When David Moberg Karlsson signed for Sunderland back in 2013 for £1.5m during the Paolo Di Canio era, there were some hopes he would develop into a first-team player.
At just 19 years of age, no one expected him to be a guaranteed starter from the off, yet the Premier League dream didn’t quite go the way it should have for the winger.
Starting his first game soon after signing (a 4-2 win against MK Dons in the League Cup), the youngster then completely disappeared, never to be seen again in a Sunderland shirt.
Loaned to Kilmarnock for a season six months later, Karlsson was sold for a £1m loss the next summer to Nordsjaelland in Denmark.
Now at Sparta Prague, where he’s only just signed, the forward explained to NT in his home country of Sweden that he did everything in his power to make sure he avoided a repeat of his Sunderland adventure.
He said: “I’ve said this a lot that you can’t know in advance if you are going to play, but this time I really tried to analyse everything, and [Sparta Prague] is by far my best option.”
The 24-year-old’s move comes after a strong season with Norrköping in Sweden during which he scored 13 goals and picked up seven assists in 36 appearances in all appearances.
Since leaving Sunderland, he has represented his country three times, and scored one goal.
