Let me tell you my story.
My name is Oskar Jansson. I am a storyteller, athlete and the creator behind CinemaFootball.
I grew up with one dream. To one day, become a professional footballer.
After fifteen years of chasing that dream, through highs I couldn’t have imagined and lows that nearly broke me, I finally made it in 2022.
However, in the subsequent years I started to more and more ask myself the question:
“What comes next?”
Eighteen years inside football. Playing for my hometown club. Joining my first academy at 13. Moving away from my family at 16. Battling periods of self-doubt through my late teenage years. Being on the verge of giving up in my early 20s, before finally signing my first pro contract just days before I turned 22.
Alongside all of it, I started a YouTube channel. What began as something fun has slowly grown into something I care deeply about. A new mission. A platform where I'm building the home of football dreams, merging cinematic storytelling with real-world value for footballers who now chase the same dream I once chased.
So, what comes next? The honest answer is that I don’t fully know. But, this is that story.
And it’s still being written.
The Beginnings (2007-2013)
All the way back in 2007, a scrawny kid laced up in his first pair of football boots for the very first time. In the early days, playing football was a way for me to hang out with my friends and just have fun. However, in 2010 I reached a point where I started to take the game more and more seriously.
I started to feel a burning desire within myself and almost obsession-like passion for football and for success. Somewhere within me a spark had been lit, and I knew that I wanted to dedicate my life to football and chase a professional career within the beautiful game.
During the coming years I trained almost every day, with the team but also by myself. I constantly tried to research and learn as much about the game as I possibly could. All of this work eventually resulted in me becoming one of the best players in my hometown club.
This inevitably made me look beyond the horizon and towards the next step in my career.
The Academy (2013-2016)
After seven years in my hometown club Hällefors AIF, it was time for a new challenge.
Me and my dad had started to scout for the best possible solutions for me to maximize my football development and in the end made the decision to reach out to the Degerfors IF academy. I went on a trial in late 2013, performed very well while there and was quickly accepted into the academy.
This meant that almost every day me and my parents would need to drive several hours for me to get to the training and to the games. A sacrifice that I’m incredibly grateful that my parents made for me and that ultimately put me on the path that have led me to where I am today.
During my three years in the academy I learned plenty of new concepts and I definitely made some progress in my development, but somewhere along the way I lost large parts of my self-confidence. I became afraid to make mistakes out on the field, when previously risk-taking was one of my biggest strengths. I stopped taking players on 1v1 because I feared the reactions of the coaches and players around me if I failed.
In 2016 I turned 16 years old and it was time to start high school, and when that time came I felt like I needed something new. A place to start over, to find myself and my confidence and get back to performing in the way that I knew that I could.
Moving Away (2016-2019)
In August 2016 I went through a big change in my life. The time had come to start high school, but I would do so in a new city, located three and a half hours away from my family. This meant that I packed my bags and at the age of 16, moved to an entirely new city. The city of Jönköping.
In the early stages of this new phase of my life, things looked great. I had settled in well into my new school and found a couple of friends that I enjoyed hanging out with, but I also performed well on the pitch, where I seemed to have regained some of that lost self-confidence from previous years.
This honeymoon phase quickly seemed to pass however, as I mostly struggled to perform and once again I felt like I was at the bottom. As I turned 17, 18; I started to feel stressed about not having reached where I believed I would at that phase of my career, and that only made me feel worse and also perform worse. Despite all this, I always kept believing, and I always kept working hard. I went to the pitch to keep honing my skills. I worked hard in the gym to improve my physique. My obsession with learning and improving never faded away and coupled with my unwavering belief in that I would one day make it, I never stopped.
In 2019 I enjoyed probably the best season up to that point of my career, scoring 11 goals, making another 4 assists and proving to be an integral part in bringing the U19-team to promotion.
However, even though I had done incredibly well, once again it wasn’t enough. I still wasn’t good enough to sign for the first team which meant that at the end of the 2019 season I had to look for other options.
Taking A Step Down (2020-2021)
After three years in my second academy in Jönköping, I once again packed my bags to move to an entirely new city. I managed to find a team in Växjö: Växjö Norra IF.
This would be my first real taste of senior football but somewhere, deep down, I felt like a failure. Going from two highly esteemed academies down to a fifth tier side felt like a step in the wrong direction. A step further away from my dreams. During this time I also turned 20 years old and I still hadn’t been close to reaching the professional level and I felt like my time was running out.
