Viktor Sebastian Elm (born 13 November 1985) 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

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 ...

and

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 is best remembered for his time with

Kalmar FF Kalmar Fotbollförening, more commonly known as Kalmar FF, is a Swedish professional football club based in Kalmar. The club is affiliated to Smålands Fotbollförbund and play their home games at Guldfågeln Arena. Formed on 15 June 1910, the clu ...

with which he won the

2007 Svenska Cupen Svenska Cupen 2007 ("Swedish Cup" 2007) was played March 24-September 27, 2007. Kalmar FF won the final with a 3-0 win against IFK Göteborg at Fredriksskans Fredriksskans is a multi-purpose stadium in Kalmar, Sweden. It served as the home grou ...

and

2008 Allsvenskan Allsvenskan 2008, part of the 2008 Swedish football season, was the 84th Allsvenskan season played. The first match was played on 30 March 2008 and the last matches were played on 9 November 2008. Participating clubs Managers League t ...

. He also represented

Heerenveen Heerenveen (, fry, It Hearrenfean ) is a town and municipality in the province of Friesland (Fryslân), in the Northern Netherlands. In 2021, the town had a population of 29,790 (1 January) while the municipality had a population 50,859 (1 July). ...

and AZ in the Netherlands. A full international between 2008 and 2011, he won 10

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for the Sweden national team. He is the older brother of

Rasmus Elm Rasmus Christoffer Elm (born 17 March 1988) is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He is currently the assistant coach of Kalmar FF. During his career, he played for Kalmar FF in Sweden, for AZ in the Netherland ...

and the younger brother of David Elm, both of them also former footballers.

Club career

Falkenbergs FF

Elm played 32 matches scoring 8 goals in 28 games in the 2005 season.

Kalmar FF

Elm joined

from

Falkenbergs FF Falkenbergs Fotbollsförening, also known simply as Falkenbergs FF, Falkenberg or (especially locally) FFF, is a Swedish football club based in Falkenberg. Formed on 3 January 1928, the club plays in the second highest Swedish league, Superetta ...

before the 2006 season, where his younger brother Rasmus was a player and at the end of the season his older brother

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

followed from

. On 9 April 2007 they became only the second trio of brothers to be fielded at the same time for one team 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 ...

, a feat the five Nordahl brothers never managed. Viktor and his brothers played a big part in the second part of the 2007 season which led to Kalmar equalling their best result in

from

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

at second place and winning their third Swedish Cup, the first time since 1987. In the 2008 season Elm was even more instrumental in Kalmars first league title, scoring 15 goals including four in the last home game to effectively seal the title and winning the award "Swedish Midfielder of the Year". In Kalmars

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

run Elm scored the winning goal for against

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after its ...

in the first leg of the

2008–09 UEFA Cup The 2008–09 UEFA Cup was the 38th season of the UEFA Cup football tournament. The final was played at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium, home ground of Fenerbahçe, in Istanbul on 20 May 2009. This season was the final one to use the UEFA Cup for ...

First round. At the end of the 2008 season Elm's contract was expired and was a free agent after 24 goals in 78 appearances for the Röda bröder.

SC Heerenveen

He signed with Dutch side

SC Heerenveen Sportclub Heerenveen (; West Frisian: Sportklub It Hearrenfean) is a Dutch football club from Heerenveen. They currently play in the Eredivisie, the top level of football in the Netherlands. History Sportclub Heerenveen was founded on 20 July ...

on a bosman during the fall of 2008 and joined the team when the transfer window opened in January 2009. He scored his first two goals for the club against

in the Fourth Round of the 2008–09 KNVB Cup. His first Eredivisie goal came on 8 February 2009, in a match against

NAC Breda NAC Breda (), often simply known as NAC, is a Dutch professional football club, based in Breda, Netherlands. NAC Breda play in the Rat Verlegh Stadium, named after their most important player, Antoon 'Rat' Verlegh. They play in the Eerste Divi ...

. After the 2012 season Elm was out of a contract at sc Heerenveen and after 102 appearances and 15 goals for De Superfriezen decided it was time for a new challenge.

AZ Alkmaar

In June 2012 Elm signed a four-year deal at

AZ Alkmaar Alkmaar Zaanstreek (), better known as AZ Alkmaar or simply AZ (), is a Dutch professional football club from Alkmaar and the Zaan district. The club plays in the Eredivisie, the highest professional football league in the Netherlands, and ho ...

, teaming up with his brother Rasmus for the first time since their stint at

. He made his official debut in a 2–2 draw against

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Greek ...

on 12 August 2012. He scored his first hattrick on 27 September in a

KNVB Cup The KNVB Beker (; en, KNVB Cup), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organized by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Ou ...

4–1 win against SC Veendam. On 30 September he scored his first league goal in a 3–3 draw against

RKC Waalwijk RKC Waalwijk () is a Dutch professional football club based in Waalwijk, that is currently competing in the Eredivisie. Its name is derived from 'Rooms Katholieke Combinatie' ('Roman Catholic Combination' in Dutch) and was established as a merger ...

. He captained AZ for the first time against

VVV Venlo VVV-Venlo (, ''VVV'' stands for ''Venlose Voetbal Vereniging'' meaning "Venlo Football Club") is a Dutch football club from Venlo, a city on the border with Germany. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football, following ...

on 25 January 2013 (4–1 win) because

Maarten Martens Maarten Martens (born 2 July 1984) is a Belgian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder, either as an attacking midfielder or winger. Martens was known for his flair, dribbling and goalscoring ability as well as his precise pas ...

was injured and

Nick Viergever Nick Viergever (; born 3 August 1989) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a defender for Utrecht. He also made three appearances for the Netherlands national team. Club career Sparta Rotterdam Viergever made his debut in the Er ...

was suspended. Elm scored 5 goals in the KNVB Cup, as AZ won the cup for the 4th time in club history and scored 3 in the

League League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

. For the 2013-14 season Elm appeared 49 times out of 58 competitive games, including 11 games en route to the

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 ...

semi-final. Elm scored 3 goals in the

Return to Kalmar FF

On 30 March 2015, it was announced that Elm returned to his former club

, where he reunited with his brothers

and Rasmus. He announced his retirement from professional football on 16 December 2020.

International career

Elm made his début for the Swedish national team 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 ...

on 19 January 2008. Elm made his

2010 FIFA World Cup qualification Qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation — the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America), OFC (O ...

début on 6 June 2009 in the 0–1 defeat against

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

, coming on as a substitute for Daniel Andersson in the 68th minute.

Career statistics

Honours

Kalmar FF *

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; ...

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 ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

SC Heerenveen *

: 2008–09 AZ *KNVB Cup:

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 ...

Individual * Swedish Midfielder of the Year: 2008

References

External links

Swedish Football Association Profile
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elm, Viktor Living people 1985 births Swedish footballers Sweden international footballers Sweden under-21 international footballers Falkenbergs FF players Kalmar FF players SC Heerenveen players AZ Alkmaar players Eredivisie players Allsvenskan players Superettan players Swedish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Swedish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Association football midfielders People from Kalmar Sportspeople from Kalmar County