Lars Granström

Granström (r.) With his strike partner Bo Larsson in the Malmö FF jersey

Lars "Lasse" Granström (born December 8, 1942 in Helsingborg ) is a former Swedish football player . The striker , who came to an international match for the Swedish national team in 1965 , played his career in Sweden and Germany.

Career

Granström grew up in Helsingborg, where he started playing football at Stattena IF . At the age of 14 he moved to Malmö with his family. At a school team tournament, he was noticed by those in charge of Malmö FF , who brought him to their youth department. At the side of Bo Larsson , he played in the attack of the club's youth team and recommended himself early on for higher tasks. On May 11, 1960, he made his debut for the men's team in the Allsvenskan - at the age of 17 years and 145 days as the youngest player in the club's history. Just four days later, he entered the club's top scorer list for the first time in the Swedish House of Lords.

At first Granström played in the youth team at the same time. In his debut season in the Swedish elite series, he won the Swedish championship with the offspring. But he soon established himself in the men's team. Under coach Antonio Durán , he won the Von Rosens Cup for the Swedish national champions on the side of Ingvar Svahn , Prawitz Öberg , Rolf Eriksson , Bosse Larsson and Jan Ekström in the 1965 season . Above all, he played the role of preparer for Larsson, who, like two years earlier, secured the title of Allsvenskan top scorer. With it he played himself in the notebook of national coach Lennart Nyman . As part of qualifying for the 1966 World Cup , he made his debut in the selection jersey on November 7, 1965. Although he left the field as a two-time goalscorer in the 5-0 win against the Cypriot national team , this was his last appearance in the national jersey. The selection team missed the qualification in their group behind Germany .

Granström and his strike partner Larsson had attracted international attention. The Dutch club FC Groningen showed interest in signing the two strikers, but no concrete negotiations took place. So both moved to different clubs in Germany in the summer of 1966: Larsson landed at VfB Stuttgart , Granström signed a two-year contract with rival Karlsruher SC from Baden-Württemberg . Abroad, however, the offensive player did not find his way around at all and hardly got beyond the role of the bench press. After three games in the Bundesliga , he returned to Sweden after one season.

Granström ran again for his former club Malmö FF. At the side of Krister Kristensson , Dag Szepanski and Bertil Elmstedt , he helped the club to regain the championship in the second half of the 1967 season , but was not part of the excellent championship team. In the team, reinforced with players like Staffan Tapper or Roland Andersson , he was still one of the regulars in the following years and celebrated his second and third Swedish championship title in 1970 and 1971, respectively. After the end of the 1971 season Granström left the club after a total of 359 games for Malmö FF. At Trelleborgs FF , who was temporarily trained by his former teammate Rolf Björklund , he let his career end.

Parallel to his footballing career, Granström began his full-time career with the Swedish company Tetra Pak . There he was promoted to head of human resources in Sweden before retiring at the age of 60. He remained connected to the sport, although he now mainly played tennis in his free time.

Web links

Commons : Lars Granström  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• sydsvenskan.se: "Customer göra allt med en boll"
• Lars Granström in the database of weltfussball.de
• Lars Granström in the database of transfermarkt.de