Sam Andreas Larsson (born 10 April 1993) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a winger for Süper Lig club Antalyaspor.

Club career

IFK Göteborg

Born in

Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

, Sam Larsson made his first start in the Swedish top-flight,

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 lea ...

for IFK Göteborg in March 2013, in a game against local rivals BK Häcken. By scoring once and assisting two more in a 3–0 win, Larsson quickly made his way to the headlines, with manager

Mikael Stahre Mikael Lennart Tage Stahre (; born 5 July 1975) is a Swedish football manager who is currently head coach of Allsvenskan club IFK Göteborg. Management career Stahre was appointed as AIK's manager on 10 November 2008 immediately following the ...

describing him as a "Swedish Brazilian", he furthermore earned himself the nickname "Samba-Sam", due to his impressive skills on the ball and unpredictable moves. After a successful first season, Larsson made further progress during the following year, gaining much praise for his creative play and taking on a larger role in leading his team on the attack.

Heerenveen

2014–15 season

On 12 August 2014, IFK Göteborg announced the transfer of Larsson to Dutch side Heerenveen. On 23 August, Larsson played his first league game for his new club, a game in which he scored once to settle a 2–0 win over SBV Excelsior. After an injury-plagued first period, Larsson started to achieve much praise for his performances, including comparisons being drawn by Heerenveen manager Dwight Lodeweges between Larsson and Argentinian star Lionel Messi. Heerenveen ended the season in 7th place in the Eredevisie, with Larsson scoring eight and assisting to four goals in 25 games.

2015–16 season

In his second season with Heerenveen the club experienced a struggling period, finding themselves in the lower half of the table. Larsson's goal-scoring was less frequent than the previous spring, although he was recognised as the one player creating the most goal-scoring opportunities in the Eredivisie, while also being hailed by Heerenveen technical director Hans Vonk as the best dribbler in the league. Heerenveen finished the season in 12th while Larsson scored six goals and assisted another eight. At the end of the year, Larsson was awarded a place in the team of the season by Dutch newspaper

De Telegraaf ''De Telegraaf'' (; en, The Telegraph) is the largest Dutch daily morning newspaper. Haro Kraak,Gaat Paul Jansen de crisis bij De Telegraaf oplossen?, '' de Volkskrant'', 2015. Retrieved 1 August 2015. Paul Jansen has been the editor-in-chief s ...

Feyenoord

On 21 August 2017, Larsson joined Feyenoord on a four-year contract. On 9 September, Larsson made his debut for Feyenoord in an away game against

Heracles Almelo Heracles Almelo is a Dutch professional football club based in Almelo, founded in 1903. The club has won the Dutch national title twice, in 1927 and 1941. Heracles won the Eerste Divisie title during the 2004–05 season, gaining promotion to th ...

, in which he also scored Feyenoord's 4th goal. On 25 October, Larsson scored his first hat-trick in his career in the second round of the

KNVB Cup The KNVB Beker (; en, KNVB Cup), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organized by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Ou ...

against AVV Swift. He won the

with Feyenoord scoring a total of 4 goals. On 8 August 2018, Feyenoord won the

Johan Cruyff Shield The Johan Cruyff Shield (, ) is a football trophy in the Netherlands named after Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff, also often referred to as the Dutch Super Cup. The winner is decided in one match only, played by the winner of the national footbal ...

against PSV Eindhoven. The game ended in 0–0, resulting in a penalty shootout that ended 5–6. Larsson missed his penalty.

Dalian Professional

On 28 February 2020, Larsson joined

Dalian Professional Dalian Professional Football Club () is a professional Chinese Association football, football club based in Dalian, Liaoning, that participates in the China League One, China Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA) ...

on a three-year contract.

International career

SwedenU21 19 Sam Larsson 130606 Sve-Sch 3-2 183622 6590

Larsson got his first call up to the senior

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

side for

2018 FIFA 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 ...

qualifiers against Luxembourg and Bulgaria in October 2016, however he later withdrew from the squad through injury. In the 30th minute of his debut for Sweden away against Hungary on 15 November 2016, Larsson scored from a free kick. In 2018, Larsson was called up to the senior

side again, ahead of the friendly match against Austria on 6 September 2018 and the 2018–19 UEFA Nations League match against Turkey on 10 September 2018.

Personal life

He is the younger brother of former professional footballer Daniel Larsson.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''As of 6 September 2018.'' Appearances and goals by national team and year International goals :''Scores and results list Sweden's goal tally first.''

Honours

;IFK Göteborg * Svenska Cupen:

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

;Feyenoord *

: 2017–18 * Johan Cruijff Shield:

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

;Sweden U21 * UEFA European Under-21 Championship:

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Larsson, Sam 1993 births Living people Swedish men's footballers Sweden men's youth international footballers Sweden men's under-21 international footballers Sweden men's international footballers Swedish expatriate men's footballers IFK Göteborg players SC Heerenveen players Feyenoord players Dalian Professional F.C. players Antalyaspor footballers Allsvenskan players Eredivisie players Chinese Super League players Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in China Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Footballers from Gothenburg Men's association football midfielders