Karl Jesper Karlsson (born 25 July 1998) 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 an

attacking midfielder 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. ...

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

Lecce Lecce (; ) is a city in southern Italy and capital of the province of Lecce. It is on the Salentine Peninsula, at the heel of the Italian Peninsula, and is over two thousand years old. Because of its rich Baroque architecture, Lecce is n ...

on loan from

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 ...

, and the Sweden national team.

Club career

Early career

Karlsson started playing in IF Böljan from the age of four. At the age of 14, he received his first-team debut for the club in

Division 4 ''Division 4'' is an Australian television police drama series broadcast by the Nine Network and created by Crawford Productions airing between 1969 and 1975 for 301 episodes. Synopsis The series was one of the first to follow up on the enor ...

. Before the 2015 season, he moved to

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 ...

, and he was offered a first-team contract in the autumn. In November 2015, Karlsson signed a first team contract that extends over the season 2018 with Falkenberg FF. Before he signed the contract, he had also served and trained with English

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, commonly referred to as Brighton, is a professional football club based in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Their home gr ...

Falkenbergs FF

The premiere of the headlines in 2016 were about Karlsson making 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. In the 79th minute he was replaced in instead of Akseli Pelvas, in the match

lost 2–0 to

IFK Göteborg Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Göteborg (officially IFK Göteborg Fotboll), commonly known as IFK Göteborg, IFK (especially locally) or Blåvitt, is a Swedish professional Football team, football club based in Gothenburg. Founded in 1904, it ...

. On 17 July 2016, Karlsson scored his first two Allsvenskan goals in a 3–3 win against

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 ...

. In total, he scored seven goals and made two assists during the 2016 season.

IF Elfsborg

Karlsson transferred from

to Swedish top flight

IF Elfsborg Idrottsföreningen Elfsborg, more commonly known as IF Elfsborg or simply Elfsborg (), is a professional association football, football club based in Borås, Sweden, and is affiliated to the Västergötlands Fotbollförbund. They play in the Alls ...

on 2 December 2016 for a fee of €450,000.

AZ

On 11 September 2020, Karlsson signed a five-year contract with

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

AZ Alkmaar Alkmaar Zaanstreek (), better known internationally as AZ Alkmaar, or simply and most commonly as AZ () in the Netherlands, is a Dutch professional Association football, football club from Alkmaar and the Zaan#The Zaan district, Zaan district. ...

. However, the teams agreed that he stayed at Elfsborg until 28 September. After arriving in

Alkmaar Alkmaar () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands, located in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland. Alkmaar is well known fo ...

, he made his debut on 4 October 2020 in a 4–4 draw against

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 ...

, in which he provided two assists.

Bologna

On 23 August 2023, it was announced that Karlsson had joined

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 ...

club

. On 4 January 2025, Karlsson moved on loan to

for the remainder of the season.

International career

In September 2015, Karlsson made his debut in the Sweden national under-19. He has also represented the Sweden U21 team. He made his full international debut for

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 ...

on 9 January 2020 in a

friendly game An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sport, sporting event whose prize money and impact on th ...

against

Moldova Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe, with an area of and population of 2.42 million. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. ...

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Sweden's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Karlsson goal.''

Honours

Individual *

Striker of the Year:

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

* Eredivisie Player of the Month: December 2021 *

Team of the Month: December 2021, March 2022, March 2023

References

External links

Profile
at the Bologna FC 1909 website * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Karlsson, Jesper 1998 births Living people Footballers from Falkenberg Swedish men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Men's association football wingers Sweden men's international footballers Sweden men's under-21 international footballers Sweden men's youth international footballers Allsvenskan players Eredivisie players Serie A players Falkenbergs FF players IF Elfsborg players AZ Alkmaar players Bologna FC 1909 players US Lecce players Swedish expatriate men's footballers Swedish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Italy 21st-century Swedish sportsmen