In 2020, the global pandemic also hit which meant our season went from 22 games down to 11, which was an incredibly tough moment mentally as I felt like I needed the games to keep progressing in my development. I struggled to break into the starting XI and in what felt like the blink of an eye the season was over.
When we then reached the 2021 season, I had a feeling that this would be my final push and I would try to make my absolute most of it. The pandemic affected this season as well, postponing the season start until June. I told myself that, “instead of complaining about things I can’t control, let’s use this period, work harder than ever before and start the season like a different player”.
And that was exactly what I did.
When the 2021 season was over I had scored 5 goals, including one of the best goals I had ever scored, made 4 assists and put in a bunch of great performances. I felt like I had done enough to make the push for a higher level. Therefore, at the end of 2021, I put together a highlight video that I sent out to almost every single professional team I could think of, I crossed my fingers and I waited.
Signing My First Pro Contract (2022-2023)
I had almost given up and stopped hoping but during the final days before the new year of 2022 I received a text from an unknown number saying:
”Hey! I’m the coach of Vänersborgs IF and I wonder whether you would be able to hop on a call?”. Vänersborgs IF was one of the clubs that I had sent my highlight video to and was one of the 16 professional teams playing in Ettan Södra in Sweden.
After the call it had been decided. During the second week of January I would travel up to Vänersborg for a week’s trial. During the trial I played some of my best football and at the end of the week when the coach called me into his room, it all felt surreal.
”I’ll be honest with you. I want to offer you a contract”.
Even though I heard what he said, I couldn’t quite understand it. After 15 whole years of playing football, moving cities, working hard through early mornings, late nights, rain, snow and facing setback after setback I finally had reached a point where I could call myself a professional footballer.
That moment is a moment I will remember for the rest of my life.
I signed my first 2-year professional contract in early February 2022, just days before I was about to turn 22 years old, and then a new phase had begun.
When I signed, I never expected to become a key player straight away. My goal was to learn everyday, keep improving and eventually reach a point where I could compete for a place in the starting lineup.
However, once I was there, I started losing sight of that mindset and started growing frustrated for not getting more playing time. I got a few starts, had a few great performances and even scored my first professional goal in September 2022 with an equalizer at home against Åtvidabergs FF.
When the season concluded in November and we had managed to fight off the other relegation contenders and secured a spot in Ettan Södra 2023, I felt like the next season would be my season.
After a great pre-season and some good momentum built up in early 2023, I became absolutely devastated when I, in the fourth game of the season, came on as a substitute, only to a few minutes later make a sprint forward and pull my hamstring. I had never had a serious injury up to that point and after a conversation with the physio we concluded that I would be out for at least 2 months.
In reality, I wasn’t fully back until around four months after the injury, but I didn’t feel like myself and physically capable until the very last few games of the year. And when we in the last game faced relegation down into division 2, I had to make a choice.
(2024)
At the end of my second professional season I felt like something needed to change. The motivation had faded and I wasn't making the progress I had hoped for. From that feeling, an idea was born.
What if I stepped away from team football entirely, and dedicated everything to rebuilding myself from scratch? Training alone, on my own terms, documenting every step on YouTube.
That was the original vision for PROJECT REBORN.
I launched it in late 2023 and for the first few months the progress was real and the motivation was high. But in early 2024 I made the decision to rejoin Vänersborgs IF for a third season, trying to combine team football with the project. Somewhere along the way the balance tipped where team football eventually took over, the videos stopped, and PROJECT REBORN quietly faded away.
I hadn't given up on the vision. I just hadn't found the right conditions for it yet.
(2025-present)
On January 1st 2025 I relaunched PROJECT REBORN with a new attempt at the original vision, and this time, something was different.
I haven't played team football since November 2024. The pro comeback that once drove everything is no longer the goal. What started as a project to reignite a football career has become something I didn't expect: a genuine transformation of identity.
PROJECT REBORN has changed what I want, what I'm building, and what I believe is possible. I'm no longer chasing a return to professional football. I'm building CinemaFootball as the home of football dreams – through cinematic storytelling, original frameworks, and real impact for footballers around the world. I'm pursuing athletic goals through running. I still play football, train it, love it – but as a tool for storytelling, for helping others, and for staying connected to the game that built me.
I don't know when this chapter ends. Maybe there's a PROJECT REBORN 3 one day. But right now I'm still very much inside this one.
Still being reborn, still figuring it out.
And I think that's exactly the point.