Pontus Skule Erik Almqvist (born 10 July 1999) 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 for Italian club

Parma Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...

. He is deployed as a winger or

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

Career

After attending trials in Stockholm, Almqvist joined the

Nike Football Academy The Nike Football Academy was an English Youth system, football academy funded and administered by Nike, Inc. The academy had a revolving squad of unsigned under-20 players and was run with the intention of helping them find a professional club. T ...

before signing a professional contract with

Norrköping Norrköping ( , ) is a city in the province of Östergötland in eastern Sweden and the seat of Norrköping Municipality, Östergötland County, about 160 km southwest of the national capital Stockholm, 40 km east of county seat Lin ...

for the 2017 season. On 23 September 2017, he made his debut for Norrköping, playing the last ten minutes in a 2–1 loss to

Halmstad Halmstad () is a port, university, industrial and recreational urban areas of Sweden, city at the mouth of the Nissan (river), Nissan river, in the provinces of Sweden, province of Halland on the Sweden, Swedish west coast. Halmstad is the seat ...

. He spent part of the 2017 season loan at Division 2 side

IF Sylvia IF Sylvia is a Swedish football club based in Norrköping. The club, formed on 19 May 1922, plays in the fourth tier of Swedish football, Division 2. The club is affiliated to the Östergötlands Fotbollförbund. In the early years, the club wa ...

where he played three games and scored one goal. He joined

Varbergs BoIS Varbergs BoIS FC is a Swedish professional football club located in Varberg, the main town of Varberg Municipality in Halland County. Background The club was formed at a meeting in the Varbergs Folkets Hus on 25 March 1925. The backbone of the ...

on loan at the start of the 2018 season and played four times before returning to Norrköping in July 2018. He scored his first two goals for Sweden U21 in September 2020 On 15 October 2020, Almqvist signed a five-year contract with

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

club

Rostov Rostov-on-Don is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East European Plain on the Don River, from the Sea of Azov, directly north of t ...

. On 7 March 2022,

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

introduced special regulations related to the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

. Those regulations allow foreign players in Russia to unilaterally temporarily suspend their contracts with their Russian clubs until the end of the 2021–22 season and join clubs outside of Russia until that date. On 17 March 2022, Almqvist used the new rule to sign with

FC Utrecht Football Club Utrecht () is a Dutch professional association football, football club based in Utrecht. The club competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football league system, Dutch football, and plays its home matches at the Stadion ...

in the Netherlands until the end of the 2021–22 season. FIFA extended their regulations for the 2022–23 season, allowing Almqvist to join Polish side

Pogoń Szczecin Pogoń Szczecin Spółka Akcyjna, commonly referred to as Pogoń Szczecin (), is a Polish professional football club based in Szczecin, West Pomeranian Voivodeship, which plays in the Ekstraklasa, the top tier of the national football league s ...

on a one-year loan spell on 5 July 2022. On 22 June 2023, Almqvist moved on a new temporary deal to

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 ...

in Italy. On 13 August 2024, Almqvist signed with

in Italy on a permanent basis.

Personal life

Pontus Almqvist is the brother of Swedish footballer Tove Almqvist.

Career statistics

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Almqvist, Pontus 1999 births Sportspeople from Nyköping Footballers from Södermanland County Living people Swedish men's footballers Sweden men's youth international footballers Sweden men's under-21 international footballers Men's association football midfielders Nike Academy players IFK Norrköping players IF Sylvia players Varbergs BoIS players Norrby IF players FC Rostov players FC Utrecht players Pogoń Szczecin players US Lecce players Parma Calcio 1913 players Allsvenskan players Superettan players Ettan Fotboll players Division 2 (Swedish football) players Russian Premier League players Eredivisie players Ekstraklasa players Serie A players Swedish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Swedish expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in Russia Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Swedish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in Poland Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Poland Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Italy 21st-century Swedish sportsmen Swedish people of Finnish descent