Emil Evert Bergström (born 19 May 1993) 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 lea ...

who plays as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

for

Greek Super League The Super League Greece 1 (), or Stoiximan Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Greece and the highest level of the Greek football league system. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and repla ...

club

Panserraikos Panserraikos Football Club (), the ''All-Serres Football Club'', is a Greece, Greek Association football, football club based in Serres in Central Macedonia, Greece. Panserraikos is one of the most important and well-supported clubs in northern G ...

Club career

Bergström made the move to Djurgården from

IF Brommapojkarna Idrottsföreningen Brommapojkarna, more commonly known as Brommapojkarna (meaning ''the Bromma boys'') or simply BP, is a Swedish association football, football club based in the borough of Bromma, in the western parts of Stockholm municipality ...

as a youth player at the age of fifteen as he wanted to be at a bigger club. He had started out as a forward and then moved down to midfield before eventually finding his place in central defence. In 2010, he started getting a lot of playing time with the club's U21 team. On 15 April 2011, Bergström made his

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; ), also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan (, ) is a professional association football league in Sweden and the highest level of the Swedish football league system. Founded in 1924, it operates on a system of promotion and relegatio ...

debut against

Malmö FF Malmö Fotbollförening (), commonly known simply as Malmö FF or MFF, is a Swedish professional football club based in Malmö, Scania. They compete in the Allsvenskan, the top division of Swedish football, and play home matches at the Eleda S ...

as a substitute. Midway through the following

2012 Allsvenskan The 2012 Allsvenskan, part of the 2012 Swedish football season, was the 88th season of Allsvenskan since its establishment in 1924. The 2012 fixtures were released on 12 December 2011. The season started on 31 March 2012 and ended on 4 November 2 ...

season Bergström had become a regular starter at the central defence position. On 30 June 2013, he scored his first league goal, which was also the historical last goal for Djurgården at Stockholms stadion before the club moved to their new home stadium

Tele2 Arena 3Arena, formerly the Stockholmsarenan (and Tele2 Arena), is a retractable roof multi-purpose arena in Stockholm Globe City, Johanneshov, just south of Stockholm City Centre, Sweden. It is used mostly for concerts and Association football, footbal ...

. On 4 February 2016, Bergström signed a contract with

FC Rubin Kazan FC Rubin Kazan (; ) is a Russian professional association football, football club based in the city of Kazan. They play in the Russian Premier League. Founded 1958 in Russia, in 1958, Rubin played its first-ever top flight season in 2003 Russia ...

. On 27 January 2017, he signed a loan contract with

Grasshoppers Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are amongst what are possibly the most ancient living groups of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grassh ...

that ran until the end of the 2017–18 season. On 30 July 2018, he signed with

Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

. On 2 September 2019,

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

announced that Bergström was taken up on a loan contract until the end of the season. He played his first game for the club in the away game in the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup competition that has been organised annually since 1925–26 season by the Swiss Football Association. The Swiss Cup final is usually the most important game of the year with a high attendance. The co ...

on 15 September as Basel won 3–0 against FC Meyrin. He played his domestic league debut for the club in the home game at the

St. Jakob-Park St. Jakob-Park () is a Swiss sports stadium in Basel. It is the largest football venue in Switzerland and home to FC Basel. "Joggeli", as the venue is nicknamed by the locals, was originally built with a capacity of 33,433 seats. The capacity w ...

on 25 September as Basel won 4–0 against

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

. The contract came to an end on 30 June and the club announced that they would not prolong it. During the ten months he was with the club, Bergström played a total 15 matches without scoring a goal. Eight of these games were in the

Swiss Super League The Super League (also known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a professional association football league in Switzerland and the highest level of the Swiss football league system. It has been played in its current fo ...

, one in the

, two in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

and four were friendly games. On 1 July 2021, he moved on loan to Willem II. After his contract with Utrecht concluded at the end of June 2022, Bergström remained a free agent until 26 September 2022, when he signed with Polish

Ekstraklasa (; meaning "Extra Class" in Polish), officially known as PKO Bank Polski Ekstraklasa due to its Sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by PKO Bank Polski, is a professional association football league in Poland and the highest level of the Polish foo ...

side

Górnik Zabrze Górnik Zabrze Spółka Akcyjna, commonly referred to as Górnik Zabrze S.A. or simply Górnik Zabrze (), is a Polish association football, football club from Zabrze. Górnik is one of the most successful Polish football clubs in history, winning ...

until the end of the season. On 14 August 2023, he moved to

, until the summer of 2025.

International career

Bergström has represented both the Sweden U19 national team and Sweden U21. In January 2015 he played his first game with the senior national team. The game was however not recognised as an official national team game by

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

Personal life

Bergström grew up a

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 ...

supporter from the age of three when his father started bringing him along to watch home games. He wears a protective

mouthguard A mouthguard is a protective device for the mouth that covers the teeth and gums to prevent and reduce injury to the teeth, arches, lips and gums. An effective mouthguard is like a crash helmet for teeth and jaws. It also prevents the jaws c ...

when he plays after getting his teeth knocked out by a

spring rider A spring rider or spring rocker is a bouncy, outdoors playing device, invented in the 1960s in Italy by the company Pozza. It mainly consists of a metal spring beneath a plastic or wooden central beam or flange, with 1 to 4 plastic or fibergl ...

when he was a child. His favourite number is 13.

Career statistics

Club

International

References

External links

*
Djurgården profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bergstrom, Emil 1993 births Living people Men's association football defenders Footballers from Stockholm Swedish men's footballers Sweden men's international footballers Sweden men's youth international footballers Sweden men's under-21 international footballers Allsvenskan players Russian Premier League players Swiss Super League players Eredivisie players Ekstraklasa players Super League Greece players Djurgårdens IF Fotboll players Spånga IS players FC Rubin Kazan players Grasshopper Club Zurich players FC Utrecht players Willem II Tilburg players Górnik Zabrze players Panserraikos F.C. players Swedish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Russia Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in Poland Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Russia Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Swedish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Poland Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Greece 21st-century Swedish sportsmen