John Holger Michael Stenberg

John Stenberg spent the better part of a decade working through Sweden's lower divisions before American football gave his career a fresh direction. He started out at IFK Åmål, then moved through Carlstad United and Karlstad BK, logging 51 matches in Division 1 Norra during his time at Carlstad alone.

The move to Dalkurd FF in March 2020 took him into Superettan for the first time. Two seasons there brought 29 appearances and four goals from central defence. A switch to Östers IF in January 2021 followed, and it was there that Stenberg settled into a regular run of first-team football, playing 57 times and scoring three goals across a stretch that took the club from Superettan into Allsvenskan.

In January 2023 he left Sweden altogether, joining Phoenix Rising FC in the USL Championship as a free agent. The move was interrupted almost immediately: from March to July that year he went back to Östers on loan, adding 12 Superettan appearances before returning to Arizona. Back in the USL he made 26 league appearances and two in the US Open Cup, scoring twice. His contract with Phoenix Rising ran out in December 2024.

Stenberg returned to Sweden in June 2025, signing for Örebro SK as a free agent on a deal running to the end of 2026. He wears number 32 and has established himself in the squad, with 15 Superettan appearances in his first season at the club and his tally since climbing to 17 league games plus three in the Swedish Cup.

Every one of his moves has come on a free transfer, and no fee has ever been disclosed for any of them — a career built less on marquee signings than on steady, repeated selection wherever he has landed.