Bertil Ericsson

Bertil Ericsson (born November 6, 1908 in Falun , † August 18, 2002 in Sundsvall ) was a Swedish football player . The striker , who was part of the Swedish national team at the 1936 Olympic Games , played for AIK and Sandvikens IF in the Allsvenskan .

Career

Ericsson started playing football in his hometown at Falu IK . After completing his military service with the I20 Infantry Regiment in Umeå , he sought training at Påhlmans Handelsinstitut and Schartaus Handelsinstitut in Stockholm . For this reason, at the beginning of his training in 1932, he joined the AIK club, which was still based in Stockholm at the time, while at the same time he earned his living with the insurance company Städernas allmänna brandstodsbolag . Due to an injury and an illness, however, he hardly got a chance for the reigning champion. In September he made his debut for the club in the Allsvenskan, he contributed a goal to the 6-1 win over IFK Göteborg , then he played two more league games.

Ericsson returned to his hometown at Christmas 1932 and found a job at Sandvikens Jernverk . As a result, he moved to AIK's league rivals Sandvikens IF in early 1933 . Here he established himself as a regular goalscorer and recommended himself for the national team. In June of that year he made his debut in the 6-2 success of the national team in qualifying for the 1934 World Cup finals against Estonia in the national jersey , alongside Knut Kroon , Lennart Bunke , Sven Andersson and Torsten Bunke, he shone as a goalscorer and scored twice. Although he was a two-time scorer in the following game against Denmark , he was initially no longer considered and was not part of the Swedish squad at the World Cup finals. After the tournament he was once again an irregular member of the national team, and in the summer of 1936 he was nominated for the Olympic Games in Berlin. In the surprising 3-2 defeat against Japan , however, he was not on the field. In the following year he played his last international match , in total he scored ten times in ten country matches .

By 1944 Ericsson went to Sandvikens IF in the Allsvenskan, a total of 211 Allsvenskan games for the club and scored 132 goals. At the same time, he became involved in the association's work from 1938 and in this role was also temporarily involved in the work of the technical committee at Svenska Fotbollförbundet . In 1944 he moved to Sundsvall, where, after relegating Sandvikens IF in the summer of that year, he switched to sports and joined Kubikenborgs IF . After retiring in 1946, he briefly moved to Härnösand and worked for Ramström , but returned to Sundsvall two years later. There he remained connected to Kubikenborgs IF as a trainer and functionary.

In 2001 Ericsson was interviewed by a Japanese television team in the run-up to the 2002 World Cup finals due to the surprising success of the Japanese national team in 1936, and the conversation was broadcast as part of the preliminary coverage of the 2002 tournament. He was also invited to attend a tournament, but declined the offer. Shortly after the end of the tournament, he died in August of that year at the age of 93.

In the summer of 1936, in the opening game of the 1936/37 season against IFK Göteborg , Ericsson scored one of the fastest goals in football history after about five seconds, when he shot the ball into the opposing goal straight away.

Web links

• Bertil Ericsson in the aik.se database