Full name Bjorn Sandro Runstrom Playing position 1996–2000 Hammarby IF Role Footballer Weight 77 kg Career end 2012 | Place of birth Stockholm, Sweden 1990–1996 Enskede IK Name Bjorn Runstrom Height 1.86 m Career start 1990 Salary 70,008 USD (2012) | |
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Date of birth (1984-03-01) 1 March 1984 (age 31) Number 32 (New England Revolution / Forward) | ||
Bjorn Sandro Runstrom (born 1 March 1984) is a Swedish former footballer who played as a striker.
Club career
Runstrom grew up in the southern suburbs of Stockholm and went to Enskede school as a child.
He started playing football for Enskede IK at the age of six years, Runstrom's time in Enskede went well and at the age of 12 years he was rewarded with a move to a bigger club; Hammarby. Runstrom developed at a fast speed and when he was 16 he left Hammarby for Italy and Bologna. He stayed in Italy for three years and led Bologna to their first Italian Youth Championship in 19 years in 2001.
At 17 he was part of Bologna's first team but only made the bench in Serie A and Coppa Italia. In 2002, he was transferred to Chievo Verona and after that to Florentia Viola. His stay in Florence was not what he had dreamed of and when rumours spread in late 2003 that Fiorentina wanted to trade him for the Swedish international Kim Kallstrom of Djurgardens IF (one of former club Hammarby's biggest rivals) he was outraged and declared that it was a transfer he would never accept. "Me playing for Djurgarden would be like Di Canio going back to Italy to play for A. S. Roma, it won't happen, if I go back to Sweden the only club that I could think of is my old club Hammarby".
Runstrom did return to Hammarby soon after and played three more seasons scoring 18 goals in 57 matches. This record attracted the attention of Premier League club Fulham (he had the chance to join the Cottagers in the January transfer window but declined saying "I didn't want to go on a free transfer in January even though I had an offer from Fulham already then, Hammarby have meant much to me and I wanted them to be well paid").
In July 2006, Runstrom joined Fulham on a three-year contract, for a fee of £700,000.
After making just one Premier League appearance against Tottenham Hotspur, on 30 January 2007, Runstrom moved to Luton Town on loan for a month. He returned to Fulham on 1 April 2007, having scored twice for Luton, against Sheffield Wednesday and Norwich City. Later that year, in July, he was loaned out to German club 1. FC Kaiserslautern, for the 2007–08 season. On his return, in May 2008, Runstrom was released by Fulham.
On 4 June 2008, Runstrom signed a three-and-a-half-year contract with Danish club OB.
On 23 February 2010, Molde FK signed the Swedish forward on loan from Danish club Odense BK until the end of the season.
He made his competitive debut on the opening day of the Norwegian Premier League on 14 March against the defending champions Rosenborg. He scored on his debut, a 35-yard cracker in a 2–1 loss. After this match Runstrom spent the rest of the season mainly on the bench, only making brief appearances not succeeding in making a mark on the matches. Runstrom was towards the end of the season considered redundant in Molde and the club terminated the contract with the player and sent him back to Denmark. Runstrom and OB parted company in February 2011.
On 27 February, Runstrom signed for The superettan side Hammarby, On 3 July, Runstrom scored twice against Oster.
On 28 March 2012, Runstrom was signed to the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer. New England declined the option of his contract on 27 June 2012 and Runstrom became a free agent.