Nils Gunnar Nordahl (; 19 October 1921 – 15 September 1995) was a Swedish professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

. A highly prolific, powerful, and physically strong striker, with an eye for goal, he is best known for his spell at

AC Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 and 1982–83 seaso ...

from 1949 to 1956, in which he won the Scudetto twice, and also the title of ''pluricapocannoniere'', with an unprecedented five top scorer (''

Capocannonieri The ''Capocannoniere'' award (; literally "head gunner"), known as Paolo Rossi Award Nordahl is Milan’s all-time record goalscorer, and he long held the record for most goals for a single club in the history of Italian league, before being surpassed by

Francesco Totti Francesco Totti (; born 27 September 1976) is an Italian former professional footballer who played solely for Roma and the Italy national team. He is often referred to as ''Er Bimbo de Oro'' (The Golden Boy), ''L'Ottavo Re di Roma'' (The Eig ...

in January 2012. He still holds the record for goals per appearance in Italy. A full international between 1942 and 1948, he won 33

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

and scored 43 goals for the Sweden national team. He represented his country at the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ca ...

, where he was the joint top scorer alongside Denmark's John Hansen as Sweden won gold. Nordahl is considered to be one of the greatest Swedish football players of all-time, and regarded as one of the best strikers in football history. In 2017, he was included in ''

FourFourTwo ''FourFourTwo'' is a football magazine published by Future. Issued monthly, it published its 300th edition in May 2019. It takes its name from the football formation of the same name, 4-4-2. In 2008, it was announced that ''FourFourTwo'' had ...

'' magazine's list of the 100 greatest players of all time, at the 54th position. He is the father of former footballer Thomas Nordahl.Gunnar Nordahl
Swedish Olympic Committee

Club career

Sweden

Nordahl started out at Hörnefors IF in Sweden before moving to first Degerfors IF and then

IFK Norrköping Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Norrköping, more commonly known as IFK Norrköping or simply Norrköping, is a Swedish professional football club based in Norrköping. The club is affiliated to Östergötlands Fotbollförbund and play thei ...

. He won four Swedish championships with IFK 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

on 22 January 1949. Later, he would team up with his national team strike partners,

Gunnar Gren Johan Gunnar Gren (; 31 October 1920 – 10 November 1991) was a Swedish professional football player and coach. He is best remembered for playing for IFK Göteborg and A.C. Milan. A creative forward, known for his technical skill, vision, ta ...

and

Nils Liedholm Nils Erik Liedholm (; 8 October 1922 – 5 November 2007) was a Swedish football midfielder and coach. ''Il Barone'' (The Baron), as he is affectionately known in Italy, was renowned for being part of the Swedish "Gre-No-Li" trio of strikers al ...

to form the renowned

Gre-No-Li Gre-No-Li is a contraction of the surnames of three Swedish footballers: Gunnar Gren, Gunnar Nordahl and Nils Liedholm. The denomination was colloquially used after these players composed a formidable trio of attacking players while playing for t ...

trio. Playing eight seasons with 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 Milan's all-time top-scorer, with 210 league goals. Nordahl is the third-highest Serie A goalscorer of all time, with 225 goals in 291 matches, only behind

Silvio Piola Silvio Piola (; 29 September 1913 – 4 October 1996) was an Italian footballer who played as a striker. He is known as a highly prominent figure in the history of Italian football due to several records he set, and he is regarded as one of th ...

and

. 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. He was nicknamed ''il pompiere'' (the fireman), because of his former job while he played in Sweden. AC Milan v Juventus (friendly match) - San Siro, 1950 - Carlo Parola and Gunnar Nordahl

AC Milan v Juventus (friendly match) - San Siro, 1950 - Carlo Parola and Gunnar Nordahl

After leaving Milan, Nordahl played for Roma for two seasons. Nordahl's record for most goals scored in Serie A (not including Divisione Nazionale, before Serie A was installed) of 35 in 1949–50 in a season was broken by

Gonzalo Higuaín Gonzalo Gerardo Higuaín (; born 10 December 1987) is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a striker. Nicknamed ''El Pipita'' or ''Pipa'', Higuaín was a prolific striker, known for his eye for goal, strong physique, and o ...

in the 2015–16 season who scored 36. Nordahl, together with the mentioned

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 1942. In 1948, he helped Sweden to win the Olympic football tournament, becoming the tournament's top scorer on the way. The Swedish team also included his brothers Bertil and

Knut Nordahl Knut Erik Alexander Nordahl (13 January 1920 – 28 October 1984) was a Swedish footballer who played as a midfielder. Career He played for IFK Norrköping and A.S. Roma. He won the gold medal at the 1948 Summer Olympics along with his brothe ...

. 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 The 1950 FIFA World Cup was the fourth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams and held in Brazil from 24 June to 16 July 1950. The planned 1942 and 1946 World Cups were ...

along his fellows Gren and Liedholm. In his 33 matches in the national team, he scored a total of 43 goals.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Sweden's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Nordahl goal.''

Honours

IFK Norrköping * Allsvenskan: 1944–45, 1945–46, 1946–47, 1947–48 * Swedish Cup:

1945 1945 marked the end of World War II and the fall of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. It is also the only year in which Nuclear weapon, nuclear weapons Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, have been used in combat. Events Below, ...

AC Milan *

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

: 1950–51, 1954–55 *

Latin Cup The Latin Cup was an international football tournament for club sides from the Southwest European nations of France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. In 1949 the football federations came together and requested FIFA to launch the competition. Europ ...

: 1950–51, 1955–56 Sweden *

Olympic Gold Medal Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

: 1948 * Nordic Football Championship: 1937–1947 Individual *

Allsvenskan top scorer The following is a list of top scorers in Allsvenskan, the highest Swedish division of football. is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ... Association football player non-biographical articles ...

: 1942–43, 1944–45, 1945–46, 1947–48 * Swedish Footballer of the Year: 1947 * Olympic Games Top Scorer: 1948 *

Italian Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

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

: 221 * Most

Top Scorer titles: 5 * Most consecutive

Top Scorer titles: 3 (record shared with

Michel Platini Michel François Platini (born 21 June 1955) is a French football administrator and former player and manager. Regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time, Platini won the Ballon d'Or three times in a row, in 1983, 1984 and 1985, a ...

) * Most braces scored in Serie A: 49 (record shared with

) * Most hat-tricks scored in Serie A: 17 (all with

)

References

External links

Gunnar Nordahl – Classic Player profile
– IFA.com
List of Swedish Players and Coaches in Italy since 1945
–

RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) is an international organization dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around th ...

Detail of international appearances and goals
– by Roberto Mamrud,

Profile at magliarossonera.it

in ''

la Repubblica ''la Repubblica'' (; the Republic) is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and led by Eugenio Scalfari, Carlo Caracciolo and Arnol ...

'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nordahl, Gunnar 1921 births 1995 deaths Sportspeople from Umeå Swedish footballers Association football forwards Degerfors IF players IFK Norrköping players A.C. Milan players A.S. Roma players Allsvenskan players Serie A players Olympic footballers of Sweden Sweden international footballers Footballers at the 1948 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Sweden Medalists at the 1948 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in football Swedish expatriate footballers Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate footballers in Italy Swedish football managers A.S. Roma managers Degerfors IF managers IFK Norrköping managers AIK Fotboll managers Östers IF managers Serie A managers Allsvenskan managers Swedish expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Italy