IFK Göteborg After spending two years in the youth team, during the 2005 season Berg was promoted to the regular squad and played for
IFK Göteborg in the
Allsvenskan. During the time playing for IFK Göteborg, he played alongside his older brother
Jonatan. Berg played for IFK Göteborg until the 2007 summer and put forth an attracting performance throughout his final season, as he maintained a high scoring efficiency throughout the league matches. Göteborg won the league that season and Berg received a standing ovation upon leaving the field after the 5–0 away victory over
Kalmar FF where Berg scored, which was his last for the club because of his suspension for the game against
Djurgårdens IF. Among dedicated IFK Göteborg supporters, Berg is known as
Svarte-Marcus ("Black Marcus") due to his many goals in the Göteborg youth and reserve teams, and later also senior team. The nickname is an homage to the legendary IFK Göteborg striker
Filip "Svarte-Filip" Johansson.
Groningen On 10 August 2007, Dutch club
FC Groningen signed Berg for a reported
£2.5 million to replace the departing
Ajax-bound
Luis Suárez. Berg had a good debut season in the Netherlands. Although he was not the top scorer in the
Eredivisie in
2007–08, he scored 18 goals for Groningen, helping the Dutch outfit to a seventh-place finish. In the
2008–09 season, Groningen remained top of the Eredivisie table after five games played. Berg had a good display as well. He managed to score 13 goals in 15 matches. He also scored four goals in a December game against
Roda JC.
Hamburger SV 2009–10 season On 17 July 2009, German
Bundesliga side
Hamburger SV confirmed that Berg had signed a five-year contract with the club. The official FC Groningen website mentioned it was a record fee paid for a Groningen player.
Dagblad van het Noorden, a Dutch newspaper, stated that Berg swapped clubs for €10.5 million. The contract also mentioned that a friendly match will be played between Groningen and Hamburg in the summer of 2010 or 2011 in the
Euroborg, the main stadium of Groningen. Although initially the fee of €9.5 million was too high for Hamburg, Berg's desire of moving to the Bundesliga persuaded Groningen to complete the transfer. In his first Bundesliga game for Hamburg, playing at home against
Borussia Dortmund, Berg scored his first goal for the club in the 72nd minute, just 182 seconds after coming off the bench, a record in the club's history. Despite the promising start, his debut season in the Bundesliga would not become a success, with Berg only scoring three additional goals in 30 appearances.
2010–11 season: Loan to PSV On 17 July 2010,
PSV and Hamburg agreed to a season-long loan deal for Berg.
2011–12 season: Return from loan After returning from his loan spell at PSV, Berg only made 13 appearances the
2011–12 Bundesliga due to injuries and continued lack of form, scoring once. On 9 November 2012, Hamburger SV athletic supervisor
Frank Arnesen stated that the club had to sell five players to raise funds after having invested heavily in new players in the previous summer, including Dutch star
Rafael van der Vaart; one of these five players was said to be Berg. After these news, Berg was linked with a return to his former club IFK Göteborg.
Panathinaikos On 4 July 2013, it was revealed that Berg had travelled to
Athens in order to sign with
Panathinaikos. On 8 July 2013, Panathinaikos announced that Berg had signed a four-year contract with the club. On 18 August 2013, in his debut appearance, Berg scored his first goal with Panathinaikos, as his team won the game against
Panetolikos. On the first derby of the year against
PAOK, Berg scored Panathinaikos' goal and lost a penalty, as his team lost with a score of 2–1. On 2 March 2014, Berg was the MVP in the
3–0 away victory against
Olympiacos with one goal and one assist for
Danijel Pranjić. This was the biggest away victory in the history of the Eternal Rivals. The following week, he scored a
hat-trick when Panathinaikos defeated
Aris 4–1 at home. On 26 April 2014, in the
Greek Cup final against rivals PAOK, Berg scored a hat-trick to lead Panathinaikos to a 4–1 victory, who won the Greek Cup as they had done in 2010. On 11 January 2015, Berg scored his second hat-trick in a 5–0 home win against
Ergotelis in the
Super League Greece. On 26 January 2015, he signed a one-year extension contract, until 2018. On 8 March, in a Panathinaikos–PAOK derby, Berg scored his third hat-trick in a 4–3 home win. On 30 March 2015, after two-and-a-half years, Berg scored his seventh international goal on friendly match against Iran. On 31 August 2015, Panathinaikos rivals
PAOK offered to €2 million for Berg, but the "Greens" turned it down. Additionally,
Marseille tried to complete a move for the Swedish striker on the deadline date, however, they were put off by Panathinaikos's price tag. On 6 September 2015, Berg was left frustrated as he did not start in the line-up for the game against
Russia.
