George Raynor

George Raynor
George Raynor
Personnel
Surname	George Sidney Raynor
birthday	January 13, 1907
place of birth	Hoyland near Wombwell ,  England
date of death	November 24, 1985
Juniors
Years	station
	Elsecar Bible Class
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1929-1930	Wombwell FC
1930-1932	Sheffield United	0 0(0)
1932-1933	Mansfield Town	9 0(1)
1933-1935	Rotherham United	59 (17)
1935-1938	Bury FC	54 0(4)
1938-1939	FC Aldershot	33 0(3)
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
1943-1945	Iraq
1945-1946	FC Aldershot Res.
1946-1954	Sweden
1947-1948	GAIS Gothenburg
1948-1952	AIK Solna
1952-1954	Åtvidabergs FF
1954	Juventus Turin
1954-1955	Lazio Rome
1956	Coventry City
1956-1958	Sweden
1958-1960	Skegness Town
1960	Djurgårdens IF
1961–1962	Sweden
1967-1968	Doncaster Rovers
1 Only league games are given.

George Sidney Raynor (born January 13, 1907 in Hoyland near Wombwell , Yorkshire , † November 24, 1985 ) was an English football player and coach .

Because of his services to the Swedish national football team , he was awarded the Wasa Order.

Career

As an active player

Raynor initially played in the amateur field for the English football clubs Elsecar Bible Class , Mexborough Athletic and Wombwell FC . In 1930 he signed his first professional contract with Sheffield United . In the entire two years in which he played for Sheffield, however, he completed only one competitive game. During the following years (1932-1939) he moved between four different clubs, his last club before the outbreak of World War II was Aldershot FC .

As a trainer

During the Second World War, Raynor was a coach in Baghdad , Iraq, and despite the war he set up a national team for Iraq , which attracted the attention of Stanley Rous , then Secretary of the Football Association . Raynor was in 1946 supervisor of the Swedish national team , which was then put together by a selection committee.

Swedish national team

Raynor was seen as an irascible and tireless character who seemed to fit the open-minded Swede better than conservative England. Under him, Sweden developed into a great football player, which was partly due to his insight into club management. When Sweden and England met in Highbury in 1947, England struggled to prevail against Sweden until England finally won 4-2.

1948 Olympic Games

The following year, Sweden beat Yugoslavia 3-1 in the 1948 Summer Olympics final in London . At that time, Rudolf Kock was Raynor's assistant trainer as a member of the selection committee. Through their team analysis, they came to the conclusion that Nils Liedholm and Kjell Rosén would make excellent defensive midfielders. Gunnar Gren , Gunnar Nordahl and Liedholm (later referred to as Gre-No-Li ) formed a creative and powerful trio. After Sweden won Olympic gold in 1948, the core of the team was committed to Serie A by Italian scouts .

World Cup 1950

Despite the Swedish decision, after which professional players were banned from playing for the national team, Raynor managed to qualify for the 1950 World Cup in Brazil . Sweden beat Italy 3-2 in the group stage and finished third after losing 3-2 to eventual world champions Uruguay in the final round .

1952 Olympic Games

At the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki , Raynor Sweden led with a 2-0 win over Germany in the third place match to the bronze medal .

World Cup 1958

In the meantime, Svenska Fotbollförbundet had allowed professionals in domestic football, but it still needed persuasiveness to ask the Italian clubs for the release of Kurt Hamrin ( Calcio Padova ) and Liedholm ( AC Milan ) on the one hand, and to accept the "foreigners" on the other hand to advertise Swedish population.

“It would have been impossible for us to meet world-class opposition without such performers as Liedholm, Gren, Hamrin and Skoglund. Some people thought it wrong to play these "Italians" as the side was not representative of Swedish football. Perhaps it wasn't, but it was representative of the footballers Sweden produced. "

- George Raynor channel4.com - Football Italia

Sweden reached the final, but lost to Brazil 2-5. Second place at the 1958 World Cup is also the greatest success for Sweden's national football team. A year later, Sweden beat England 3-2 at Wembley .

As a club coach

During this time Raynor changed frequently as a club coach, his stations were among other things AIK Solna (1948-1951), Lazio Rome in Italy (1954) and Coventry City in England (for 5 months in 1956), but for the 1958 World Cup he was back as coach of the Swedish national football team.

Nine years after his great triumphs, Raynor coached the English fourth division club Doncaster Rovers .

In 1960 he published a book called "Football ambassador at large".

Web links

• George Raynor in the database of weltfussball.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ thefreelibrary.com: The Englishman who left Lazio to be Coventry City coach , called 1 June 2010
2. ↑ Norman Giller's England Lineups and Match Highlights 1946-47 to 1949-50 ( Memento of the original from August 2, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ George Raynor - Football ambassador at large