Emil Hansson (born 15 June 1998) is a 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

left winger In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for club

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. The team compete in the ...

. Born in Norway, he is a former youth international for both Norway and Sweden. Hansson is the son of former Swedish footballer

Patrik Hansson Patrik Hansson (born 23 September 1969) is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Club career During his active career he played for Östers IF and Brann as a midfielder. Hailing from Växjö, Hansson started hi ...

. The brother of Emil Hansson's grandfather is

Tommy Svensson Leif Tommy Svensson (born 4 March 1945) is a Swedish former football manager and player. He is best known for playing for Östers IF and the Sweden men's national football team. He won the Guldbollen in 1969. He managed Sweden between 1991 and 199 ...

Club career

Brann

Hansson, son of a Norwegian mother, and the former Swedish professional

, began playing football in his hometown

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

for Brann, before moving to the youth academy of Swedish

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 ...

club

Kalmar Kalmar (, , ) is a city in the southeast of Sweden, situated by the Baltic Sea. It had 41,388 inhabitants in 2020 and is the seat of Kalmar Municipality. It is also the capital of Kalmar County, which comprises 12 municipalities with a total of ...

prior the 2013 season, where his father worked as assistant coach. After six months, he returned to Brann. There, he was promoted to the first team for the 2015 season, where he made his first two senior appearances in April 2015, one in the cup and one in the league. In total he got two league appearances and four in the

2015 Norwegian Football Cup The 2015 Norwegian Football Cup was the 110th season of the Norway, Norwegian annual knock-out association football, football tournament. It began with qualification matches in March 2015. The first round was played 21, 22 and 23 April 2015 and th ...

Feyenoord

Hansson joined the youth academy of Dutch

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

club

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Netherlands, Dutch professional association football, football club based in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football league system, Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the ...

in August 2015. He initially played for the U21 team but made his debut in the Eredivisie on 12 March 2017 in a 5–2 home win over AZ, coming on as an 83rd-minute substitute for

Steven Berghuis Steven Berghuis (born 19 December 1991) is a Dutch professional association football, footballer who plays for Eredivisie club AFC Ajax, Ajax and the Netherlands national football team, Netherlands national team. He can play as either a Forward ...

. For the first team he made a total of two appearances during the 2016–17 season, while continuing as a part of the U21 side and reserves; the first team won the Dutch championship at the end of the season, after an 18-year title drought. The following season, Hansson made eleven appearances for the reserves and two total appearances for the first team, in the KNVB Beker and in the league, respectively. Feyenoord finished third in the Eredivisie that season and won the cup; the 100th edition of the tournament. In July 2018, Hansson moved to the second-tier

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (; ) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the Keuken Kampioen Divisie due to sponsorship reasons, while ...

on loan to

RKC Waalwijk RKC Waalwijk () is a Dutch professional association football, football club based in Waalwijk. They currently play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football league system, Dutch football, following relegation from the Eredivisie i ...

. With twelve goals from Hansson in 35 league appearances, the club reached ninth place in the league table and qualified for the first round of the

promotion and relegation play-offs Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

. By scoring one goal in six appearances, Hansson contributed to helping RKC achieve promotion to the Eredivisie. He returned to Feyenoord after his loan deal expired.

Hannover 96

In August 2019, Hansson moved to German 2. Bundesliga club

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), is a German professional association football, football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years between 19 ...

on a three-year contract. The Swede made 14 2. Bundesliga appearances as well as one in the

Regionalliga Nord The Regionalliga Nord () is the fourth tier of the German football league system in the states of Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen and Hamburg. It is one of five leagues at this level, together with the Regionalliga Bayern, Regionalliga N ...

for the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

before being loaned out to RKC Waalwijk once again for the second half of the season. Hansson made seven league appearances for RKC, in which he scored one goal, before the season was cancelled after the 26th match-day due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. At this point, RKC was bottom of the table, but was able to remain in the Eredivisie due to a suspension of relegations.

Fortuna Sittard

At the beginning of June 2020, Hannover 96 announced that Hansson would not return to the team, but would move on a permanent deal to Eredivisie side

Fortuna Sittard Fortuna Sittard (; ) is a professional football club from the municipality of Sittard-Geleen, Netherlands. The club currently plays its football in the 12,500 capacity Fortuna Sittard Stadion and features in the Eredivisie. The club was establi ...

for the 2020–21 season.

Heracles

On 29 January 2022, Hansson returned to the Dutch Eredivisie, where he signed a two-and-a-half-year contract with

Heracles Heracles ( ; ), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a Divinity, divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of ZeusApollodorus1.9.16/ref> and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive descent through ...

