Courtesy of Paul Konneh, President and Executive Director of Junior Lone Star FC in Philadelphia

Photo courtesy of www.sportnu.se

UMEA, Sweden - - Former Junior Lone Star FC forward, Anthony Allison, was impressive in his first pre-season match with Sweden's First Division side Umea FC in their 2-1 win over Selanger SK at the T3 Arena on Sunday, March 24, 2013.

Allison, wearing the #7 jersey and playing at right midfield as well as a forward, didn't take too long to make his presence felt when he took the ball from right field and then send a powerful shot which ricocheted off the post and into the path of Axel Fallman who gleefully slotted the ball into the net for Umea's first goal in the 25th minute.

Four minutes later, Umea extended their lead through another trialist, Lamin Sillah from Gambia, off a corner kick but Selanger SK fought back to reduce the score four minutes before half time.

The second half proved to be a little dull as both teams made some changes as this was only a pre-season match.

Allison recently refused to extend his contract with Sweden's Second Division club Harnosands FF for the 2013 season. The 25-year old forward is originally from Liberia but grew up in the United States where he received his football training at Junior Lone Star FC and Wilmington University. 

Allison has been in Sweden for the past two years. In 2011, he played for IFK Sundsvall where he scored a whopping 24 goals in 21 matches and won the Top Scorer Award in Sweden's Division III League. 

In 2012, he transferred to Division II's Harnosands FF where he scored another 19 goals in 21 matches for the club as they finished third in the league table but he fell short of winning the Division II Top Scorer title.

Now in 2013, Allison is presently on trial with Sweden's Division I club Umea FC which was relegated from the Superretan, the second highest league in the league system of Swedish football.

Before joining Umea FC for trial last week, Allison trained with IK Frej in Division I and Jonkoping Sondra in the Superretan during the Fall and Winter of last year. He was also considered for Landskrona BOIS but he turned down their pre-season matches to return to the United States and work on his fitness with his former club Junior Lone Star FC in late February to early March 2013 before returning to Sweden two weeks ago for Umea's trial.

The coach of Umea FC, Johan Sandahl, is already impressed with Allison. He said, "Allison has played as a right winger. He has played forward in Sundsvall and scored lots of goals there. He's a fast forward / winger who I have had an eye for. He will continue to train with us and then we will see."

Anthony Allison said, "I just want to play as high as possible. Every year has been a progression for me, from Division III in 2011 to Division II in 2012 and hopefully to Division I this season."

Allison will have many chances to add on to his performance in Umea FC's next two pre-season matches at home to Anundsjo IF on Tuesday, March 26th and away to Ostersunds FK on Saturday, March 30th. Umea FC's first league game is away to IK Frej Taby on Sunday, April 14th at 4:00 PM local time (11:00 AM EST).