Karl Gustav Johan Svensson (born 7 February 1987) 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 ...

who plays for

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 le ...

club

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 team, football club based in Gothenburg. Founded in ...

as a

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 ...

. Starting off his footballing career in Sweden with IFK Göteborg in 2005, he went on to play professionally in Turkey, Ukraine, China, and the United States before returning to Sweden in 2021. A full international between 2009 and 2021, Svensson won 32

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 Ja ...

for the Sweden national team and represented his country at the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...

as well as

UEFA Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2020) or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Euro ...

Club career

IFK Göteborg

He played for a local team in Gothenburg as well as a French team in his youth but joined

at the age of 14. He played there until 2010 and won the Swedish Championship with the club in 2007. Gustav was nominated as the Newcomer of the year in Swedish football the same season but lost out to Johan Oremo.

Bursaspor

On 1 September 2010, he signed a three-year contract with

2009–10 Süper Lig The 2009–10 Süper Lig (known as the ''Turkcell Süper Lig'' for sponsorship reasons) was the 52nd season since its establishment. The season commenced on 7 August 2009 with Istanbul B.B. hosting defending champions Beşiktaş at Atatürk Oly ...

champions

Bursaspor Bursaspor Kulübü Derneği (), commonly known as Bursaspor, is a Turkish sports club located in the city of Bursa. Formed in 1963, the club colours are green and white, with home kits usually featuring both colours in a striped pattern. In th ...

Tavriya Simferopol

On 7 July 2012, he signed a three-year contract with Ukrainian club Tavriya Simferopol. According to Svensson he was forced to flee Tavriya's native soil

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a p ...

by bus during the

2014 Russian annexation of Crimea In February and March 2014, Russia invaded and subsequently annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. This event took place in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity and is part of the wider Russo-Ukrainian War. The events in Kyiv th ...

Return to IFK Göteborg

On 23 March 2014, he signed a four-year contract with his former club

Guangzhou R&F

On 14 January 2016, he signed a three-year contract with Chinese club Guangzhou R&F.

Seattle Sounders FC

On 30 January 2017, Svensson joined MLS side

Seattle Sounders FC Seattle Sounders Football Club is an American professional men's soccer club based in Seattle. The Sounders compete as a member of the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). The club was established on November 13, 2007, and began ...

. Svensson made his Sounders debut in the opening game of the 2017 season, starting at

right 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 ...

in a 2–1 loss to

Houston Houston (; ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in Texas, the Southern United States#Major cities, most populous city in the Southern United States, the List of United States cities by population, fourth-most pop ...

. While he has also played as a center back, Svensson primarily plays as a defensive midfielder for the Sounders.

Guangzhou City

On 9 April 2021, Svensson returned to

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Association Super League, commonly known as Chinese Super League or CSL, currently known as the China Ping An Chinese Football Association Super League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest tier of professional football in ...

side

Guangzhou City Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...

Second return to IFK Göteborg

On 22 July 2021, Svensson returned to IFK Göteborg for the second time, signing a two-and-a-half-year contract.

International career

Youth

Making his debut in 2007, Svensson played 24 games for the Sweden under-21 team and was a part of the U21 team that reached the semi-finals of 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 ...

Senior

In May 2018, he was named in Sweden's 23 man squad for the

2018 World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national Association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awa ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

. At the 2018 World Cup, Svensson played in three games for Sweden as they were eliminated by

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 ...

in the quarter-final. He started and played the full 90 minutes in the second-round game against Switzerland. On 8 September 2020, Svensson was sent off for the first time in his senior international career in the first half after two yellow cards in Sweden's game against Portugal in the

2020–21 UEFA Nations League The 2020–21 UEFA Nations League was the second season of the UEFA Nations League, an international association football competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associations of UEFA. The competition was held from Septembe ...

. He served as Sweden's

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

for the first time in a friendly game 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 = Kingdom of Denmark , establishe ...

on 11 November 2020, in his 30th international appearance. In May 2021, he was named in Sweden's 26-man squad for

. He appeared in the 1–0 group stage win against

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the ...

as Sweden reached the

round of 16 A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

before being eliminated by

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian invas ...

. Svensson announced his retirement from international football following the tournament, having won 32

for his country between 2009 and 2021.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

IFK Göteborg *

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 Benazir Bhutto ...

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 co ...

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 ...

, 2014–15 * Svenska Supercupen:

Seattle Sounders FC *

MLS Cup The MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Cup Playoffs. The game is held in November and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Conference ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Svensson, Gustav 1987 births Living people Footballers from Gothenburg Association football defenders Swedish footballers Sweden international footballers Sweden under-21 international footballers Swedish expatriate footballers IFK Göteborg players Bursaspor footballers SC Tavriya Simferopol players Guangzhou City F.C. players Seattle Sounders FC players Allsvenskan players Süper Lig players Ukrainian Premier League players Chinese Super League players Major League Soccer players 2018 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2020 players Expatriate footballers in Turkey Expatriate footballers in Ukraine Expatriate footballers in China Expatriate soccer players in the United States Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Ukraine Swedish expatriate sportspeople in China Swedish expatriate sportspeople in the United States