Gunnar Nordahl

Gunnar Nordahl

Personal information
Date of birth	(1921-10-19)October 19, 1921
Place of birth	Hörnefors, Sweden
Date of death	September 15, 1995(1995-09-15) (aged 73)
Place of death	Alghero, Italy
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing position	Forward
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1937–1940	Hörnefors IF	41	(68)
1940–1944	Degerfors IF	77	(56)
1944–1949	IFK Norrköping	95	(93)
1949–1956	Milan	257	(210)
1956–1958	Roma	34	(15)
National team‡
1942–1948	Sweden	33	(43)
Teams managed
1958–1959	AS Roma (player-manager)
1959–1961	Karlstads BIK
1961–1964	Degerfors IF
1967–1970	IFK Norrköping
1971-1973	IF Saab
1974	IK Sleipner
1975–1976	Östers IF
1977–1978	AIK Fotboll
1979–1980	IFK Norrköping
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of June 4, 2006. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of June 4, 2006

Olympic medal record
Competitor for  Sweden
Men's Football
Gold	1948 London	Team Competition

Gunnar Nordahl (October 19, 1921 – September 15, 1995) was a Swedish football player, best known for his play in AC Milan 1949-1956, where he won two Scudetto's and an unprecedented five top scorer (Capocannonieri) awards, more than any other player in the history of the Serie A. He's generally considered one of the greatest Swedish football players of all-time.

Biography

This section requires expansion with: Biographical info, early life.

Club career

Sweden

Nordahl started out at Hörnefors IF in Sweden before moving to IFK Norrköping. He won four Swedish championships with Norrköping and once scored seven goals in one game. During his time in Swedish clubs, Nordahl scored 149 goals in 172 matches.

Italy

Nordahl transferred to AC Milan on January 22, 1949. Later, he would team up with his national team strike partners, Gunnar Gren and Nils Liedholm to form the renowned Gre-No-Li trio. In his eight seasons with AC Milan, he was Serie A's top-scorer five times. Nordahl is AC Milan's all-time top-scorer, with 210 league goals. He is still the second-highest Serie A goalscorer of all time, with 225 goals in 291 matches. Only Silvio Piola has scored more goals in that division. That makes Nordahl the top goalscorer among non-Italian players, and he is also the most efficient goalscorer goals in Serie A ever with 0.77 goals/match. Only players who has scored more than one hundred goals are counted in this record,^{[citation needed]} where for example Piola scored his 247 goals in 537 games, i.e. 0.46 goals/match.

After leaving Milan, Nordahl played for Roma for two seasons. He still holds the post-war record for the most goals in a season in Italy, with 35 goals 1949-1950. Nordahl, together with the mentioned Gre-No-Li is today legendary in Milan. When Milan striker Andriy Shevchenko scored his 100 goal in Serie A for Milan, it is said that some old Milanese supporters commented: "Well he can double that number, and then add another 26, then, and just then, he has passed Il Cannoniere."

International career

Nordahl was first called-up to the Swedish national team in 1945. In 1948, he helped Sweden to win the Olympic football tournament, becoming the tournament's top scorer on the way. Nordahl's transfer to Milan forced him to retire from the national team, as the rules at the time prevented professionals from the Swedish national team, being not called to 1950 FIFA World Cup along his fellows Gren and Liedholm. In his 30 matches in the national team, he scored a total of 44 goals, or about 1.5 goals per game.

He won the Olympics along with his brothers Bertil and Knut Nordahl. Bertil also transferred to Italy after the Games (to Atalanta B.C.) and, due to this, was also not called to the World Cup. Knut stayed at Sweden and was called to the World Cup. After the tournament, he finally went to Italy, bought by AS Roma.

Thomas Nordahl, who is Gunnar's son, was a member of Sweden's 1970 FIFA World Cup squad.

Domestic league statistics

• Stats do not include 6/7 Latin Cup & 5/4 European Cup (for Milan) (Apps/Goals)

Honours

• Allsvenskan (4): 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948
• Allsvenskan Top scorer (4): 1943, 1945, 1946, 1948
• 2 x Swedish Cup
• Italian Serie A (2): 1951, 1954
• Italian Serie A Top Scorer (5): 1950, 1951, 1953, 1954, 1955
• 4 x Italian Cups
• 2 x Coppa Latina
• 1 x Olympic Gold Medal
• 1 x Olympic Games Top Scorer

External links

• Gunnar Nordahl - Classic Player profile - [FIFA.com]
• List of Swedish Players and Coaches in Italy since 1945 - RSSSF
• Detail of international appearances and goals - by Roberto Mamrud, RSSSF

v t e Sweden squad – 1948 Summer Olympics Gold Medalists MC Andersson AT Carlsson DF Emanuelsson AT Gren AT Jönsson MC Leander AT Liedholm G Lindberg DF E. Nilsson AT S. Nilsson MC B. Nordahl AT G. Nordahl MC K. Nordahl MC Rosén MC Rosengren G Svensson Coach: Raynor