Gunnar Nordahl

Gunnar Nordahl

Nordahl playing for IFK Norrköping in 1948
Personal information
Date of birthOctober 19, 1921
Place of birthHörnefors, Sweden
Date of deathSeptember 15, 1995 (aged 73)
Place of deathAlghero, Italy
Height1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Playing positionStriker
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps†(Gls)†
1937–1940Hörnefors IF41(68)
1940–1944Degerfors IF77(56)
1944–1949IFK Norrköping95(93)
1949–1956Milan257(210)
1956–1958Roma34(15)
Total504(442)
National team
1942–1948Sweden33(43)
Teams managed
1958–1959AS Roma (player-manager)
1959–1961Karlstads BIK
1961–1964Degerfors IF
1967–1970IFK Norrköping
1971–1973IF Saab
1974IK Sleipner
1975–1976Östers IF
1977–1978AIK Fotboll
1979–1980IFK Norrköping
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).

Gunnar Nordahl (October 19, 1921 – September 15, 1995) was a Swedish football player, best known for his spell at A.C. Milan from 1949 to 1956, in which he won two Scudetto titles and an unprecedented five top scorer (Capocannonieri) awards, more than any other player in the history of the Serie A. He is generally considered one of the greatest Swedish football players of all-time. He is the father of Thomas Nordahl.

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. Playing eight seasons with AC Milan, he is Serie A's multi-top-scorer a record five times (1949–50, 1950–51, 1952–53, 1953–54 and 1954–55). Nordahl is also AC Milan's all-time top-scorer, with 210 league goals. He is still the third-highest Serie A goalscorer of all time, with 225 goals in 291 matches. Only Silvio Piola and Francesco Totti have 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, where for example Piola scored his 274 goals in 537 games, i.e. 0.51 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.

Domestic League statistics

Club Season League
Apps Goals
Hörnefors 1937–38 1420
1938–39 1425
1939–40 1323
Degerfors 1940–41 1715
1941–42 2113
1942–43 2014
1943–44 1914
Norrköping 1944–45 2227
1945–46 2125
1946–47 2017
1947–48 2218
1948–49 106
Milan 1948-49 1516
1949–50 3735
1950–51 3734
1951–52 3826
1952–53 3226
1953–54 3323
1954–55 3327
1955–56 3223
Roma 1956–57 3013
1957–58 42
Total for Milan 257210
Career totals 504422

Honours

Club

IFK Norrköping
Milan[1]

International

Individual

References

  1. ↑ "A.C. Milan Hall of Fame: Gunnar Nordahl". http://www.acmilan.com''. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  2. ↑ "A.C. Milan Hall of Fame: Gunnar Nordahl". http://www.acmilan.com''. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  3. ↑ "A.C. Milan Hall of Fame: Gunnar Nordahl". http://www.acmilan.com''. Retrieved 1 April 2015.

External links

Sporting positions
Preceded by
Omero Tognon		 Milan captain
1954-1956 		Succeeded by
Nils Liedholm