Gunnar Nordahl

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Gunnar Nordahl
Personnel
birthday October 19, 1921
place of birth Hörnefors ,  Sweden
date of death September 15, 1995
Place of death Alghero ,  Italy
size 185 cm
position striker
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1937-1940 Hörnefors IF 41 0(68)
1940-1944 Degerfors IF 77 0(56)
1944-1949 IFK Norrköping 95 0(93)
1949-1956 AC Milan 257 (210)
1956-1958 AS Roma 34 0(15)
1959-1961 Karlstads BIK 24 0(11)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1942-1948 Sweden 33 0(43)
Stations as a trainer
Years station
1961-1964 Degerfors IF
1967-1970 IFK Norrköping
1973 IF Saab
1975-1976 Östers IF
1977-1988 AIK Solna
1979-1980 IFK Norrköping
1 Only league games are given.

Gunnar Nordahl (born October 19, 1921 in Hörnefors ; † September 15, 1995 in Alghero , Sardinia ) was a Swedish football player and later coach.

Nordahl is currently third in the all-time Serie A goalscorer list with 225 goals . With AC Milan , he won the championship twice in the 1950s and was five times top scorer in the top Italian division.

In 1948 he won Olympic gold with the Swedish national team .

youth

Gunnar Nordahl was born in Hörnefors , a small town in northern Sweden. His father worked in a pulp mill to support the family, which had ten children in total and therefore lived in relatively poor conditions. With his brothers Bertil , Göran , Gösta and Knut , he almost always played football in his spare time. Although his four brothers would later become successful international players, Gunnar was by far the most talented of them. Most of his peers were above all physically, but soon also technically superior. His part-time job in a brewery also contributed to this, where he did hard physical labor.

Club career

In Sweden (1937 to 1949)

At the age of 16, Nordahl made his debut for the local club Hörnefors IF , where he could easily keep up with the seniors due to his extraordinary physique. As a massive striker in the penalty area, he scored 68 goals in three years and received an offer from the first division. In 1940 he moved to Degerfors IF in Allsvenskan , where he scored goals like on an assembly line and his meteoric rise continued unabated.

Soon Gunnar, like his brothers, was one of the most promising talents in the country. After four years with Degerfors, Nordahl finally switched to IFK Norrköping , as the club also offered him a job as a municipal firefighter (at that time there was no professionalism in Sweden). The club change should soon prove to be correct. Together with his brother Knut, he won the championship four times in a row and the cup once . Nordahl himself was top scorer three times and scored an incredible 93 goals in 95 games. In a game against Djurgardens IF in 1945, he scored seven goals in an 11-1 win - a record unmatched in Sweden to this day. With national players like Georg Ericson , Torsten Lindberg , Birger Rosengren and the Nordahl brothers Knut and Gunnar, the team was the “measure of all things” in post-war Sweden.

The skills of the phenomenal goalscorer from the far north had meanwhile spread throughout Europe and so AC Milan Nordahl piloted to Italy in January 1949 . But before he could move, he first had to rummage through the labyrinth of bureaucratic secret routes in his home country. When he did it, he went from being a firefighter to becoming the first Swedish professional footballer .

In Italy (1949 to 1958)

But the boy from the Swedish provinces first had to get used to his new life in the Lombard fashion metropolis. "It was a different world for me," said Nordahl later. “I wasn't sure if I could get used to there.” Integration was much easier for him on the soccer field. In his first competitive game against Pro Patria Calcio , he contributed a brace to the 3-2 win. In the second half of the season he scored 16 goals in 15 games, which led the "Rossoneri" management team to convince him to sign a new contract after just six months. Much more, on Nordahl's recommendation, they signed Gunnar Gren and Nils Liedholm , two more Swedes. He had played together with the two of them on the national team. The reunited trio was christened "Gre-No-Li" (Gren-Nordahl-Liedholm) by the Tifosi and proved to be fundamental in winning the championships in 1951 and 1955 . "Gren, Liedholm and I got along blindly because we had trained together for years," recalled "Il Bisonte" (the bison). The newcomers provided the center forward with perfect assists and flanks, which Nordahl sank into the net either with a head or a volley. The Swede quickly became the best striker in Serie A : between 1949 and 1955 he was top scorer five times (Capocannoniere), a record that lasted until the 2015/2016 season. In his seven and a half years with Milan, he scored a total of 221 competitive goals, making him the club's record scorer.

Gre-No-Li : Nordahl (center) with his compatriots Gunnar Gren and Nils Liedholm in the AC Milan jersey

In 1956, the now 34-year-old "Bison" announced his departure from AC Milan and played for two more years with league rivals AS Roma . In 1958 he returned to Sweden and let his unique career in Sweden's second division, at Karlstads BIK , end.

National team

In 1942, the 21-year-old Nordahl played for the Swedish national team for the first time . The Second World War subsequently prevented regular international matches and international tournaments. It was not until 1948 that the Olympic Games in London hosted a football tournament again.

Together with his brothers Bertil and Knut, Gunnar was part of the Swedish squad, which, however, was only expected to have low chances. The Scandinavians then played as if from a single source and after brilliant victories (including over Austria and Denmark ) advanced to the final. Here they met Yugoslavia , which was beaten 3-1. Nordahl scored his seventh goal in the final and was also the top scorer. The Swedish national team received the gold medals in the famous Wembley Stadium .

But when he became a professional player in Italy in early 1949, he was no longer allowed to play for his home country because the association did not nominate any professionals. Nordahl was never able to compete in a World Cup tournament . Although the Swedes regretted this decision, many footballers ultimately benefited from it. The historic transfer opened the door to Italy for many of his compatriots.

successes

Personal awards

Quotes about Nordahl

  • “Nordahl is a born goal scorer. He's not the most athletic player, but he was tremendously intelligent when it came to finding gaps. He would have even put the ball in the goal blindfolded. If we had had him in 1950, there would have been more than a third place for us. "( George Raynor , assistant coach of the Swedish national team)
  • “He shot the ball with such force and could even score goals with his (weaker) left foot. He scored stalls and spectacular hits. He put himself in positions that others didn't even know existed. He was one of the best players ever and, in my opinion, one of the best goalscorers. ”( Gunnar Gren , former team-mate)

Career as a coach

After his active career, Nordahl worked as a coach in Sweden until the end of the 1970s. He was unable to build on previous successes. Apart from a runner-up with Degerfors IF ( 1962 ) and a cup win with his "old love" IFK Norrköping , he did not celebrate any titles worth mentioning.

useful information

After the end of his career, Nordahl went back to Italy and died there in 1995 of a heart attack.

Web links

Commons : Gunnar Nordahl  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Nordahl, Gunnar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH October 19, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Hörnefors
DATE OF DEATH September 15, 1995
Place of death Alghero , Sardinia