China's Ma Xiaoxu, the AFC's Women's Player of the Year, will join the Swedish women's soccer champions Umea IK next week.

The 18-year-old, seen as China's biggest football discovery in recent years, flew to her domestic club Dalian Shide on Sunday for the visa and will arrive in Sweden to sign the contract in a week.

This means Ma will miss the annual Algarve Cup starting on March 7 in Portugal.

Umea, who have reportedly agreed to a six-month deal with Ma starting from the new season in April, are one of the top women's clubs in Europe with five domestic championships and two European crowns in the past seven years. Their club includes FIFA Women's World Player of the Year Marta and Swedish talisman Hanna Ljungberg.

As well as being named AFC's Women's Player of the Year last November, Ma was also named Youth Player of the Year, the first-ever woman to win the award.

Apart from the two Asian Football Confederation honors, she also bagged the Golden Ball and Golden Shoe awards at the 2006 FIFA U-20 Women's World Championship in Moscow.

Her talent has led Chinese fans and media to compare her to Manchester United's Wayne Rooney.

(Xinhua News Agency February 26, 2007)