, with an option for an additional year. He made his debut for the club on 11 February, replacing Bilal Başacıkoğlu in the 88th minute of a 1–0 win over

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 the last matchday of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

, Heracles dropped to 16th in the league table following a 3–1 defeat to

Sparta Rotterdam Sparta Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club based in Rotterdam. Established on 1 April 1888, Sparta Rotterdam is the oldest professional football team in the Netherlands. Sparta currently competes in the Eredivisie, the top flig ...

, meaning

. In the semi-final, the club faced

Excelsior Excelsior may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature and poetry * "Excelsior" (Longfellow), an 1841 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow * "Excelsior", an 1877 picture book in verse by Bret Harte, published as an advertisement for the Sa ...

and suffered losses in both the first leg (0–3) and the second leg (1–3), leading to their relegation to the Eerste Divisie. During their single season in the Eerste Divisie, Hansson evolved into a crucial player for Heracles, netting 16 goals and providing 19 assists in 36 league starts as they clinched the second-tier title and secured promotion back to the Eredivisie on the final matchday. His 19 assists from 1 March 2022, to 1 March 2023, were particularly noteworthy, surpassing the figures of prominent players such as

Kevin De Bruyne Kevin De Bruyne (; born 28 June 1991) is a Belgian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a midfielder for club SSC Napoli, Napoli and captains the Belgium national football team, Belgium national team. After spending mos ...

Lionel Messi Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi (; born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine professional Association football, footballer who plays as a forward (association football), forward for and Captain (association football), captains both Major League Soccer ...

and

Ousmane Dembélé Masour Ousmane Dembélé (; born 15 May 1997) is a French professional footballer who plays as a striker or winger for club Paris Saint-Germain and the France national team. Considered one of the best players in the world, he is known for ...

, among others.

Birmingham City

On 5 July 2024, recently relegated English

League One League One or League 1 may refer to: Association football * EFL League One, the third tier of football in England. * China League One, the second tier of football in China * K League 1, the top-tier football in South Korea * Lao League 1 * Lea ...

club

signed Hansson on a three-year contract. The fee was undisclosed. He made his debut in the opening fixture of the season, replacing

Siriki Dembélé Ben Siriki Dembélé (born 7 September 1996) is a professional footballer who plays as a left winger or striker for club Oxford United. Dembélé is known for his speed, taking on players with his dribbling ability, and holding the ball bring ...

at half-time with Birmingham 1–0 down at home to

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

; with little time remaining, his cross was handled by an opponent and Alfie May tied the scores with the resultant penalty.

International career

Hansson gained four

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 under-17 team, but later decided to play for

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. As a result, he appeared in 10 matches each for Norway U16s and U17s, nine for the U18s and three for the U19s. In December 2018, Hansson finally decided on representing

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, and on 22 March 2019, he appeared in a friendly against

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Marbella Marbella ( , , ) is a city and municipality in southern Spain, belonging to the province of Málaga in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is part of the Costa del Sol and is the headquarters of the Association of Municipalities of the re ...

, Spain, for the first time for the Sweden national under-21 team.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Feyenoord *

: 2016–17 *

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

: 2017–18 *

Johan Cruijff Shield The Johan Cruyff Shield (, ) is a football trophy in the Netherlands named after Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff, also often referred to as the Dutch Super Cup. The winner is decided in one match only, played by the winner of the national football ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

Heracles *

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 ...

Birmingham City *

EFL League One The English Football League One, known as Sky Bet League One for sponsorship reasons, or simply League One, is a professional association football league in England. EFL League One is the second-highest division of the English Football League an ...

: 2024–25

Individual * Eerste Divisie Team of the Year:

Top Assists Provider:

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hansson, Emil 1998 births Living people Footballers from Bergen Swedish men's footballers Sweden men's youth international footballers Sweden men's under-21 international footballers Norwegian men's footballers 21st-century Norwegian sportsmen Norway men's youth international footballers Norwegian people of Swedish descent Swedish people of Norwegian descent Men's association football midfielders SK Brann players Feyenoord players RKC Waalwijk players Hannover 96 players Fortuna Sittard players Heracles Almelo players Birmingham City F.C. players Norwegian First Division players Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players 2. Bundesliga players English Football League players Norwegian expatriate men's footballers Swedish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Swedish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in England Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in England Swedish expatriate sportspeople in England 21st-century Swedish sportsmen