Robin Mikael Söder (born 1 April 1991) 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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. He spent the majority of his professional career at

IFK Göteborg Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Göteborg (officially IFK Göteborg Fotboll), commonly known as IFK Göteborg, IFK (especially locally) or simply Göteborg, is a Swedish professional football club based in Gothenburg. Founded in 1904, it is the ...

, but also represented

Esbjerg fB Esbjerg forenede Boldklubber (; commonly known as Esbjerg fB or EfB in short) is a Danish professional football club based in Esbjerg, West Jutland, that plays in the 2nd division, the third-tier of the Danish football league system. Foun ...

in Denmark and

Lokeren Lokeren () is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality located in the Belgian Provinces of Belgium, province of East Flanders, and belongs to the Waasland, also called ''Land van Waas'', of which it is the second ...

in Belgium. He won one

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

for the Sweden national team in 2020.

Club career

Early career

Söder began his football career 1995 in Magra IS. After a couple of years, he started to play for Sollebrunn AIK. He moved out from Magra at the age of 12 and started to play for Morlanda GoIF in Orust. He changed club to

Stenungsunds IF Stenungsunds IF is a Swedish football club located in Stenungsund. Background Stenungsunds IF currently plays in Division 2 Norra Götaland which is the fourth tier of Swedish football. They play their home matches at the Nösnäsvallen in Sten ...

, where he also played senior football.

IFK Göteborg

Söder was signed for the youth team of the Swedish champions

in December 2007, but soon began to train and play with the senior squad. He made his debut in

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 ...

on 1 July 2008 when he came on as a substitute against

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 ...

. Only eleven days later, he made his first Allsvenskan goal for the club, securing three points 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 ...

by scoring 2–1 in the 91st minute. After his debut season he was awarded Newcomer of the Year at the annual

Fotbollsgalan Fotbollsgalan is an official and annual Swedish sports awards ceremony honoring achievements in Swedish football. It is organised by Swedish Football Association and televised by TV4 TV4 or TV 4 may refer to: *TV4 (Poland), a private Polish televi ...

, beating Sebastian Rajalakso, Rasmus Jönsson and Joel Ekstrand.

Esbjerg fB

After six seasons in IFK Göteborg, Söder decided to move to Danish side

on 22 August 2014. He signed a three-year contract. After scoring 9 goals in 11 matches during the 2016–17 season, he was mentioned as a potential player for the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exam ...

by national team manager

Janne Andersson Jan Olof "Janne" Andersson (; born 29 September 1962) is a Swedish football coach who manages the Sweden national team. He is also a former player, with his playing career lasting 14 years between 1979 and 1993 playing for different Swedish cl ...

Lokeren

On 22 May 2017, Söder joined

Belgian First Division A The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 team ...

club

on a free transfer. He signed a three-year contract.

Return to IFK Göteborg and retirement

On 10 August 2018, Söder returned to his old club

, signing a three-and-a-half-year contract. On 24 February 2019, he was voted as 2018 Årets ärkeängel (''Archangel of the Year''), an award given to a player who is considered to have shown great loyalty to the club. In the 2019 season, Söder became the top scorer of the club with 14 goals in

, one goal less than top scorer Mohamed Buya Turay. For his performances during 2019, he was awarded Kristallkulan (''The Crystal Ball''), given to the best player in

West Sweden West Sweden ( sv, Västsverige) is a National Area ( sv, Riksområde) of Sweden. The National Areas are a part of the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) of Sweden. Geography It is located in the south-west of the country, ce ...

. Following the departure of Lasse Vibe, Söder was chosen as club-captain at the start of the 2020 season. When

Marcus Berg Bengt Erik Markus Berg (; born 17 August 1986) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a striker for Allsvenskan club IFK Göteborg, which he captains. Beginning his footballing career in Sweden with IFK Göteborg in the early 2000s, ...

returned to the club in July 2021, he took over the captaincy from Söder. Söder was instead picked as vice-captain. On 26 November 2021, it was announced that Söder would leave IFK Göteborg after the season, when his contract expired. He played his last game for the club two days later against

Östersunds FK Östersunds Fotbollsklubb, commonly known simply as Östersunds FK, Östersund () or (especially locally) ÖFK, is a Swedish professional football club located in Östersund, Sweden and since 2022 play in the Swedish second tier, Superettan. The ...

. On 11 January 2022, he officially retired from professional football and began working as a scout for IFK Göteborg.

International career

Youth

Söder was a regular in the Swedish national youth teams, and he was the captain of the Swedish U17 team in 2 matches in 2007. He became the youngest person ever to play in the Swedish U21 team, being 17 years and 157 days old when he played against

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

on 5 September 2008. The record was previously held by

Leif Eriksson Leif Erikson, Leiv Eiriksson, or Leif Ericson, ; Modern Icelandic: ; Norwegian: ''Leiv Eiriksson'' also known as Leif the Lucky (), was a Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to have set foot on continental North ...

, who was 17 years and 212 days when he made his debut in 1959. On 23 May 2009, he was selected for the Swedish squad competing in the

2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship The 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship began on 15 June 2009, and was the 17th UEFA European Under-21 Championship. This was the first tournament after the competition reverted to a two-year format, following the single-year 2006–07 compe ...

. Söder played one game in this tournament, coming as a substitute in the semi-final against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. He assisted

to the 3–3 equaliser. In the overtime that followed, he suffered a serious ligament injury.

Senior

After his successful 2019 season, Söder was called up to the national team by

for the friendly games against

Moldova Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The List of states ...

and

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...

in January 2020. He made his senior debut for

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

against

on 12 January 2020, a game in which he was captain.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Stenungsunds IF * Division 4 Bohuslän/Dalsland: 2006 IFK Göteborg *

Svenska Cupen Svenska Cupen (, ''The Swedish Cup'') is a knockout cup competition in Swedish football and the main Swedish football cup. Svenska Cupen usually refers to the men's tournament, although a women's tournament is also held. Each year 96 teams compe ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, 2019–20 Individual *

Swedish Newcomer of the Year Fotbollsgalan is an official and annual Swedish sports awards ceremony honoring achievements in Swedish football. It is organised by Swedish Football Association and televised by TV4 TV4 or TV 4 may refer to: *TV4 (Poland), a private Polish televi ...

: 2008 *Årets ärkeängel (IFK Göteborg player who have shown great loyalty to the club):

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

*Kristallkulan (best player in

): 2019

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Soder, Robin 1991 births Living people Association football forwards Association football wingers Swedish footballers Swedish expatriate footballers Sweden under-21 international footballers Sweden youth international footballers Allsvenskan players Danish Superliga players Belgian Pro League players IFK Göteborg players Esbjerg fB players K.S.C. Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen players Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark Expatriate footballers in Belgium