Nils Liedholm

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Nils Liedholm
Personal information
Full name Nils Liedholm
Date of birth October 8, 1922 (1922-10-08)
Place of birth    Valdemarsvik, Sweden
Date of death    November 5, 2007 (aged 85)
Place of death    Cuccaro Monferrato, Italy
Playing position Midfielder
Senior clubs1
Years Club App (Gls)*
1943-1946
1946-1949
1949-1961		 IK Sleipner
IFK Norrköping
AC Milan		 060 0(24)
048 0(22)
359 0(81)   
National team
1946-1958 Sweden 021 0(10)
Teams managed
1961-1963
1963-1966
1966-1968
1968-1969
1969-1971
1971-1973
1973-1977
1977-1979
1979-1984
1984-1987
1987-1989
1992
1997		 AC Milan (assistant coach)
AC Milan
Verona
Monza
Varese
Fiorentina
AS Roma
AC Milan
AS Roma
AC Milan
AS Roma
Verona
AS Roma

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only.
* Appearances (Goals)

Nils Liedholm (October 8, 1922 – November 5, 2007)[1] was a Swedish football midfielder and coach, famous for being part of Sweden's "Gre-No-Li" trio of strikers along with Gunnar Gren and Gunnar Nordahl at A.C. Milan and the Swedish national team. As a coach, he was in charge of several teams in Italy, managing for nearly four decades. At the end of the 20th century Liedholm was voted the best Swedish player of the millennium by the readers of Swedens largest newspaper Aftonbladet.

Contents

[edit] Club playing career

Liedholm joined his first club, IK Sleipner in 1942. In 1946, he joined IFK Norrköping, a bigger Swedish club with whom he won two Swedish league titles. During his time with Norrköping, he also earned 18 caps for the Swedish national team, winning the gold medal at the 1948 Summer Olympics. This eventually gave him the chance to join Milan in 1949. He made his Serie A debut on September 11, 1949 in a 3-1 win against Sampdoria. In his first season with Milan, the midfielder played 37 games and scored 18 goals. In 1951, Liedholm won the first of his four scudetto titles. Another three titles followed in 1955, 1957 and 1959. A player with a club that was having the best spell of its life up to that point, Liedholm also won the Latin Cup in 1951 and 1956 and was Captain of Milan in the 1958 European Cup Final against Real Madrid, losing 2-3 (aet).

Famous for his passing abilities, Liedholm was the creator of many of Gunnar Nordahl's goals (Nordahl who still have the scoring record in Serie A with 225 goals in 257 games). According to the legend, it took two years playing for Milan until Liedholm misplaced his first pass at the San Siro, the rarity prompting a five-minute ovation from the home crowd[2][3].

Liedholm was also one of the first players to realise the importance of fitness to a good performance. Consequently, he put in many more hours of training than other players, saying himself that he did the 100 metres, 3000 metres, javelin, shot put and high jump twice a week[3]. His club career would continue until he was almost 40.

[edit] National team playing career

Having helped Sweden win the gold medal in the 1948 Olympic tournament, Liedholm was the captain of the national squad at the 1958 World Cup, celebrated in his home country. Aged almost 36, he helped Sweden to reach the World Cup final, where the team lost out to a Brazil side led by Didi and 17-year old Pelé. Liedholm scored the opening goal of the final, which makes him the oldest player to score in a World Cup Final; however, Brazil came back and won the match 5-2.

[edit] Coaching career

After he retired from playing, Liedholm enjoyed some time in the backrooms at Milan, before getting promotion for both Verona and then Varese. This brought him to the attention of Fiorentina and then Milan, where he finally took control of the first team. He guided them to their tenth league title in 1979 before moving to become the manager of Roma. Leading talents such as Paulo Roberto Falcão and Bruno Conti, he took them to their second league title ever in 1983 using the zonal marking system, which was unusual in Italy at the time. A year later, his Roma side lost on penalties to Liverpool in the European Cup Final. He also won the Coppa Italia three times with Roma, in 1981, 1983 and 1984.

As well as saying that the modern game is much more frantic and fast-paced than when he was involved, Liedholm, always a professional, also observed that "they [players] do not do much to avoid fouling players... It is too easy to stop a player by fouling him. Proper training teaches you how to win the ball without committing a foul, which is much more difficult.[3]

After leaving the game (but still living in Italy), Liedholm ran a vineyard for a while together with his child Carlo. He died on November 5, 2007 in his home in Cuccaro Monferrato, Province of Alessandria.[1]

[edit] Honours

Olympic medal record
Competitor for Flag of Sweden Sweden
Men's Football
Gold 1948 London Team Competition
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[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Addio al Barone Liedholm (Italian). La Gazzetta dello Sport (2007-11-05). Retrieved on 2007-11-05.
  2. ^ Greatest players (English). gopeking.net (unofficial IFK Norrköping fansite). Retrieved on 2007-11-06.
  3. ^ a b c Golden Great: Nils Liedholm (English). Football Italia (June 2001). Retrieved on 2007-11-06.

[edit] External links

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Sweden squad - 1958 FIFA World Cup Runners-up
1 K. Svensson • 2 Bergmark • 3 Axbom • 4 Liedholm • 5 Johansson • 6 Parling • 7 Hamrin • 8 Gren • 9 Simonsson • 10 Selmosson • 11 Skoglund • 12 T. Svensson • 13 Öberg • 14 Gustavsson • 15 Börjesson • 16 Haraldsson • 17 Håkansson • 18 Löfgren • 19 Källgren • 20 Mellberg • 21 Berndtsson • 22 Olsson • Coach: Raynor
 Flag of Sweden
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