Thomas Ravelli

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Thomas Ravelli (born August 13, 1959 in Växjö) is a retired Swedish football goalkeeper. Ravelli is the all-time appearance leader for the Swedish national team with 143 caps. He is of Italian and Austrian decent.

On the club level, Ravelli played for Swedish clubs IFK Göteborg and Östers IF, winning the Swedish championship six times with the former and twice with the latter. He also played for the Tampa Bay Mutiny of Major League Soccer. Ravelli's international career spanned from 1981 to 1997; he played in the 1990 World Cup, Euro 92, and the 1994 World Cup, when Sweden finished third.

He is especially well known for saving two goals during the penalty shootout that ended the quarterfinal match between Sweden and Romania in the 1994 World Cup. During the "sudden death" portion of the penalty shootout, Romania needed to score in order to remain in contention; when Ravelli blocked the shot, Sweden won the game.

Ravelli is married, and has three children.His twin brother Andreas has also been a successful international soccer player (as a defender).

Ravelli had a hot temper on the pitch (and, allegedly, off the pitch too), and was part of quite a few incidents in Sweden's top division Allsvenskan. For example, on one occasion he called AIK's black striker Pascal Simpson "negro", something he got heavily criticized for, not the least from the AIK crowd. He later showed remorse and officially apologised to Simpson.

Ravelli was recently featured as a playable character in the FIFA 2007 videogame as a member of the Classic XI team, where he could play alongside such greats as Zico, Eric Cantona, and Franz Beckenbauer; he could also be selected for the Sweden national team in the game. He also appeared in the FIFA Street 2 videogame as one of the legends along with Paul Gascoigne, Hans Krankl, Abedi Pelé and Carlos Alberto.

He is again included in 2 other FIFA games, this time in FIFA 08 and FIFA STREET 3 where he is the goalkeeper in the "Classic XI" (FIFA 08) and the "Classics" (for FIFA STREET 3) teams.

v • d • e Sweden squad - 1990 FIFA World Cup 1 Andersson • 2 J. Eriksson • 3 Hysén • 4 Larsson • 5 Ljung • 6 R. Nilsson • 7 Nyhlén • 8 Schwarz • 9 Engqvist • 10 Ingesson • 11 Jansson • 12 L. Eriksson • 13 Limpar • 14 J. Nilsson • 15 Strömberg • 16 Thern • 17 Brolin • 18 Ekström • 19 Gren • 20 Magnusson • 21 Pettersson • 22 Ravelli • Coach: Nordin

v • d • e Sweden squad - UEFA Euro 1992 1 Ravelli • 2 R. Nilsson • 3 J. Eriksson • 4 P. Andersson • 5 Björklund • 6 Schwarz • 7 Ingesson • 8 Rehn • 9 Thern • 10 Limpar • 11 Brolin • 12 L. Eriksson • 13 M. Nilsson • 14 Erlingmark • 15 Mild • 16 K. Andersson • 17 Dahlin • 18 Ljung • 19 J. Nilsson • 20 Ekström • Coach: Svensson

v • d • e Sweden squad - 1994 FIFA World Cup Third Place 1 Ravelli • 2 R. Nilsson • 3 P. Andersson • 4 Björklund • 5 Ljung • 6 Schwarz • 7 Larsson • 8 Ingesson • 9 Thern • 10 Dahlin • 11 Brolin • 12 Eriksson • 13 M. Nilsson • 14 Kåmark • 15 Lučić • 16 Limpar • 17 Rehn • 18 Mild • 19 K. Andersson • 20 Erlingmark • 21 Blomqvist • 22 Hedman • Coach: Svensson

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