Björn Sandro Runström (born 1 March 1984) is a Swedish former

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 lea ...

who played as a striker.

Career

Early life

Runström grew up in the southern suburbs of Stockholm and went to Enskede school as a child. He started playing football for

Enskede IK Enskede IK is a Swedish football club located in Gamla Enskede, Stockholm. Background Since their foundation in 1914 Enskede IK has participated mainly in the lower divisions of the Swedish football league system but since 2004 they have resided ...

at the age of six years, Runström's time in Enskede went well and at the age of 12 years he was rewarded with a move to a bigger club;

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 differ ...

. Runström developed at a fast speed and when he was 16 he left Hammarby for Italy and

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

. He stayed in Italy for three years and led Bologna to their first Italian Youth Championship in 19 years in 2001.

Italy

At 17 he was part of Bologna's first team but only made the bench in

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

and

Coppa Italia Coppa Italia () is the annual domestic cup of Italian football. The knockout competition was organized by the DDS and the Lega Calcio until the 2009–10 season and by Lega Serie A ever since. Juventus is the competition's most successf ...

. In 2002, he was transferred to Chievo Verona and after that to Florentia Viola. His stay in Florence was not what he had dreamed of and when rumours spread in late 2003 that Fiorentina wanted to trade him for the Swedish international

Kim Källström Kim Mikael Källström (; born 24 August 1982) is a Swedish former professional Association football, footballer who played as a midfielder. He was noted for his play-making ability and free-kick taking. He started his career at several clubs i ...

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. Djurgårdens IF is an s ...

(one of former club Hammarby's biggest rivals) he was outraged and declared that it was a transfer he would never accept. "Me playing for Djurgården would be like Di Canio going back to Italy to play for A. S. Roma, it won't happen, if I go back to Sweden the only club that I could think of is my old club Hammarby".

Return to Hammarby IF

Runström did return to Hammarby soon after and played three more seasons scoring 18 goals in 57 matches. This record attracted the attention of

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

club

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

(he had the chance to join the Cottagers in the January transfer window but declined saying "I didn't want to go on a free transfer in January even though I had an offer from Fulham already then, Hammarby have meant much to me and I wanted them to be well paid").

Fulham

In July 2006, Runström joined Fulham on a three-year contract, for a fee of £700,000.

Loans

After making just one Premier League appearance against

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

, on 30 January 2007, Runström moved to

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club from Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The club currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Nicknamed "The Hatters", L ...

on loan for a month. He returned to Fulham on 1 April 2007, having scored twice for Luton, against Sheffield Wednesday and Norwich City. Later that year, in July, he was loaned out to German club

1. FC Kaiserslautern 1. Fußball-Club Kaiserslautern e. V., also known as 1. FCK, FCK (), FC Kaiserslautern (), K'lautern or colloquially Lautern (), is a German sports club based in Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate. In addition to Association football, football ...

, for the 2007–08 season. On his return, in May 2008, Runström was released by Fulham.

OB

On 4 June 2008, Runström signed a three-and-a-half-year contract with Danish club OB.

Loan to Molde

On 23 February 2010,

Molde FK Molde Fotballklubb () is a association football, football club based in Molde Municipality, Molde, Norway, that competes in Eliteserien, the top flight of Norwegian football league system, Norwegian football. Founded on 19 June 1911, the club w ...

signed the Swedish forward on loan from Danish club

Odense BK Odense Boldklub (; also known as Odense BK or the more commonly used OB) is a Danish professional football club based in the city of Odense, in southern Denmark. The club has won three Danish championships and five Danish Cup trophies. OB play ...

until the end of the season. He made his competitive debut on the opening day of the Norwegian Premier League on 14 March against the defending champions Rosenborg. He scored on his debut, a 35-yard cracker in a 2–1 loss. After this match Runström spent the rest of the season mainly on the bench, only making brief appearances not succeeding in making a mark on the matches. Runström was towards the end of the season considered redundant in Molde and the club terminated the contract with the player and sent him back to Denmark.

Departure

Runström and OB parted company in February 2011.

Second return to Hammarby IF

On 27 February, Runström signed for The superettan side Hammarby, On 3 July, Runström scored twice against Öster.

MLS and retirement

In February 2012, Runström joined the

New England Revolution The New England Revolution are an American professional association football, soccer club based in the Greater Boston area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conference. It is on ...

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

on trial for their preseason participation in the 2012 Desert Diamond Cup, in which he recorded a game-winning goal against

Real Salt Lake Real Salt Lake (RSL) is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. Fou ...

on February 29 to send them through to the final. On 28 March 2012, Runström signed with the Revolution on a free transfer. While trailing with the club, he had previously rejected two Revolution contract offers, before ultimately signing. He made his Revolution

regular season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of S ...

debut on 14 April 2012 as a 79th minute substitute for Pepe Moreno in a 2-1 home loss to D.C. United. He made two more substitute appearances before New England declined his contract option on 27 June 2012 and Runström became a free agent. He announced his retirement from professional football in early 2013.

References

External links

Official Danish Superliga player statistics
at danskfodbold.com * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Runstrom, Bjorn 1984 births Living people Swedish men's footballers Sweden men's youth international footballers Sweden men's under-21 international footballers Bologna FC 1909 players AC ChievoVerona players ACF Fiorentina players Hammarby Fotboll players Fulham F.C. players Luton Town F.C. players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players Odense Boldklub players Molde FK players New England Revolution players Allsvenskan players Serie C players Premier League players English Football League players Danish Superliga players 2. Bundesliga players Eliteserien players Major League Soccer players Swedish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Denmark Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Norway Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Men's association football forwards Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Swedish expatriate sportspeople in England Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Norway Swedish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Footballers from Stockholm 21st-century Swedish sportsmen