Emil Evert Bergström (born 19 May 1993) is a Swedish professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for Polish club

Górnik Zabrze Górnik Zabrze Spółka Akcyjna, commonly referred to as Górnik Zabrze S.A. or simply Górnik Zabrze (), is a Polish football club from Zabrze. Górnik is one of the most successful Polish football clubs in history, winning the second-most Poli ...

Club career

Bergström made the move to Djurgården from

IF Brommapojkarna Idrottsföreningen Brommapojkarna, more commonly known as Brommapojkarna (meaning ''the Bromma boys'') or simply BP, is a Swedish football club located in the borough of Bromma, in the western parts of Stockholm municipality. Brommapojkarna is t ...

as a youth player at the age of fifteen as he wanted to be at a bigger club. He had started out as a forward and then moved down to midfield before eventually finding his place in central defence. In 2010, he started getting a lot of playing time with the club's U21 team. On 15 April 2011, Bergström made his

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; en, the All-Swedish, also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan, en, the Football All-Swedish) is a Swedish professional league for men's association football clubs. It was founded in 1924 and is the top tier of the Swedish football lea ...

debut against

Malmö FF Malmö Fotbollförening, commonly known as Malmö FF, Malmö, or MFF, is a professional football club and the most successful football club in Sweden in terms of trophies won. Formed in 1910 and affiliated with the Scania Football Association, ...

as a substitute. Midway through the following

2012 Allsvenskan The 2012 Allsvenskan, part of the 2012 Swedish football season, was the 88th season of Allsvenskan since its establishment in 1924. The 2012 fixtures were released on 12 December 2011. The season started on 31 March 2012 and ended on 4 November 2 ...

season Bergström had become a regular starter at the central defence position. On 30 June 2013, he scored his first league goal, which was also the historical last goal for Djurgården at

Stockholms stadion Stockholm Olympic Stadium ( sv, Stockholms Olympiastadion), most often called Stockholms stadion or (especially locally) simply Stadion, is a stadium in Stockholm, Sweden. Designed by architect Torben Grut, it was opened in 1912; its original use ...

before the club moved to their new home stadium

Tele2 Arena The Stockholmsarenan, known as the Tele2 Arena for sponsorship reasons, is a retractable roof multi-purpose stadium in Stockholm Globe City, Johanneshov, just south of Stockholm City Centre, Sweden. It is used mostly for concerts and football m ...

. On 4 February 2016, Bergström signed a contract with

FC Rubin Kazan FC Rubin Kazan (russian: Футбо́льный клуб Руби́н Каза́нь, ''Futbolny klub Rubin Kazan'' , Tatar language, Tatar: Рубин Казан) is a Russian professional association football, football club based in the city o ...

. On 27 January 2017, he signed a loan contract with

Grasshoppers Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grasshop ...

that ran until the end of the 2017–18 season. On 30 July 2018, he signed with

FC Utrecht Football Club Utrecht () is a Dutch professional football club based in Utrecht. The club competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, and plays its home matches at the Stadion Galgenwaard. The club was formed in 1970 as a merge ...

. On 2 September 2019

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss football club based in Basel, in the Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been Swiss national champions 20 times, Swiss Cup winners 13 times, and ...

announced that Bergström was taken up on a loan contract until the end of the season. He played his first game for the club in the away game in the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup tournament that has been organised annually since 1925–26 by the Swiss Football Association. Since 1999 the winner earns the chance to qualify for the UEFA Europa League or the UEFA Europa Conference L ...

on 15 September as Basel won 3–0 against

FC Meyrin Football Club Meyrin is a football (soccer), football team based in Meyrin in Switzerland. They currently play in the Swiss 1. Liga (football), 1. Liga, the third tier of the Swiss Football Association, Swiss football pyramid. Meyrin were promot ...

. He played his domestic league debut for the club in the home game at the

St. Jakob-Park St. Jakob-Park () is a Swiss sports stadium in Basel. It is the largest football venue in Switzerland and home to FC Basel. "Joggeli", as the venue is nicknamed by the locals, was originally built with a capacity of 33,433 seats. The capacity w ...

on 25 September as Basel won 4–0 against

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

. The contract came to an end on 30 June and the club announced that they would not prolong it. During the ten months he was with the club, Bergström played a total 15 matches without scoring a goal. Eight of these games were in the

Swiss Super League The Swiss Super League (known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a Swiss professional league in the top tier of the Swiss football league system and has been played in its current format since the 2003–04 season ...

, one in the

, two in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

and four were friendly games. On 1 July 2021, he moved on loan to Willem II. After his contract with Utrecht concluded at the end of June 2022, Bergström remained a free agent until 26 September 2022, when he signed with Polish

Ekstraklasa Poland Ekstraklasa (), meaning "Extra Class" in Polish, named PKO Ekstraklasa since the 2019–20 season due to its sponsorship by PKO Bank Polski, is the top Polish professional league for men's association football teams. Contested by 18 cl ...

side

until the end of the season.

International career

Bergström has represented both the

Sweden national under-19 football team The Sweden national under-19 football team ( sv, svenska juniorlandslaget i fotboll) is the football team representing Sweden in competitions for under-19 year old players. Primarily, it competes to qualify for the annual UEFA European Under-19 ...

and

Sweden national under-21 football team The Sweden national under-21 football team is the football team representing Sweden in competitions for under-21 year old players and is controlled by the Swedish Football Association. The Swedish U21 team came into existence, following the real ...

. In January 2015 he played his first game with the

Sweden national football team The Sweden national football team ( sv, svenska fotbollslandslaget) represents Sweden in men's international football and it is controlled by the Swedish Football Association, the governing body of football in Sweden. Sweden's home ground is F ...

. The game was however not recognised as an official national team game by

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

Personal life

Bergström grew up a

Djurgårdens IF Djurgårdens Idrottsförening, commonly known simply as Djurgårdens IF, Djurgården (), and (especially locally) Djurgår'n (), Dif or DIF – is a Swedish sports association with several sections, located in Stockholm. Name The club is named ...

supporter from the age of three when his father started bringing him along to watch home games. He wears a protective

mouthguard A mouthguard is a protective device for the mouth that covers the teeth and gums to prevent and reduce injury to the teeth, arches, lips and gums. An effective mouthguard is like a crash helmet for teeth and jaws. It also prevents the jaws com ...

when he plays after getting his teeth knocked out by a

spring rider A spring rider or spring rocker is a bouncy, outdoors playing device, invented in the 1970s in Denmark. It mainly consists of a metal spring beneath a plastic or wooden central beam or flange, with 1 to 4 plastic or fiberglass seats above it. W ...

when he was a child. His favourite number is 13.

Career statistics

Club

International

References

External links

*
Djurgården profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bergstrom, Emil 1993 births Living people Association football defenders Footballers from Stockholm Swedish footballers Sweden international footballers Sweden youth international footballers Sweden under-21 international footballers Allsvenskan players Russian Premier League players Swiss Super League players Eredivisie players Ekstraklasa players Djurgårdens IF Fotboll players Spånga IS players FC Rubin Kazan players Grasshopper Club Zürich players FC Utrecht players Willem II (football club) players Górnik Zabrze players Swedish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Russia Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in Poland Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Russia Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Swedish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Poland