Jesper Urban Jansson (born 8 January 1971) is a Swedish former 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 played as a defender or

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He currently serves as the

director of football A sporting director, or director of sport, is an executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many types of sports. The sport ...

Hammarby IF Hammarby Idrottsförening ("Hammarby Sports Club"), commonly known as Hammarby IF or simply Hammarby ( or, especially locally, ), is a Swedish sports club located in Stockholm, with a number of member organizations active in a variety of differe ...

. As a player, he represented

Östers IF Östers Idrottsförening, commonly known as Östers IF or simply Öster, is a Swedish sports club located in Växjö, specializing in Association football, football, and playing in the second tier of Swedish football, Superettan. The club has ...

AIK AIK Fotboll (), more commonly known simply as AIK (), an abbreviation for Allmänna Idrottsklubben (meaning ''the public'' or ''general sports club''), is a Swedish football club competing in Allsvenskan, the top flight of Swedish football. The ...

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 ...

, Stabæk,

KRC Genk Koninklijke Racing Club Genk (), commonly known as KRC Genk, Racing Genk or simply Genk, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Genk in Belgian Limburg. Racing Genk plays in the Belgian Pro League and have won four champ ...

Helsingborgs IF Helsingborgs IF (full name Helsingborgs Idrottsförening), commonly referred to as HIF (), is a Swedish professional football club located in Helsingborg. They play in the Swedish first tier, Allsvenskan, following promotion in the 2021 Superet ...

, and Högabergs BK during a club career that spanned between 1988 and 2007. He won one

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for the Sweden national team in 1994 and represented the Sweden Olympic team at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

Club career

Jansson was the captain of

during the season 1994-1995. His move to rival club

in 1996 was not a popular one amongst fans especially for a hooligan firm associated with

called Firman Boys. After leaving the club Jansson received death threats and had his door painted orange (the color of Firman Boys) with the text Judas. One of the reasons for him subsequently leaving

in 1997 for

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

club

Stabæk Fotball Stabæk Fotball is a Norwegian professional football club based in Bærum, a suburb of Oslo. It is part of the multi-sport organization Stabæk IF. Founded in 1912, the club's name is an archaic spelling of the suburban area Stabekk, from whic ...

was because of this intimidation. Even after moving to another country and securing a protected identity he would still go on to receive threats. He was a part of the

team that eliminated

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Football in Italy, Italian professional Association football, football ...

to qualify for the

2000–01 UEFA Champions League The 2000–01 UEFA Champions League was the 46th season of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA's premier European club football tournament, and the ninth since it was rebranded from the "European Champion Clubs' Cup" or "European Cup". The competitio ...

International career

Jansson was a member of the

Sweden Olympic football team The Sweden Olympic football team (also informally known as Sweden national under-23 football team from 1992) is the football team representing Sweden in Olympics and is controlled by the Swedish Football Association. The team has been active s ...

at the

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. Jansson earned one

for the Sweden national team, making his only appearance in 1994 in a

Joe Robbie Cup Joe or JOE may refer to: Arts Film and television * ''Joe'' (1970 film), starring Peter Boyle * ''Joe'' (2013 film), starring Nicolas Cage * ''Joe'' (TV series), a British TV series airing from 1966 to 1971 * ''Joe'', a 2002 Canadian animated ...

match against the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Post-playing career

After retiring, Jansson was the general manager at

between 2008 and 2014. In 2015, he was appointed head scout at

F.C. Copenhagen Football Club Copenhagen ( da, Football Club København, ), commonly known as FC København, FC Copenhagen, Copenhagen or simply FCK, is a professional Danish football club in Copenhagen, Denmark. FCK was founded in 1992 as a superstructure on ...

, but left a year later. On 28 April 2017, Jansson was appointed as director of football of

Personal life

Jansson is the brother of former professional footballer

Ulrik Jansson Rolf Ulrik Jansson (born 2 February 1968) is a Swedish former footballer who played as a midfielder. Jansson began his career in Östers IF. In 1994 he transferred to Helsingborgs IF where he became a Swedish champion in 1999. He was a member of ...

and the father of the professional footballer

Kevin Höög Jansson Kevin Nils Lennart Höög Jansson (born 29 September 2000) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for IFK Norrköping. Career In 2019, Höög Jansson signed for Mjällby in the Swedish Superettan from the youth academy ...

Career statistics

References

External links

* 1971 births Living people People from Växjö Sportspeople from Kronoberg County Swedish footballers Sweden international footballers Sweden youth international footballers Association football defenders Association football midfielders Olympic footballers of Sweden Footballers at the 1992 Summer Olympics Östers IF players AIK Fotboll players Djurgårdens IF Fotboll players Helsingborgs IF players Stabæk Fotball players K.R.C. Genk players Högaborgs BK players Allsvenskan players Eliteserien players Belgian First Division A players Hammarby Fotboll directors and chairmen Swedish expatriate footballers Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate footballers in Norway Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Norway Expatriate footballers in Belgium {{Sweden-footy-midfielder-stub