Sweden lost 1–0 at the hands of Russia with Berg making his appearance for only 30 minutes on the pitch as he started from the bench. Swedish press criticised this decision and Berg demanded first team football in the National Team after the final whistle.''"
Ola Toivonen is a kind of a different player than me and this decision has been taken. But it's pretty clear that I want to play as I'm in a decent form,"'' the Panathinaikos striker underlined straight after the game. On 7 November 2015, he scored the winning goal in the 10th day of the Super League match against
Atromitos, It was his 50th goal with the club in all competitions. On 24 January 2016, almost 2.5 months since his last goal in the Super League, Berg scored leading his club to away 2–0 victory against
Levadiakos. On 6 March 2016, Swedish striker and fans of Panathinaikos' favorite Berg reached 100 official appearances with the Greek club at a home game against Atromitos. On 19 March 2016, he scored a brace against
Iraklis for the Super League. On 17 April 2016, in the last matchday for the
2015–16 season, Berg scored five times (23', 41', 45+2', 51', 62') in his team's 6–1 victory against
Panthrakikos. On 18 August 2016, Berg was the scorer of two goals, helping Panathinaikos win the first leg of the
UEFA Europa League play offs and is set to qualify for the group stage, as the Greens crushed Danish
Brøndby IF 3–0 at Leoforos stadium. On 6 September 2016, Berg stepped into retired Sweden national team captain
Zlatan Ibrahimović's vacant boots to open the scoring in Stockholm just two minutes before the break against
Netherlands, as he capitalised on
Kevin Strootman's defensive mishap to smash in from outside the box into the top left corner. On 18 September 2016, he was the scorer of two goals, helping the club to achieve a 4–0 home win against
PAS Giannina. It was his first goals for the
2016–17 season. On 23 September 2016, Berg extended his three-year contract for an annual fee of €1.1 million and with a €10 million release clause. Panathinaikos has 55% of Berg's rights,
Hamburger SV has 45% and the rest 10% belongs to the player. On 19 January, was the scorer of two goals, helping the club, to achieve a 2–1 home win against
Platanias, helping the club climbing in the third place of Super League. On 30 January 2017, Panathinaikos announced the agreement for the extension of Berg's contract till the summer of 2019. On 12 February 2017, he was the scorer of three goals in a Super League 4–0 home win against
Panetolikos. He was named MVP of the match. On 4 March 2017, with Swedish international striker grabbing a hat-trick (pen. 18', pen. 39', 41'), Panathinaikos won 5–0 against struggling
Veria. He became the leading scorer of Super League so far and named MVP of the march. On 11 March 2017, Panathinaikos striker scored his 24th goal into the season breaking his own record since he joined the Greens. The Swedish striker continues to be in great form as he scored once again in Panathinaikos's 1–1 Super League draw with Iraklis. On 19 March 2017, Berg scored for the third time in his "green" career in the
derby against Olympiacos in Panathinaikos's win with 1–0 at home. Berg scored twice on 2 April 2017 against
AEK Athens in the away win 2–3 in the
Athenian derby. On 6 April 2017, Panathinaikos won 1–0
Panionios at
Leoforos Stadium, thanks to a penalty kick by Berg. It was the fifth consecutive game that the Swedish international scored. On 30 April 2017, he scored his last goal for the season, in a 2–0 home win against
AEL gaining the title of the
2016–17 League top scorer for first time in his Greek career. On 18 May 2017, the Swedish striker will miss the remainder of
Super League play-offs because he will serve four-game suspension. The 31-year-old international and captain of the Greens showed unprofessional behavior on home clash against PAOK (1–0), which was finally interrupted by referee Giorgos Kominis at 55', and will not perform at the four remaining matches. On 20 June 2017, the Administration of Panathinaikos rejected the first offer of
Al Ain FC (€2.5–3 million) about the purchase of experienced Swedish striker. The Greens are holding the 55% of the rights of 31-year-old international (his former team, Hamburger SV, have the other 35%), whose current contract expires in the summer of 2019, with a buy-out clause of €5.2 million, but the negotiations with the UAE club are expected to be continued, while Berg has already agreed to sign a two (plus one) years' season contract with Al Ain, with an annual salary of €3 million after taxes.
