Early career Elm began his career playing for youth clubs Johansfors IF and Emmaboda IS, alongside his younger brothers
Rasmus and
Viktor (although he went on to play for
Nybro IF).
Falkenbergs FF Elm moved to
Superettan club
Falkenbergs FF on a
free transfer in 2004. Upon his arrival, he quickly established himself as first-choice. In his time there, he scored a total of 14 goals on 68 matches. He left Falkenbergs FF for
Allsvenskan club
Kalmar FF at the end of the 2006 season.
Kalmar FF At
Kalmar FF, Elm was mostly used as a substitute during his first season. However, after several departures, he became first-choice in the 2008 season, contributing 7 goals in 27 games, which saw Kalmar win the
Swedish Cup. Kalmar also went on to win
Allsvenskan for the first time in the club's history. This led to a possible move to
Fulham.
Fulham On 1 September 2009, Elm signed for
Premier League side
Fulham for an undisclosed fee, thought to be around
£500,000. Spokesman Patrick Mörk stated that Fulham chief scout Barry Simmonds held talks with Elm. He also stated that
Roy Hodgson had personally attended the second leg between Kalmar and Hungarian club
Debrecen in the
Champions League first qualifying match, which Hodgson was interested in. He also suggests that Elm might come to be featured in the squad as a midfielder. On 23 September 2009, Elm made his Fulham debut on in a 2–1 away defeat to
Manchester City in the
League Cup third round, replacing
Eddie Johnson in the 91st minute. On 9 February 2010, Elm scored his first goal for Fulham, netting the second in a 3–0 home win over Burnley in the Premier League, he also assisted
Danny Murphy for Fulham's first goal. At the end of the 2009–10 season, he signed a contract extension lasting until the end of the 2011–12 season.
Elfsborg On 24 January 2011, Elm signed a five-year contract with Swedish club
IF Elfsborg. The estimated transfer sum was around £500,000- £1,000,000, Elm transferred from Fulham due to lack of playing time. Elm was bought by Elfsborg because they had recently sold their top striker
Denni Avdic to
Werder Bremen for around £2,500,000 – £3,000,000. The similarities were the height of both of the players, even if David is more of a target man, exactly what the former head coach
Magnus Haglund was looking for. During Elm's first season he played 25 matches, scored 7 times and assisted two times. He had a hard time in the beginning to get into the first squad, but after he scored in important matches he gained trust from the coach and the audience. In the 2010–11 season he scored the winning goal in a 3–2
derby win against
IFK Göteborg, netting in the 93rd minute.
Return to Kalmar FF and retirement He returned to Kalmar FF during the summer of 2013. He retired from professional football after the
2017 season. He spent one season with his boyhood club Johansfors IF in
Division 6 in 2018. ==Style of play==