奇怪的字符...我想保存这个“º”字符,但我保存像“1º”

Im doing a pdf upload system, and it is already working fine.

But, Im always giving to the name of pdf a level, this level have always this char "º".

What is happening is when I do the upload, pdf name is saved no with "º" but with "º".

Do you know how I can solve this?

if(!empty($_FILES['pdf']['tmp_name'])){             

   $folder = '../pdfs/';    
   $year = date('Y');
   $month = date('m');

   $pdf = $_FILES['pdf'];
   $ext = substr($pdf['name'],-3);
   $f['pdf'] = $f['level'].'.'.$ext;
   move_uploaded_file($pdf['tmp_name'], $folder.$year.'/'.$month.'/'.$f['pdf']);
}

In my folder, where I save the files, the pdf name is like this: "1º Level"

In database, I dont have here the code, but it saves also like "1º Level".

I already change the database to utf8_general_ci, but the problem remains, and dont seems a database problem because, also when I save the file in a folder I have the same problem...