Gustav Wetterström

Karl Gustaf Evert "Gustav" Wetterström (born October 15, 1911 in Norrköping , † November 16, 1991 ibid) was a Swedish football player . The striker won the Swedish championship title with IK Sleipner in 1938 and took part in the World Cup finals in the same year .

Career

Wetterström played from his debut in April 1932 against Örgryte IS for IK Sleipner in the Allsvenskan . At the end of the 1932/33 season he was relegated with the team from the Swedish elite series, but managed to win the season in the second division with five points ahead of Djurgårdens IF . After the club had prevailed against IK Brage after a 3-3 draw and a 3-2 home win in the promotion games, he went back to the top division hunting for goals. At the side of Harry Andersson , Tore Keller and Curt Hjelm , he was one of the club's goal-scoring players who, after two years in lower midfield , had nine behind champions AIK in the 1936/37 season - the team that had moved to Råsundastadion in Solna the previous year Points lead - led to second place in the table. The subsequent season 1937/38 was more successful. The club were victorious in twelve of the 22 games of the season and at the end of the season they overtook the tied trio of Helsingborgs IF , Landskrona BoIS and IF Elfsborg . Winning the Von Rosens Cup was crowned by being nominated for the World Cup finals in the same year.

In September 1934, Wetterström had made his debut in the Swedish national team, when they lost to the Finnish national team with a 4-5 defeat. At first, this was his only international match, only when qualifying for the 1938 World Cup did he play for the second time in the national jersey in June 1937 - he crowned his 7-2 victory over Estonia with a hat-trick between 73rd and 84th. Game minute. Thus, the selection team had already secured participation before the final game against the selection of the German Reich - he was not taken into account in the 5-0 defeat. At the side of his club mates Tore Keller, Harry Andersson and Arne Linderholm , he was finally in the squad for the finals. After the annexation of Austria to the German Reich, the planned opening game against the Austrian national team was canceled, so that the Swedes had to start in the quarter-final against Cuba . The overwhelmed Americans could hardly cope with the rain and really went under. Between the 32nd and 44th minute, Wetterström scored a flawless hat-trick, which meant a 4-0 half-time result after Keller's opening goal. The Northern Europeans scored four more goals in the last ten minutes of the game, while their national team colleague Keller also scored three times in their 8-0 win. Some sources claim Wetterström scored four times in the game, but according to official FIFA information, the 8-0 he was awarded was scored by his club-mate Andersson. In the semifinals against Hungary , Arne Nyberg scored the early opening goal for Sweden, but ultimately they had to admit defeat 1: 5. They were also in the lead in the game for third place against Brazil , this time 2-0, but left the field as losers.

If Wetterström was not active for Sweden in the final game of the World Cup, he played his seventh international match two days later in a 1-0 win over Denmark . This was also the last time that the seven-time national team scorer appeared in the national jersey. For his club he was still active in the following years, but the team could not confirm the success and slipped steadily in the championship. At the end of the 1940/41 season she was relegated from the first division. Nothing is known about Wetterström's further life; he can no longer be seen on a team photo of IK Sleipner dating from 1942.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sveriges dödbok 1901–2009 ( Swedish death index 1901–2009 ), Version 5.0 ( DVD-ROM ), ISBN 978-91-87676-59-8 .
2. ↑ Official list of FIFA World Cup hat tricks
3. ↑ iksleipner.se: "1940–1949" (accessed on March 22, 2011)