Gunnar Nordahl

[Deco 20]

The greatest Swedish player of all time, an AC Milan legend and the most prolific striker the Italian Serie A has ever seen, Gunnar Nordahl has earned a place on this list as one of the best forwards in football history.

Name: Nils Gunnar Nordahl (known in Italy as Il Bisonte)
Birth: 19 of October 1921
Death: 15 of September 1995 (age 73)

Clubs represented:
1940-1944: Degerfors IF
1944-1949: IFK Norrköping
1949-1956: AC Milan
1956-1958: AS Roma
1958-1960: Karlstad BIK (lower division)

National team record:
Games: 33
Goals: 43

Titles won:
Swedish Championships: 4
Swedish Cup: 1
Serie A: 2
Coppa Italia: 4
Olympic Gold Medal: 1 (1948)

Personal awards/records:
Swedish Allsvenskan top scorer: 4
Most Italian top scorer awards of all time: 5
Olympic top scorer: 1
Most Serie A goals scored by a non-Italian: 225 (0,77 goals/game)
Second most goals league goals of all time (Silvio Piola is ahead, Totti is currently 10 behind)
AC Milan league top scorer: 210 goals
Second most goals ever scored in an Italian league season: 35 (shared with 2 others, the record stands at 36)


Gunnar grew up with his three brothers in the small swedish village of Hörnefors. Amazingly, two of them were part of the Swedish team that won the Olympic Gold in 1948. After his move to Milan in 1949 Nordahl was banned from the Swedish National Team since it didn't allow foreign professionals. This means he lost out on participation in the 1950 (bronze) and 1958 (Silver) World Cups.

 

[Deco 20]

To be updated later, when I've found good information for his bio.

 

[Catorce]

Actually read some stuff on the Gre-No-Li combination of AC Milan back in the days. Very interesting, good things to read on a sunday afternoon