Nils Liedholm

Personal information
Nils Liedholm

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.

1 Club playing career
2 National team playing career
3 Coaching career
4 Honours
5 References
6 External links

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 (after extra time). It is said that Real Madrid great Alfredo Di Stefano who, felt despite victory knew it was a match could have won. Asking Liedholm to join him on a lap of victory, Liedholm said to him "Keep it. That wont matter. The only thing that will be remembered from this match down the years is that Real Madrid won".

Famous for his passing abilities, Liedholm was the creator of many of Gunnar Nordahl's goals. Nordahl still has the scoring record in Serie A with 225 goals in 257 games. According to 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.

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.

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 on 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 son Carlo. He died on November 5, 2007 in his home in Cuccaro Monferrato, Province of Alessandria.^[1]

Honours

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

Serie A: 1951, 1955, 1957, 1959
Latin Cup: 1951, 1956
UEFA Champions League runner-up: 1957–58
1948 Summer Olympics: gold medal winner
1958 FIFA World Cup: runner-up
Allsvenskan Champion 1946–47 and 1947–48

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 "Addio al Barone Liedholm" (in Italian). La Gazzetta dello Sport (2007-11-05). Retrieved on 2007-11-05.
↑ "Greatest players". gopeking.net (unofficial IFK Norrköping fansite). Retrieved on 2007-11-06.
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 ^3.2 "Golden Great: Nils Liedholm". Football Italia (June 2001). Retrieved on 2007-11-06.

External links

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

ACF Fiorentina – Managers

Csapkay (1926–30) • Feldmann (1930–31) • Felsner (1931–33) • Rady (1933) • Ging (1933–34) • Ara (1934–37) • Molnar (1938) • Soutschek (1938–39) • Galluzzi (1939–45) • Bigogno (1945–46) • Ara (1946) • Magli (1946–47) • Senkey (1947) • Ferrero (1947–51) • Magli (1951–53) • Bernardini (1953–58) • Czeizler (1958–59) • Ferrero (1959) • Carniglia (1959–60) • Chiappella (1960) • Hidegkuti (1960–62) • Valcareggi (1962–64) • Chiappella (1964–67) • Ferrero (1967–68) • Bassi (1968) • Pesaola (1968–71) • Pugliese (1971) • Liedholm (1971–73) • Radice (1973–74) • Rocco (1974–75) • Mazzone (1975–77) • Mazzoni (1977–78) • Chiappella (1978) • Carosi (1978–81) • De Sisti (1981–85) • Valcareggi (1985) • Agroppi (1985–86) • Bersellini (1986–87) • Eriksson (1987–89) • Giorgi (1989–90) • Graziani (1990) • Lazaroni (1990–91) • Radice (1991–93) • Agroppi (1993) • Chiarugi (1993) • Ranieri (1993–97) • Malesani (1997–98) • Trapattoni (1998–2000) • Terim (2000–01) • Chiarugi (2001) • Mancini (2001–02) • Chiarugi (2002) • Bianchi (2002) • Vierchowod (2002) • Cavasin (2002–04) • Mondonico (2004) • Buso (2004–05) • Zoff (2005) • Prandelli (2005–)

A.S. Roma – Managers

Garbutt (1927–29) • Baccani (1929–30) • Burgess (1930–32) • Barr (1932–3) • Kovács (1933–34) • Barbesino (1934–38) • Ara (1938–39) • Schaffer (1939–42) • Kertész (1942–43) • Masetti (1943–45) • Degni (1945–47) • Senkey (1947–48) • Brunella (1948–49) • Bernardini (1949–50) • Baloncieri (1950) • Serantoni (1950) • Masetti (1950–1951) • Viani (1951–1953) • Varglien (1953–54) • Carver (1954–56) • Sárosi (1956) • Masetti (1956–57) • Stock (1957–58) • Nordahl (1958–59) • Sárosi (1959–60) • Foni (1960–61) • Carniglia (1961–63) • Krieziu (1963) • Foni (1963–64) • Miró (1964–65) • Lorenzo (1965–66) • Pugliese (1966–68) • Herrera (1968–70) • Tessari (1970) • Herrera (1971–72) • Trebiciani (1972–73) • Liedholm (1974–77) • Giagnoni (1978–79) • Valcareggi (1979–80) • Liedholm (1980–84) • Eriksson (1984–86) • Sormani (1986–88) • Liedholm (1988) • Spinosi (1988–89) • Radice (1989–90) • Bianchi (1990–92) • Boškov (1992–93) • Mazzone (1993–96) • Bianchi (1996) • Liedholm (1996) • Sella (1996) • Zeman (1997–1999) • Capello (1999–2004) • Prandelli (2004) • Völler (2004) • Del Neri (2004–05) • Conti (2005) • Spalletti (2005–)

A.C. Milan – Managers

Kilpin (1900–06) • Angeloni (1906–07) • Technical commission (1907–10) • Camperio (1910–11) • Technical commission (1911–14) • Moda (1915–22) • Oppenheim (1922–24) • Pozzo (1924–26) • Moda (1926) • Burgess (1926–28) • König (1928–31) • Bánás (1931–33) • Viola (1933–34) • Baloncieri (1934–37) • Garbutt (1937) • Felsner (1937–38) • Viola (1938–40) • Ara (1940–41) • Magnozzi (1941–43) • Santagostino (1943–45) • Baloncieri (1946) • Bigogno (1946–49) • Czeizler (1949–52) • Gren (1952) • Sperone (1952–53) • Guttmann (1953–54) • Busini (1954) • Puricelli (1954–56) • Viani (1957–60) • Todeschini (1960–61) • Rocco (1961–63) • Carniglia (1963–64) • Liedholm (1963–66) • Cattozzo (1966) • Silvestri (1966–67) • Rocco (1966–73) • Maldini (1973–74) • Trapattoni (1974) • Giagnoni (1974–75) • Rocco (1975) • Barison (1975–76) • Trapattoni (1976) • Marchioro (1976–77) • Rocco (1977) • Liedholm (1977–79) • Giacomini (1979–81) • Galbiati (1981) • Radice (1981–82) • Galbiati (1982) • Zagatti (1982) • Castagner (1982–84) • Galbiati (1984) • Liedholm (1984–87) • Capello (1987) • Sacchi (1987–91) • Capello (1991–96) • Tabárez (1996) • Morini (1996–97) • Sacchi (1997) • Capello (1997–98) • Zaccheroni (1998–2001) • Maldini (2001) • Terim (2001) • Ancelotti (2001–)