John Oskar Emanuel "Long-John" Nilsson (27 April 1908 – 1 December 1987) was a Swedish

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 le ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. He was the 1930–31

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 ...

while at

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 ...

and won two

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, scoring six goals.

Club career

Beginning his career at IK Virgo, he had his breakthrough year in 1930 with

when he became the

1930–31 Allsvenskan Allsvenskan 1930–31, part of the 1930–31 Swedish football season, was the seventh Allsvenskan season played. The first match was played 3 August 1930 and the last match was played 7 June 1931. GAIS won the league ahead of runners-u ...

top scorer and helped the club win the 1930–31 Swedish Championship. He briefly played for

IFK Östersund IFK Östersund is a Swedish football club located in Östersund in Jämtland. Background Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Östersund were founded on 7 March 1906 at the Café Temperance in Östersund. The club subsequently joined the IFK movement ...

in 1934 before signing with

AIK AIK Fotboll (), more commonly known simply as AIK (), an abbreviation for Allmänna Idrottsklubben (meaning ''the public'' or ''general sports club''), is a Swedish football club competing in Allsvenskan, the top flight of Swedish football. The ...

, where he spent two

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; en, the All-Swedish, also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan, en, the Football All-Swedish) is a Swedish professional league for men's association football clubs. It was founded in 1924 and is the top tier of the Swedish football lea ...

seasons. He finished up his career at his hometown GAIS as well as at Sibbhults IF. He scored a total of 68 goals in 78 games for GAIS during his two spells with the club.

International career

Nilsson made his debut for the Sweden national team on 17 July 1932, scoring two goals in a 3–4 loss to

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

at the

Stockholm Olympic Stadium Stockholm Olympic Stadium ( sv, Stockholms Olympiastadion), most often called Stockholms stadion or (especially locally) simply Stadion, is a stadium in Stockholm, Sweden. Designed by architect Torben Grut, it was opened in 1912; its original use ...

. He scored four goals in his second and ultimately last international appearance in a friendly game against

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

Career statistics

International

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

Honours

GAIS *

: 1930–31 Individual *

: 1930–31

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nilsson, John 1908 births 1987 deaths Swedish footballers Association football forwards Sweden international footballers GAIS players AIK Fotboll players IFK Östersund players Footballers from Gothenburg