Karl-Johan Anton Johnsson (born 28 January 1990) 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

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

. Starting off his career in Sweden with

Halmstads BK Halmstads Bollklubb, also known simply as Halmstad () or (especially locally) HBK or Bollklubben, is a Swedish Association football, football club located in Halmstad in the county of Halland. The club, formed 7 February 1914 and approved members ...

, Johnsson has gone on to represent

NEC is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It prov ...

Randers FC Randers FC () is a professional football club based in Randers, East Jutland, Denmark, that plays in the Danish Superliga, the top flight of the Danish football league system. Founded on 1 January 2003, the club builds upon the license of Rand ...

, and

Guingamp Guingamp (; ) is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Brittany in northwestern France. With a population of 6,895 as of 2017, Guingamp is one of the smallest towns in Europe to have a top-tier professional football team: En Avant Guinga ...

before signing with Copenhagen in 2019. A full international for the Sweden national team since 2012, he was a squad player for his country at the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national Association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awa ...

as well as

UEFA Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2020) or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe ...

Career

Halmstads BK

In 2005, at the age of 15, Johnsson moved to Halmstads BK after beginning his career at

Ränneslövs GIF Ränneslövs GIF is a Swedish football club located in Ränneslöv, Halland. Background The club was founded as Ränneslövs Bollklubb in 1934, but it ceased to operate when the World War 2 broke out in 1939. However the last elected board fel ...

. When goalkeeper Marcus Sahlman was loaned to

Trelleborgs FF Trelleborgs Fotbollsförening, more commonly known as Trelleborgs FF or simply Trelleborg, is a Swedish football club located in Trelleborg. Formed 6 December 1926, the club plays in Superettan, the second tier in the Swedish Football system. T ...

Johnsson was picked up as third choice goalkeeper on the senior team and he made his game debut on 24 August 2008 against

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 ...

when

Magnus Bahne Magnus Bahne (born 15 March 1979 in Kaarina) is a retired Finnish footballer goalkeeper. Club career Bahne started his career in FC Inter Turku and at the age 20 he became the number one goalkeeper of the team. In 2007, he signed with Halmstads ...

was forced to leave the field during halftime. On 20 November 2008, it was reported that Johansson would go to

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, England, for a week and join

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

during training. As Conny Johansson retired and Marcus Sahlman left for Tromsø IL, Karl-Johan was made second choice goalkeeper for the 2009 season. During the 2010 season Johnsson became second choice behind Robin Malmqvist. The 2011 season became turbulent, at first Halmstads BK appointed

Josep Clotet Ruiz Josep Clotet Ruiz (born 28 April 1977) is a Spanish football coach, currently in charge of Italian Serie B club Brescia. As well as working as assistant at several clubs, he managed Cornellà, Figueres, Espanyol B, Halmstad, Málaga B, Oxfor ...

as new manager of the club, this saw changes among the goalkeepers as Malmqvist was loaned out to

Tromsø IL Tromsø Idrettslag is a Norwegian professional football club founded in 1920, based in the city of Tromsø. They play their home games at Alfheim Stadion. Tromsø play in the Eliteserien. Tromsø have won the Norwegian Cup twice, in 1986 and 199 ...

in Norway and Spanish keeper Nauzet Pérez was brought in as first choice, however poor performance and problems with adapting to the Swedish lifestyle saw Pérez depart the club before half the season was played, with his departure Johnsson was appointed first choice as goalkeeper at the club.

NEC Nijmegen

On 5 November 2012, Halmstads BK announced that Johnsson would leave the club as a Bosman for Dutch club

when the transfer window opened on 1 January 2013.

Randers FC

On 11 July 2014, Johnsson signed for the

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga ( da, Superligaen, ) is the current Danish football championship tournament, and administered by the Danish Football Association. It is the highest football league in Denmark and is currently contested by 12 teams each yea ...

team

on a 3-year-contract.

Guingamp

On 28 June 2016, Johnsson signed with the French

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

team

. In the

2018–19 Coupe de la Ligue The 2018–19 Coupe de la Ligue was the 25th year for the league cup competition held in France. Forty-four clubs participated in the competition. Strasbourg won their fourth Coupe de la Ligue title (their first in fourteen years) following a 4– ...

quarter-finals, Johnsson played the full 90 minutes as Guingamp eliminated PSG and thereby ended their 43 games-long unbeaten streak. He was an unused substitute in the 2019 Coupe de la Ligue final.

FC Copenhagen

On 12 July 2019,

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 ...

confirmed, that they had signed Johnsson on a four-year contract. On 10 August 2020, Johnsson made 13 saves in a 0–1 loss to

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

in the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League quarter-finals – the most saves in a

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 ...

game by a goalkeeper since 2009. On 3 June 2023, his departure from the club was confirmed.

International career

Johnsson represented Sweden at U19 level before moving up to the Swedish U21 team and debuting against the Slovakian U21 team in 2009. Over time Johnsson was able to work himself into becoming the first choice goalkeeper in the U21 team. Despite Halmstads BK's poor performance in the

2011 Allsvenskan The 2011 Allsvenskan, part of the 2011 Swedish football season, was the 87th season of Allsvenskan since its establishment in 1924. The preliminary 2011 fixtures were released on 15 December 2010. The season began on 2 April 2011 and ended on 23 ...

with ended with Halmstad being relegated, Johnsson was called up to the Swedish national team for the 2012 January tour against

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

and

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

. Missing out on the game against Bahrain, he then came on as a substitute at halftime against Qatar, making his senior team debut. In May 2018 he was named in Sweden's 23-man squad for the

in Russia. He was also included in Sweden's 26-man squad for

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Copenhagen *

: 2021–22 *

Danish Cup The Danish Cup ( da, Landspokalturneringen; often referred to as Pokalen) is the official "knockout" cup competition in Danish football, run by the Danish Football Association. The cup has been contested annually since 1955. The winner will quali ...

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Individual * Tipsbladet Det Gyldne Bur: 2015 *

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 ...

Squad of the Season: 2019–20

References

External links

Voetbal International profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnsson, Karl-Johan 1990 births Living people Men's association football goalkeepers Swedish men's footballers Sweden men's international footballers Sweden men's youth international footballers Sweden men's under-21 international footballers Halmstads BK players NEC Nijmegen players Randers FC players En Avant Guingamp players F.C. Copenhagen players Allsvenskan players Eredivisie players Danish Superliga players Ligue 1 players 2018 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2020 players Swedish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark Expatriate men's footballers in France Swedish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Swedish expatriate sportspeople in France