Gunnar Andersson (soccer player)

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Gunnar Andersson (born August 14, 1928 in Arvika , † October 1, 1969 in Marseille ) was a Swedish football player who completed his professional career almost exclusively in France and took French citizenship in 1954.

1950–1958: Andersson's best time

After the Second World War , Gunnar Andersson first played at IFK Göteborg , where he only made two appearances in the Allsvenskan . Andersson has been suspended for one year by the Swedish Association for accepting unauthorized payments. The goal-threatening striker then briefly hired KB Copenhagen before, like many of his compatriots in those years, finally turned his back on the successful (Olympic champion 1948, third place in the World Cup in 1950), but flawless amateur football in Sweden, to work under climatically more pleasant and financially more lucrative conditions to practice his sport.

In December 1950 Andersson came to the first division Olympique Marseille , whose then president Louis-Bernard Dancausse had already committed two other Swedes with Gunnar Johansson and Dan Ekner a few months earlier. Marseille finished this season in a place in the upper midfield of the table; the 22-year-old, two-footed Andersson, who “looked like the exact opposite of a Viking or a storm tank”, was carefully introduced to the “rough professional air” by trainer Henri Roessler , but had already scored 12 goals in 15 missions. And just a year later, the Swede was personally at the top: with 31 goals in 34 games, he was the undisputed league shooter king in 1952 and had scored 60% of the goals of his club; However, he only ended up in 16th place, but Andersson was also successful in the barrages against the second division third, so that Olympique could also compete in the House of Lords in the next season. The flat-footed attacker scored many of his goals in the same way that had quickly become his trademark: he stormed towards the opponent's penalty area with the ball at his feet, hit a short hook and pulled at full speed. He was anything but happy to run and was often barely noticed over long periods of play. Three or four goals in a game were not uncommon for him, as in March 1957, when OM received the league leaders and eventual champions AS Saint-Étienne : between the 10th and 36th minute Andersson had scored a hat trick ; in the second half, Saint-Étiennes Rachid Mekhloufi managed the same feat within six minutes - but only two minutes later the Swede overcame Claude Abbes for the fourth time and secured Olympique the victory.

Gunnar Andersson played for Marseille until 1958, was again top scorer in 1952/53 - this time with 35 goals, and that in only 31 appearances - and also landed in 1953/54, 1954/55, 1955/56 (third in each case) and 1956/57 (Sixth) way ahead in this ranking. His bad luck was that his total of 169 league goals for the southern French weren't enough to win the championship title , especially against Stade Reims and OGC Nice : a fifth place in 1956 meant the best league placement in these eight years, and in 1958 OM just missed out again just about the descent. Marseille was also unsuccessful in the Cup ; In 1954 it had to bow to its neighbor from Nice in the final, with Andersson only succeeding in making the final score 1: 2 after a pass by the "big old" Larbi Ben Barek . Nevertheless: when Andersson left the Stade Vélodrome after eight years in a red and white dress , he had long since become a legend, whose name even very young fans in the 21st century call with awe and in line with two other former OM goal scorers, Josip Skoblar and Jean-Pierre Papin .

The end of the career

1957/58 was not a good year for Gunnar Andersson, who was increasingly suffering from injuries sustained against defenders who wanted to stop the man with the brilliant goal record at any cost - a problem that other exceptional strikers also encountered during this period ( Cisowski , Fontaine and Piantoni , to name but a few) felt painfully. The Swede, who took on French citizenship in 1954 and was never called up to the Swedish or French national team despite his keen eye for goals , first moved to the second division Stade Olympique Montpelliérain in the summer of 1958 and, after just eight match days, to league rivals Girondins Bordeaux , with whom he returned to the Division 1 returned. After a weak season, Bordeaux was relegated to the bottom again in 1960 - the center forward played only 14 of the 38 championship matches, but still scored 10 goals and thus almost maintained his extraordinarily high goal rate (0.77 hits per game, and that over nine years) .

Andersson then moved back to Marseille; for the club from neighboring Aix-en-Provence he was able to deny almost a complete second division season again in 1960/61, but AS Aix was too weak and the aging striker was unable to prevent their relegation to the third division. In addition, he could not get his alcohol addiction under control, broke off several detox cures, withdrew more and more and refused even the help of friends.

After a brief stint at a club from the Algerian port city of Oran , he ended his active career; In 1964 he returned briefly to Sweden and worked as a player-coach for IFK Arvika . He then settled in Marseille, where he lived lonely and almost penniless. In October 1969, Gunnar Andersson wanted after a long time once again a performance of his former clubs - in the series this evening with Roger Magnusson stormed a Swede - attend Olympique met in the European Cup Winners' Cup competition on Dukla Prague . On the short walk from the Provençal editorial office , where he had bought a free ticket (“for a friend”), to the Stade Vélodrome , he collapsed and died that same evening in hospital; he was only 41 years old. His grave is in the Mazargues cemetery in Marseilles 9th arrondissement .

Club stations

  • IFK Åmål
  • IFK Gothenburg
  • Kjøbenhavns Boldklub
  • Olympique de Marseille (1950–1958)
  • Stade Olympique Montpelliérain (1958, in D2)
  • Girondins de Bordeaux (1958–1960, including 1958/59 in D2)
  • Association Sportive Aixoise (1960/61, in D2)
  • CAL Oran (Algeria)
  • IFK Arvika

Palmarès

literature

  • Alain Pécheral: La grande histoire de l'OM. Des origines à nos jours. Ed. Prolongations, o. O. 2007 ISBN 978-2-916400-07-5

Remarks

  1. ↑ Pécheral, pp. 137-139.
  2. ↑ Pécheral, p. 139
  3. ^ Jean-Philippe Rethacker / Jacques Thibert: La fabuleuse histoire du football. Minerva, Genève 1996, 2003 2 ISBN 978-2-8307-0661-1 , p. 216
  4. ↑ Pécheral, pp. 141f.
  5. ↑ Pécheral, p. 142
personal data
SURNAME Andersson, Gunnar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH August 14, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Arvika
DATE OF DEATH 1st October 1969
Place of death Marseille