Simon Christer Sandberg (born 25 March 1994) is a Swedish

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 ...

who plays as a

right back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for

BK Häcken Bollklubben Häcken, more commonly known as BK Häcken or simply Häcken (), is a Swedish professional football club based in Gothenburg. It currently plays in Allsvenskan, the top tier of Swedish football. Formed on 2 August 1940, Häcken has p ...

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 le ...

Early life

Sandberg grew up in

Partille Partille () is a former urban area in the county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain moder ...

and played both football, with the local club Björndammens BK, and handball during his youth. His father Dennis Sandberg is a professional handball coach. In 2009, at age 15, he was invited to train with

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 ...

, the Swedish top tier, but was not offered a contract. Instead, he signed with

the same year and joined their youth academy.

Club career

BK Häcken

Sandberg signed his first professional contract with BK Häcken in 2012, and made his competitive debut in Allsvenskan on 23 May 2013 in a 3–0 win against

Syrianska FC Syrianska Football Club, also known as Syrianska FC or simply Syrianska, is a Swedish professional football club based in Södertälje in Stockholm County. The club was founded by Syriac-Aramean immigrants in 1977 as Suryoyo Sportklubb, or Sury ...

. He soon established himself as a starter at Häcken, playing both as a central defender and full back. Sandberg would move on to make a total of 61 league appearances for Häcken, scoring once, between 2013 and 2016. Most notably, Sandberg scored the decisive penalty when Häcken won the

2015–16 Svenska Cupen The 2015–16 Svenska Cupen will be the 60th season of Svenska Cupen and the fourth season with the current format. The winners of the competition will earn a place in the second qualifying round of the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League. A total of ...

, the club's first ever domestic title, beating

Malmö FF Malmö Fotbollförening, commonly known as Malmö FF, Malmö, or MFF, is a professional football club and the most successful football club in Sweden in terms of trophies won. Formed in 1910 and affiliated with the Scania Football Associatio ...

in the final after a 2–2 draw (5–6 on penalties).

Levski Sofia

On 9 July 2016, Sandberg was sold to

Levski Sofia Levski Sofia ( bg, Левски София) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which competes in the First League, the top division of the Bulgarian football league system. The club was founded on 24 May 1914 ...

in the

Bulgarian First League The First Professional Football League ( bg, Първа професионална футболна лига, Parva Profesionalna Futbolna Liga), also known as the Bulgarian First League or Parva Liga, currently known as the efbet League for spon ...

, signing a three year-deal. A transfer fee of around 2 million Swedish kronor (approximately £0,12 million) was suggested, as he only had six months left on his contract with the Swedish club. Sandberg saw his playing time limited at Levski Sofia, with his stint at the club being plagued by several serious injuries. He also fell out of favour with manager

Elin Topuzakov Elin Kalinov Topuzakov ( bg, Елин Калинов Топузаков; born 5 February 1977 in Dimitrovgrad) is a Bulgarian former football defender and now manager. He is nicknamed ''Balls'' ( bg, Топчо / Topcho) because of his last n ...

soon after his arrival. Sandberg left the club in November 2017 by mutual consent, after only making five league appearances for Levski Sofia.

Hammarby IF

On 30 November 2017, ahead of the 2018 Allsvenskan, Sandberg returned to Sweden, signing a two year-contract with

. He made his debut for the club in a 3–1 home win against

IK Sirius IK Sirius is a Swedish bandy club located in Uppsala, currently playing in Elitserien. IK Sirius were formed in 1907 and play their home games at Studenternas Idrottsplats. History IK Sirius' first success was becoming Swedish runners-up in ...

on 1 April. During the season, Sandberg played 23 league games for Hammarby as the club finished 4th in the table. On 4 May 2019, Sandberg signed a three and a half-year extension with Hammarby, running until 2022. Throughout the 2019 season, Sandberg played 28 league games and provided seven assists as Hammarby finished 3rd in the table, after eight straight wins at the end of the campaign. After the season, he was nominated as Defender of the Year in Allsvenskan, but eventually lost out on the award. In 2020, a season postponed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

, Sandberg was plagued by a hip injury and only featured in 20 games, as the side disappointedly finished 8th in the table. On 30 May 2021, Sandberg won the

2020–21 Svenska Cupen The 2020–21 Svenska Cupen was the 65th season of the Svenska Cupen and the ninth season with the current format. Hammarby won the cup for the first time and secured a spot in the second qualifying round of the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference Le ...

with Hammarby through a 5–4 win on penalties (0–0 after full-time) against his former club BK Häcken in the final. Sandberg featured in both legs as the club was knocked out in the play-off round of the

2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League The 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League was the inaugural season of the UEFA Europa Conference League, Europe's tertiary club football tournament organised by UEFA. The final was played at the Arena Kombëtare in Tirana, Albania, with Roma ...

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS) ...

(4–4 on aggregate) on penalties, where he scored his attempt. On 7 November 2021, Sandberg scored his first competitive goal for the club in a 3–2 Allsvenskan home win against

Örebro SK Örebro Sportklubb, more commonly known as Örebro SK, Örebro or (especially locally) ÖSK, is a Swedish professional football club based in Örebro. The club are affiliated to Örebro Läns Fotbollförbund and play their home games at Behrn ...

. Sandberg featured in the final of the

2021–22 Svenska Cupen The 2021–22 Svenska Cupen is the 66th season of the Svenska Cupen and the tenth season with the current format. The winners of the competition will secure a spot in the second qualifying round of the 2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League, unl ...

, in which Hammarby lost by 4–5 on penalties to Malmö FF after the game ended in a 0–0 draw. On 31 December 2022, Sandberg left Hammarby at the expiration of his contract. In total, he made 122 Allsvenskan appearances for the club.

Return to Häcken

On 21 February 2023, Sandberg returned to his former club BK Häcken, signing a three-year contract.

International career

Sandberg was called up to the Swedish senior squad for the training tour in early 2020. He made his debut in a 1–0 friendly win against

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Eur ...

on 12 January.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

BK Häcken *

Svenska Cupen Svenska Cupen (, ''The Swedish Cup'') 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 held. Each year 96 teams co ...

: 2015–16,

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Hammarby IF * Svenska Cupen:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

References

External links

*
Profile at Levskisofia.info
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sandberg, Simon 1994 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 BK Häcken players PFC Levski Sofia players Hammarby Fotboll players Allsvenskan players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Swedish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Bulgaria Men's association football defenders