Gunnar Nordahl

Gunnar Nordahl
	Nordahl playing for IFK Norrköping in 1948
Personal information
Date of birth	October 19, 1921
Place of birth	Hörnefors, Sweden
Date of death	Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist.
Place of death	Alghero, Italy
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Position(s)	Striker
Senior career*
Years	Team
1937–1940	Hörnefors IF
1940–1944	Degerfors IF
1944–1949	IFK Norrköping
1949–1956	Milan
1956–1958	Roma
Total
International career
1942–1948	Sweden
Managerial career
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
Medal record
Men's Football
	Representing Sweden
Olympic Games
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Gunnar Nordahl^{[pronunciation?]} (October 19, 1921 – September 15, 1995) was a Swedish football player. A prolific striker with an eye for goal, he is best known for his spell at A.C. Milan from 1949 to 1956, in which he won the Scudetto twice, and also the title of pluricapocannoniere, with an unprecedented five top scorer (Capocannonieri) awards, more than any other player in the history of the Italian championship. He is generally considered^{[by whom?]} one of the greatest Swedish football players of all-time. He is the father of Thomas Nordahl.

Biography

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Club career

Sweden

Nordahl started out at Hörnefors IF in Sweden before moving to first Degerfors IF and then 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,^{[citation needed]} 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
Club	Season	Apps	Goals
Hörnefors	1937–38	14	20
	1938–39	14	25
	1939–40	13	23
Degerfors	1940–41	17	15
	1941–42	21	13
	1942–43	20	14
	1943–44	19	14
Norrköping	1944–45	22	27
	1945–46	21	25
	1946–47	20	17
	1947–48	22	18
	1948–49	10	6
Milan	1948-49	15	16
	1949–50	37	35
	1950–51	37	34
	1951–52	38	26
	1952–53	32	26
	1953–54	33	23
	1954–55	33	27
	1955–56	32	23
Roma	1956–57	30	13
Roma	1957–58	4	2
Total for Milan		257	210
Career totals		504	422