Al Ain On 28 June 2017, however,
Al Ain FC confirmed the move was finalised following lengthy negotiations with
Panathinaikos, with the figure believed to be around €3 million. Berg, has agreed to a two-year contract, although there exists an option to renew. He replaces in the squad Saudi Arabia striker
Nasser Al-Shamrani. A statement from Panathinaikos read: "Unfortunately, Marcus Berg chose to leave Panathinaikos because he felt that at that time, close to the end of his career, he wanted to get a big financial benefit. There were some misunderstandings during the negotiations. We forget them, as Marcus has offered a lot to Panathinaikos. We wish him good luck in the step he chose and wait for him if he wishes to close his career in our club." On 16 April 2018, following an incredible season in
UAE Pro-League, Berg was twice on target as his club advanced to the last 16 stage of the
AFC Champions League with an emphatic 4–1 rout of Qatar's
Al Rayyan SC. On 21 April 2018, Al Ain were crowned
UAE Pro-League champions for the 13th time in their history thanks to a Marcus Berg's hat-trick in an emphatic 4–0 win over
Al Nasr. On 29 April 2018, netting four goals in a glorious 5–0 home win game against
Al Dhafra FC, helping his club to win the
2017–18 UAE Pro-League, being the top scorer of the League in his first season. On 3 May 2018, he scored, making use of a cleverly executed volley pass by the mid-fielder
Omar Abdulrahman, the second goal in a 2–1 as Al Ain outlasted
Al-Wasl F.C., lifting
UAE President's Cup to secure trophy double in UAE Pro-League club's 50th year. On 18 December 2018, opened the score helping his club through to the
2018 FIFA Club World Cup final as they dumped Copa Libertadores winners
River Plate out on penalties in the semi-finals, after a final 2–2 game.
Krasnodar On 13 July 2019,
Krasnodar announced the signing of the Swedish international until the summer of 2020 and his contract worth €1.9 million. On 15 June 2020, he extended his contract with Krasnodar for a further year. He finished his first season with Krasnodar as the club's top scorer, with 9 in the league and 10 in all competitions, as Krasnodar finished third place and secured a spot in the play-off round of the
UEFA Champions League. Berg scored his first goal of the
2020–21 season in Krasnodar's first league game of the season, a 3–0 victory at
FC Ufa on 9 August 2020. Berg featured in both matches of the Champions League play-off tied against
PAOK in September 2020 as Krasnodar won 4–2 on aggregate to secure qualification to the group stage for the first time in club history. On 2 December 2020, he scored the only goal in a 1–0 victory over
Rennes in the Champions League, their first win in the competition, to qualify Krasnodar for the Europa League.
Return to IFK Göteborg On 22 March 2021, it was announced that Berg would return to IFK Göteborg and subsequently Sweden on a free transfer. Signing a two-and-a-half-year contract, he returned effectively on 1 July. On 25 September 2023, Berg announced his retirement from professional football due to a severe back injury suffered, ending an 18-year long career with over 470 league appearances made. In February 2024, Berg became a developer as a part of IFK Göteborg men's first-team coaching staff. ==International career==