Former Junior Lone Star FC forward Anthony Allison has signed a two-year contract with Swedish Division I side Umea FC after impressing on trial at the club.
Allison recently refused to extend his contract with Swedish 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, formerly known as Sargbah Tarpeh, begun his youth soccer career at Junior Lone Star FC in 2001 and was part of Junior Lone Star FC’s U-23 squad that won the club’s first championship in 2008 with the U-23 State title and a subsequent U-23 Regional title as well as National semi-finalists.
After graduating from Overbrook High School, he was a standout forward at Wilmington University, where he was a NSCAA and NCAA Daktronics First Team All-America selection. Allison was also named Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC), Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC), and NCAA Daktronics East Region Player of the Year. He was also a First Team All-Region selection and a four-time First Team All-CACC award winner at Wilmington University.
Allison, undrafted out of college, signed his first professional contract with the Puerto Rico Islanders of the USL in 2010 before going to Sweden where he has been progressing every year.
After his arrival in Sweden in 2011, Allison played for IFK Sundsvall where he scored a whopping 24 goals in 21 matches and won the Top Scorer Award in the Sweden’s third division.
In 2012, he transferred to Division II 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.
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 preseason matches to return to the United States and work on his fitness with his former club Junior Lone Star FC in late February before returning to Sweden two weeks ago for Umea’s trial.
Allison was impressive in his first trial match with Umea FC in his new club’s 2-1 preseason win over Selanger SK on Sunday, March 24. Allison, playing on the right side of midfield, was able to set up the first goal of the match when his fierce shot ricocheted off the post, but fell into the path of Axel Fallman, who slotted in the game’s opener.
Allison also came on as a second half substitute in Umea’s 2-2 draw against Anundsjo IF on Tuesday, March 26 before he was signed.
Allison will play in another two preseason matches with Umea at Ostersunds FK on March 30th and at home to Mariehems SK on April 6th before playing in the Swedish Division I League opener away to IK Frej on April 14th.
