Gösta "Pysen" Wihlborg (19 February 1898 – 28 November 1968) was a Swedish-American

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player, best known for representing

Hammarby IF Hammarby Idrottsförening ("Hammarby Sports Club"), commonly known as Hammarby IF or simply Hammarby ( or, especially locally, ), is a Swedish sports club located in Stockholm, with a number of member organizations active in a variety of differe ...

. A full international between 1919 and 1923, he won 7

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 Java ...

for the Sweden national team.

Club career

Hammarby IF

In 1915,

established a football section after a merger with Klara SK, where Wihlborg had started to play as a youngster. On 15 August the same year, Wihlborg scored in the club's first ever football match, in a 5–0 home win against Västerås SK.Persson, p. 60-62 Wihlborg soon established himself as one of Hammarby's key players, together with goalkeeper Victor Olsson and striker

Gustav Björk Gustav "Måsen" Björk (10 July 1900 – 12 May 1928) was a Swedish football player, best known for being a prolific goalscorer for Hammarby IF. In 1921, he won two caps for the Sweden national football team. Athletic career Football In 1916, at ...

. In 1921, Hammarby debuted in the Svenska Serien, by then the highest league in Swedish football. He played 15 competitive games throughout the season, as the club finished third in the table, three points behind winners

Örgryte Örgryte is one of the 21 ''stadsdelsnämndsområden'' (a kind of district often translated as borough) of Gothenburg Municipality, Sweden. It is a largely upper middle class residential area, just to the east of the city centre. It has a populati ...

. In 1922, Hammarby had an other strong showing where they went to the finals of

Svenska Mästerskapet Svenska Mästerskapet was a Swedish football competition held as a cup to decide the Swedish Champions between 1896 and 1925. It was held during a short period, and all games were often played in either Gothenburg or Stockholm. For many years only ...

, a cup by then held to decide the Swedish champion, losing 1–3 to

GAIS , neighboring_municipalities= Altstätten (SG), Appenzell (AI), Bühler (AR), Eichberg (SG), Rüte (AI), Schlatt-Haslen (AI), Trogen (AR) , twintowns= } Gais () is a village and a municipality in the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden i ...

in a game where Wihlborg captained his side. In the summer of 1924, Wihlborg

emigrated Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

at age 26, thus effectively ending his football career.

International career

Wihlborg was one of the first players from Hammarby IF to establish himself as a member of the Sweden national team, and debuted in a 3–3 friendly draw away at

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

on 28 September 1919. In total, he won 7 caps for his country up until 1923.

Works cited

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wihlborg, Gösta 1898 births 1968 deaths Swedish footballers Association football defenders Hammarby Fotboll players Sweden international footballers Footballers from Stockholm Swedish emigrants to the United States