Pontus Jansson

Malmö FF

Jansson started his career at local club Arlövs BI. In 2006 at age 15 he transferred to Malmö FF. He played in youth teams until he made his first team debut in 2009. Jansson played in a variety of positions in the early stages of his career until deciding on centre back in the start of the 2010 season. He had made his first team debut as forward the year before. When teammate Jasmin Sudić was long term injured in the beginning of the year the manager decided that Jansson would take Sudić's place at centre-back despite mostly playing as a striker. Jansson played in 18 games in the 2010 league winning season for Malmö. He missed the latter part of the season due to injury problems. Starting out the 2011 season on the bench, Jansson gained new manager Rikard Norling's trust and once again took a spot in the starting eleven. Jansson finished the season with 15 league matches and nine matches in Europe played. Many considered him to be the club's best player of 2011 even though he played for only half of the season. Jansson was also mentioned as a potential candidate for becoming the club's new captain as Daniel Andersson announced that he would step down during the 2012 season. The 2012 season was Jansson's big breakthrough season as he played all 30 league matches for Malmö FF, playing the first part of the season with Andersson and the latter part with newcomer Filip Helander by his side in the defensive line. Jansson continued to be one of the club's most…

Youth

Jansson made his debut for the Sweden U21 national team in a friendly game against Portugal on 9 February 2011. On 2 June 2011 he captained the team in a match against Norway where he also scored the first goal in a 4–1 win for Sweden U21.

Senior

Early career, Euro 2016, and captaincy

Jansson was selected for the annual training camp for the Sweden national team in January 2012. He made his senior debut for Sweden in the training match against Bahrain on 18 January 2012. During the summer of 2016, Jansson was selected to represent the Sweden squad for UEFA Euro 2016, however he remained an unused substitute for Sweden in all 3 of their games. On 27 March 2018, Jansson was named as the Sweden captain for a friendly match against Romania.

2018 FIFA World Cup

On 15 May 2018, Jansson was named in Sweden's final 23-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. On 18 June, Jansson was named in the starting lineup ahead of Manchester United's Victor Lindelöf for Sweden's opening game of Group F in a 1–0 win against South Korea. Sweden reached the World Cup Quarter-Finals of the tournament after beating Switzerland in the last 16, however England knocked out Sweden in a 2–0 win on 7 July 2018, the match also saw Jansson play in an unfamiliar striker's role, with Jansson brought on as a second-half substitute to try score a goal with Sweden trailing at the time.

Later career, Euro 2020, and retirement

On 6 September 2018, Jansson…

Club

As of match played 18 April 2026

International

While at Leeds, Jansson had a popular chant made for him, that begins "Pontus Jansson's magic, he wears a magic hat". The song is a crowd terrace version of the song "My Old Man's a Dustman" originally performed by Lonnie Donegan. On 25 July 2017, Jansson married his fiancée Åsa Thornell and revealed on his Instagram that at their wedding reception they had a band sing a Swedish version of the "magic hat" song. Leeds' fans also used to sing another Jansson chant, to the tune of "Last Christmas" by Wham!: "Last Christmas, I gave you my heart … This year, to save me from tears, I'll give it to Pontus Jansson". Jansson's agent is former Swedish international and ex-Blackburn Rovers striker Martin Dahlin. In August 2019, Jansson featured in Leeds United documentary Take Us Home documenting the 2018–19 season on Amazon Prime; the documentary was narrated by Academy Award winning actor and Leeds United fan Russell Crowe.