Viktor Tobias Johansson (born 14 September 1998) 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

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

for club

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, the cl ...

and the Sweden national team. A product of the Hammarby and

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...

academies, Johansson spent two years at

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

side

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

but only appeared in

EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, officially known as the Vertu Motors, Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English association football, football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL League Two and ...

matches for their U21 side. He joined

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional association football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. The team plays in EFL League One, the third tier of English football, after suffering relegation fr ...

in September 2020. In 2021–22 he helped Rotherham gain promotion to the Championship and win the

. He spent four seasons at the

New York Stadium The New York Stadium, currently known as the AESSEAL New York Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a association football, football stadium in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. Opened in July 2012, it is the home ground of Rotherham United F. ...

before leaving for

in May 2024. He has represented Sweden at youth and senior international levels.

Club career

Early career

Johansson spent his early career with Stuvsta, Hammarby,

Alfreton Town Alfreton Town Football Club is a football club based in Alfreton, Derbyshire, England. The club are currently members of and play at North Street. History The club was formed in 1959 following the merger of Alfreton Miners Welfare and Alf ...

and

Rotherham United

In September 2020 he signed for

. He made his first appearance in a 2–1 win at home against

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional association football club in Preston, Lancashire, England. They currently play in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English footbal ...

on 7 November 2020. Johansson was praised for his performances in

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 ...

and he received the club's Young Player of the Year award. The Millers suffered relegation on the final day of the season. Johansson helped Rotherham gain an instant return to the Championship in 2021–22 finishing 2nd and also winning the EFL Trophy final at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

after beating

Sutton United Sutton United Football Club is a professional association football club from Sutton, South London, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. Sutton started out playing in junior, ...

4–2. Johansson later recorded the Championship's highest goals prevented statistic of 8.5 goals prevented across the entire season. Johansson was linked with moves away from the club throughout the season but he opted to sign a new contract with the club, running until summer 2025. His performances were recognised by the club and manager, winning his first Player of the Year award. Manager Matt Taylor singled out Johansson as the star performer in the team stating ''"he's the best goalkeeper in the championship"'' and his shot stopping ability was at times "in the world class category." Following relegation in the 2023–24 season, local media reported that Johansson had a £1 million relegation release clause in his contract. As a thank you to the Rotherham United fans, Johansson paid for 600 free pints of beer prior to the club's last game of the season against Cardiff City.

Stoke City

Johansson joined

on 18 May 2024, signing a three-year contract for an undisclosed fee. Johansson played in all 46 of Stoke's Championship matches in 2024–25, as they avoided relegation on the final day of the season, finishing in 18th. His performances during the season saw him named as

player of the year Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year. In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award. Association football In association football, this award is held on b ...

International career

Johansson has represented Sweden at under-17, under-19 and under-21 youth levels. In March 2023, he received his first call-up to the Swedish senior national team for the

UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from March 2023 to March 2024 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams that would join the automatically qualified host team Germany in the UEFA Eur ...

matches against

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

and

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

. Johansson received his first cap for Sweden when he came on at half time against Moldova in October 2023.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Rotherham United *

League One League One or League 1 may refer to: Association football * EFL League One, the third tier of football in England. * China League One, the second tier of football in China * K League 1, the top-tier football in South Korea * Lao League 1 * Lea ...

runner-up: 2021–22 *

: 2021–22 Individual *

Young Player of the Season:

Player of the Season:

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 ...

, 2023–24 * Stoke City Player of the Year: 2024–25 * Swedish Goalkeeper of the Year: 2024

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johansson, Viktor 1998 births Living people Swedish men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Hammarby Fotboll players Aston Villa F.C. players Alfreton Town F.C. players Leicester City F.C. players Rotherham United F.C. players Stoke City F.C. players National League (English football) players English Football League players Swedish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Swedish expatriate sportspeople in England Sweden men's youth international footballers Sweden men's under-21 international footballers Sweden men's international footballers 21st-century Swedish sportsmen