Sebastian Hedlund

Sebastian Starke Hedlund did not come up through a Swedish top-flight academy in the usual way — his path ran through Germany. After winning the U19 Allsvenskan Norra with IF Brommapojkarna in 2011, he moved to Schalke 04's youth setup and later played for the club's reserve side before returning to Sweden with GAIS.

His career took shape at Kalmar FF, from where he went out on loan to Varbergs BoIS and then to Mjøndalen IF in Norway. It was also during his Kalmar years that Hedlund earned his senior international recognition, representing Sweden at the 2016 Rio Olympics and appearing in the group-stage match against Colombia U23.

The most productive spell of his career came in Iceland. At Valur Reykjavík, Hedlund won the Besta deild karla title twice, in 2018 and 2020, and added two Reykjavik Cup wins in 2021 and 2022, before returning to Sweden on a free transfer to Östers IF.

One afternoon at Östers has stayed with supporters for reasons that had nothing to do with football. During an Allsvenskan match against IFK Göteborg in May 2025, a fan ran onto the pitch and attacked Hedlund. The referee halted play, but the match resumed and Östers went on to win 2–1 — a result that, in the retelling, has become inseparable from the incident itself.