Gunnar Nordahl facts for kids
Nordahl with AC Milan in the 1950s
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| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Nils Gunnar Nordahl | |||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | 19 October 1921 | |||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Hörnefors, Sweden | |||||||||||||||
| Date of death | 15 September 1995 (aged 73) | |||||||||||||||
| Place of death | Alghero, Italy | |||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.85 m | |||||||||||||||
| Playing position | Striker | |||||||||||||||
| 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 | AC Milan | 257 | (210) | |||||||||||||
| 1956–1958 | Roma | 34 | (15) | |||||||||||||
| 1959–1960 | Karlstad BIK | 24 | (11) | |||||||||||||
| Total | 528 | (453) | ||||||||||||||
| 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 | |||||||||||||||
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Honours
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Nils Gunnar Nordahl (born October 19, 1921 – died September 15, 1995) was a famous Swedish football player. He was a very strong and powerful striker who scored many goals. He is best known for playing with AC Milan in Italy from 1949 to 1956.
While playing for AC Milan, he won the Scudetto (the Italian league championship) twice. He also won the top scorer award, called Capocannonieri, an amazing five times! No other player has won this award so many times in Italy.
Gunnar Nordahl is still AC Milan's all-time top goalscorer. He also held the record for most goals for one club in the Italian league for a long time. He is still known for scoring a lot of goals compared to how many games he played in Italy.
He played for the Swedish national team from 1942 to 1948. He played 33 games and scored 43 goals. He helped Sweden win a gold medal at the 1948 Summer Olympics. He was also the top scorer in that tournament.
Many people think Nordahl is one of the best Swedish football players ever. He is also seen as one of the greatest strikers in football history. In 2017, FourFourTwo magazine listed him as the 54th greatest player of all time. His son, Thomas Nordahl, also became a footballer.
Contents
Club Career: A Goal-Scoring Machine
Playing in Sweden
Gunnar Nordahl started his football journey in Sweden with a team called Hörnefors IF. After that, he played for Degerfors IF and then IFK Norrköping. He was incredibly successful with IFK Norrköping, winning four Swedish championships. One time, he even scored seven goals in a single game! During his time playing for Swedish clubs, Nordahl scored an amazing 149 goals in 172 matches.
Moving to Italy
Nordahl moved to AC Milan in Italy on January 22, 1949. He later joined up with two other Swedish players, Gunnar Gren and Nils Liedholm. Together, they formed a famous trio known as Gre-No-Li.
Nordahl played for AC Milan for eight seasons. He was the top scorer in Italy's Serie A league a record five times. He was the top scorer in the 1949–50, 1950–51, 1952–53, 1953–54, and 1954–55 seasons. Nordahl is still AC Milan's all-time top scorer, with 210 goals in the league.
He is the third-highest goalscorer in Serie A history, with 225 goals in 291 matches. Only Silvio Piola and Francesco Totti have scored more. This makes Nordahl the top goalscorer among non-Italian players. He was so good at scoring that he was nicknamed il pompiere, which means "the fireman," because of his old job in Sweden.
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After leaving AC Milan, Nordahl played for Roma for two seasons. His record of 35 goals in the 1949–50 Serie A season was a long-standing record. It was only broken in the 2015–16 season by Gonzalo Higuaín, who scored 36 goals. Gunnar Nordahl and the Gre-No-Li trio are still legends at AC Milan.
International Career: Olympic Gold
Gunnar Nordahl was first chosen to play for the Swedish national team in 1942. In 1948, he helped Sweden win the Olympic football tournament. He was the top scorer in that tournament, showing his amazing skill. His brothers, Bertil and Knut Nordahl, also played on the Swedish team.
When Nordahl moved to AC Milan, he had to stop playing for the national team. This was because of the rules at the time, which did not allow professional players to be part of the Swedish national team. Because of this rule, he, Gren, and Liedholm could not play in the 1950 FIFA World Cup. In total, he scored 43 goals in his 33 games for the national team.
Honours
IFK Norrköping
- Allsvenskan: 1944–45, 1945–46, 1946–47, 1947–48
- Swedish Cup: 1945
AC Milan
- Serie A: 1950–51, 1954–55
- Latin Cup: 1950–51, 1955–56
Sweden
- Olympic Gold Medal: 1948
- Nordic Football Championship: 1937–1947
Individual Awards
- Allsvenskan top scorer: 1942–43, 1944–45, 1945–46, 1947–48
- Swedish Footballer of the Year: 1947
- Olympic Games Top Scorer: 1948
- Italian Serie A Top Scorer: 1949–50, 1950–51, 1952–53, 1953–54, 1954–55
- AC Milan Hall of Fame
- Nordic Football Championship top scorer: 1937–1947
Records
- Most goals scored for AC Milan: 221
- Most Italian Serie A Top Scorer titles: 5
- Most consecutive Italian Serie A Top Scorer titles: 3 (record shared with Michel Platini)
- Most braces (two goals in a game) scored in Serie A: 49 (record shared with Silvio Piola)
- Most hat-tricks (three goals in a game) scored in Serie A: 17 (all with AC Milan)
See also
- List of men's footballers with 500 or more goals
