then made a good-sized step for their next chapter, with the 20-year-old currently thriving in England with Tottenham.

  Schroder will hope that Real Madrid proves to be the right step for her, and there are plenty reasons to believe it can be as she looks to take that next step and go up another level ahead of the Women's World Cup next year, where she will hope to play a shining role for Sweden.