Melker Hallberg (born 20 October 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

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 ...

. Hallberg began his senior career at Kalmar FF, then in 2014, he signed for Italian 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 during his time there went on loan to

Vålerenga Vålerenga () is a neighbourhood in the city of Oslo, Norway, belonging to the borough of Gamle Oslo. Vålerenga is located between the neighbourhoods of Gamlebyen, Jordal, Ensjø, Etterstad and Lodalen. Vålerenga is in particular known for i ...

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 ...

, Ascoli and Kalmar FF. He signed for

Vejle BK Vejle Boldklub is a Danish professional football club based in Vejle in Jutland. Formed in 1891, the club is one of the most successful clubs in Danish football history, having won the Danish championship five times and the Danish cup title six ...

in 2018, where he spent one season. Hallberg then played in three seasons for Scottish club

Hibernian Hibernian may refer to: * Of Hibernia, Latin name for Ireland; hence ** Irish (disambiguation) Hibernian, Hibernians or The Hibernian may refer to: Sports clubs * Hibernian F.C., a Scottish football club, founded 1875 * Hibernian W.F.C., a Sc ...

. He made his full international debut for the Sweden national team in 2016, and has won a total of three

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 ...

and scored one goal.

Career

Early career

Hallberg grew up in the small town of

Ljungbyholm Ljungbyholm is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality situated in Kalmar Municipality, Kalmar County, Sweden, with 1,604 inhabitants in 2010. References External links

Populated places in Kalmar Municipality {{Kalmar-geo-stub ...

, shortly to the south of

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 ...

. There he started with the local club Möre BK where he played for the first team in the seventh tier of

Swedish football Association football is the most popular sport in Sweden, with over 240,000 licensed players (approximately 56,000 women and 184,000 men) with another 240,000 youth players. There are around 3,200 active clubs fielding over 8,500 teams, whic ...

at age thirteen. In 2010 Hallberg was brought into the

youth section. Two years later he became the youngest-ever first-team player for the club when he 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 at the age of sixteen. On July 15, 2012, Hallberg became the fourth-youngest Allsvenskan goalscorer of all time when he scored the game-winning 2–1 goal against

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 ...

. In December 2012 he signed a new four-year contract extension. After his second season in

as a seventeen-year-old, Hallberg was ranked as the 14th-best player in the league by newspaper ''

Expressen (''The Express'') is one of two nationwide evening newspapers in Sweden. Describing itself as independent liberal, was founded in 1944; its symbol is a wasp and its slogans are "it stings" or " to your rescue". The newspaper awards the cultu ...

''.

Udinese

In August 2014, Hallberg signed for Italian club

. He made his debut in January 2015. In 2015, he was loaned out to Norwegian club

Vålerenga Fotball Vålerenga Fotball () is a Norwegian professional association football, football club from Oslo, and a part of the multi-sport club Vålerengens IF. The club currently competes in the Eliteserien after being promoted from the Norwegian First ...

, and in 2016 he was loaned out to

Hammarby Fotboll Hammarby Fotboll, more commonly known as Hammarby IF or simply Hammarby ( or, especially locally, ), is a Swedish professional association football, football club from Stockholm founded in 1915. The club is based at 3Arena (Stockholm), 3 Are ...

in his native Sweden.

Vejle BK

Hallberg joined Danish club

Vejle Boldklub Vejle Boldklub is a Danish professional football club based in Vejle in Jutland. Formed in 1891, the club is one of the most successful clubs in Danish football history, having won the Danish championship five times and the Danish cup title six ...

in the summer 2018. He left the club at the end of the 2018–19 season.

Hibernian

Hallberg signed a three-year contract with

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, also known as the William Hill (bookmaker), William Hill Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Scotland and the highest level of the Scottish football league system. Th ...

club

in August 2019. He scored his first goal for the club in a

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup, also known as the Premier Sports Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League cup in ...

tie against

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

on 2 November 2019. He was released from his contract with Hibernian in January 2022.

St Johnstone

Following his release by Hibernian, Hallberg signed an 18-month contract with

St Johnstone St Johnstone Football Club is a professional association football club in Perth, Scotland. The team competes in the , the second division of Scottish football. The club's name is derived from St John's Toun (or Saint Johnstoun)—an old name o ...

in January 2022. After prolonged renegotiations, Hallberg left The Saints in July 2023.

Return to Kalmar

In August 2023, Hallberg returned to his first club Kalmar FF on a contract until the end of the season.

International career

Hallberg has featured regularly at all age levels of Swedish youth national teams. In August 2013 he got selected for the first time ever to the Swedish U21 squad in a friendly against

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 ...

. He was selected 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 ...

squads in January 2016 and January 2019.

Career statistics

International

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

Honours

Individual *

newcomer of the year:

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

References

External links

* *
Melker Hallberg
national team profile at SvFF (archived) * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hallberg, Melker 1995 births Living people Men's association football midfielders Swedish men's footballers Swedish expatriate men's footballers Kalmar FF players Udinese Calcio players Vålerenga Fotball players Hammarby Fotboll players Ascoli Calcio 1898 FC players Vejle Boldklub players Hibernian F.C. players Allsvenskan players Serie A players Eliteserien players Serie B players Danish Superliga players Scottish Professional Football League players Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Norway Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Norway Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Sweden men's international footballers Sweden men's youth international footballers Sweden men's under-21 international footballers People from Kalmar Municipality Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland St Johnstone F.C. players Footballers from Kalmar County 21st-century Swedish sportsmen