Kalle Svensson

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kalle Svensson in 1952

Karl-Oskar "Kalle" Svensson (born November 11, 1925 in Västerlöv , † July 15, 2000 in Helsingborg ) was a Swedish football player . The goalkeeper , who became vice world champion with the Swedish national team in 1958 and won the bronze medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics , was the first goalkeeper to receive the Guldbollen , the award for Sweden's footballer of the year. In front of Olympia , the stadium of his home club Helsingborgs IF , a statue was erected in his honor.

Career

Svensson began playing football at Kullavägens BK in 1940 . In the summer of 1943 he joined the five-time national champion Helsingborgs IF, who at the time still wrote Hälsingborgs IF after the city's historic name . Until his debut in the Allsvenskan , the highest Swedish league, he had to wait almost a year. On June 4, 1944, as an 18-year-old, on the penultimate matchday of the 1943/44 season in the away game against AIK in Råsunda, he made his first appearance in the Elite Series, which ended with goals from Henry Carlsson and Arne Andersson in a 2-0 defeat . He was also used in the following game, a 2-0 home defeat against IFK Göteborg , and was then able to celebrate relegation, although the team had won a single win over the entire season.

Svensson was able to establish himself as a core force in the goal of the southern Swedish club. If the relegation succeeded in the following season only thanks to the better goal difference compared to the same point promoted Ludvika FF , Helsingborgs IF returned to the top of the table towards the end of the decade. With his good performances Svensson played in 1945 in the Swedish B national team, in which he came to three missions in the national jersey until 1948. In the same year he was a member of the Swedish squad for the 1948 Olympic Games without any previous international experience . Without playing time as a substitute for the regular goalkeeper Torsten Lindberg , he celebrated the Olympic victory after a 3-1 final win with goals from two-time goalscorers Gunnar Gren and Gunnar Nordahl in a goal from Stjepan Bobek . The following year he finally made his debut in the senior team when he was put in the 3-1 victory over the English national team by coach George Raynor between the posts and only Tom Finney overcame him. As a result, he fought with Lindberg for the regular place in the goal of the national selection.

In 1949 Svensson won the runner-up with Helsingborgs IF, only the goal difference by 25 goals compared to the equal points Malmö FF prevented the title win. After Lindberg had guarded the national team goal from summer until the end of the year, Svensson was in the goal of a 4-1 win over the Dutch national team at the beginning of the following year . He was then also a regular at the 1950 World Cup with Lindberg and Malmö goalkeeper Tore Svensson as substitutes. As an excellent support, he led the team after a victory over Italy and a draw against Paraguay as group winners in the second final round, where after defeats against Brazil and the eventual world champions Uruguay they finished third in the world championship with a 3-1 victory over the Spanish national team . As a result, he was nicknamed "Rio-Kalle" in Sweden.

Svensson in a duel with Pelé in the 1958 World Cup final against Brazil

Svensson was also the goalkeeper of the national team at the 1952 Summer Olympics. After victories over the Norwegian and Austrian national teams , he moved into the semi-finals of the tournament in which the team met Hungary . The " Golden Elf " around Ferenc Puskás , Nándor Hidegkuti , Sándor Kocsis and József Bozsik outclassed the Northern European team with a 6-0 victory. In the game for third place, the Swedish team returned to the road to success when Svensson did not concede a goal in the 2-0 victory over the German amateur team with goals from Ingvar Rydell and Gösta Löfgren and thus helped to the bronze medal. Due to his good performance, he received the Guldbollen as Sweden's Footballer of the Year in the same year.

While Svensson was able to place himself in the front area of ​​the Allsvenskan with the club team, he missed qualifying for the 1954 World Cup with the national team . In the same year he reached the runner-up again after the team had led the table for a long time before the eventual champions GAIS from Gothenburg. At the 1958 World Cup in their own country, the Swedish national team was set as the host. After the Svenska Fotbollförbundet allowed professional football players to be appointed to the selection team, the team, which was filled with foreign players such as Kurt Hamrin , Bengt Gustavsson , Lennart Skoglund and Nils Liedholm, but also Swedish second division players around Reino Börjesson , Gunnar Gren and Agne Simonsson , moved in into the endgame. There the eleven were defeated by the Brazilian team with Vavá , Pelé , Garrincha and the like with 2: 5, but the runner-up title is to this day (as of August 2009) next to the Olympic victory the greatest success in the Swedish national team history. The final was also Svensson's 73rd and last international match, then he was inherited by Tore Svensson.

In May 1959 Svensson left his long-term club Helsingborgs IF. After being on 3 May of the year at 1: had accrued 2 at home against GAIS to 312 times for the club in the Allsvenskan and since 27 September 1953 in 117 consecutive top-flight, he joined the third division Gunnarstorps IF at . At the end of the year he rose with the club as a player-coach in the second-rate Division II Östra Götaland . After a year and a half in second class, he returned to HIF on June 1, 1961. By the end of the 1962 season he stood for the club again in the Allsvenskan between the posts before he ended his active career after a total of 349 first division games in Sweden.

statistics

Svensson played for Helsingborgs IF in 349 games in the Allsvenskan and is behind Thomas Ravelli and Sven Andersson goalkeeper with the third most games. He conceded 575 goals, a record for a goalkeeper in the Allsvenskan to this day. In contrast, there are 72 games in which he did not concede a goal and a maximum time span between two goals of 404 minutes.

On a club basis, Svensson failed to win a title despite his almost 18-year career. With the national team he won the Olympic gold as a substitute, as an active player it was enough for the vice world championship title in 1958 and third places in both the Olympic Games in 1952 and the World Cup in 1950.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Svensson, Kalle
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Svensson, Karl Oskar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH November 11, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Västerlöv
DATE OF DEATH July 15, 2000
Place of death Helsingborg