Jesper Kewe Karlström (born 21 June 1995) 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

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for club

Udinese Udinese Calcio (; "Udinese Football") is a professional football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. The team currently competes in the Serie A, the first tier of Italian football. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sport ...

and the Sweden national team.

Club career

Early career

Karlström started out his career playing for

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 ...

at the age of six. When he turned nine the coach of his team moved to

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 ...

and brought his entire youth team along with him to the new club, including Karlström.

IF Brommapojkarna

Shortly after his eighteenth birthday in 2013, Karlström 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 for Brommapojkarna away against

Kalmar FF Kalmar Fotbollförening, more commonly known as Kalmar FF, is a Swedish professional football club based in Kalmar, Sweden. The club is affiliated to Smålands Fotbollförbund and play their home games at Guldfågeln Arena. Formed on 15 June 1 ...

. At the start of the next year he scored for the first time when his game-winning goal in the last game of the

2013–14 Svenska Cupen The 2013–14 Svenska Cupen was the 58th season of Svenska Cupen and the second season with the current format. The winners of the competition earned a place in the 2014–15 UEFA Europa League#Second qualifying round, second qualifying round of t ...

group stage qualified the club for the knockout stage of the tournament. A few months later he also scored his first league goal in the 3–0 home win against

IFK Norrköping Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Norrköping, more commonly known as IFK Norrköping or simply Norrköping, is a Swedish professional association football, football club based in Norrköping. The club is affiliated to Östergötlands Fotbollför ...

Djurgårdens IF

Brommapojkarna were relegated at the end of the

2014 Allsvenskan The 2014 Allsvenskan, part of the 2014 in Swedish football, 2014 Swedish football season, was the 90th season of Allsvenskan since its establishment in 1924. The 2014 fixtures were released on 20 December 2013. The season started on 30 March 2014 ...

season, but Karlström had performed well enough to be signed by the larger

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

club

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 ...

on a four-year deal. Ahead of 2017 Karlström had his shirt number changed from 22 to 6. On 10 May 2018, he played as Djurgarden beat

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 ...

3–0 in the Swedish Cup Final. In 2019 Karlström crowned himself as a Swedish champion as part of the

team that won the Swedish league for a twelfth time. Jesper contributed with the 2–1 goal in the remarkable second-half comeback to win the title.

Lech Poznań

On 2 December 2020,

Lech Poznań Kolejowy Klub Sportowy Lech Poznań S.A., commonly referred to as KKS Lech Poznań or simply Lech Poznań (), is a Polish professional football club based in Poznań and currently competing in the Ekstraklasa, the nation's highest division. ...

announced Karlström had signed from

on a contract until June 2024. In three-and-a-half-years, he totaled 144 appearances, four goals and nine assists across all competitions for Lech, won the

2021–22 Ekstraklasa The 2021–22 Ekstraklasa (also known as PKO Bank Polski Ekstraklasa due to its Sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by PKO Bank Polski) was the 96th season of List of Polish football champions, the Polish Football Championship, the 88th season of Spo ...

title and contributed to the club's best-ever European campaign in 2022–23, when they reached the

UEFA Europa Conference League The UEFA Conference League (UECL), usually known simply as the Conference League, is an annual association football, football competition organised since 2021 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European foot ...

quarter-finals.

Udinese

On 3 August 2024, Karlström moved to Italian club

on a two-year deal, for a reported fee of €2 million with potential bonuses.

International career

Karlström has represented Sweden at the U17, U19 and U21 levels. In November 2014 he made his debut for the

Sweden national under-21 football team The Sweden national under-21 football team is the Association football, football team representing Sweden in competitions for under-21 year old players and is controlled by the Swedish Football Association. Primarily, it competes to qualify for ...

against

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. He made his full international debut for the Sweden national team on 11 January 2018 in a friendly 1–0 win against

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

, playing for 66 minutes before being replaced by Kristoffer Olsson.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Djurgårdens IF *

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Svenska Cupen Svenska cupen (, ), also known as the Swedish Cup in English, 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 ...

: 2017–18 Lech Poznań *

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 ...

: 2021–22

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Karlstrom, Jesper Living people 1995 births Footballers from Stockholm Swedish men's footballers Sweden men's under-21 international footballers Sweden men's youth international footballers Men's association football midfielders IF Brommapojkarna players Djurgårdens IF Fotboll players Lech Poznań players Udinese Calcio players Allsvenskan players Ekstraklasa players Serie A players Swedish expatriate men's footballers Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Poland Expatriate men's footballers in Poland Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Italy 21st-century Swedish sportsmen