Lennart Nyman (25 June 1917 – 25 August 1998) was a Swedish
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 ...
coach and sports administrator, best known for being the first ever manager of the
Sweden national team between 1962 and 1965. He was also the chairman of multi-sport club
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 ...
for 25 years, the longest-serving in its history.
Athletic career
Born in Stockholm, growing up at
Södermalm
Södermalm, often shortened to just Söder, is a district and island in central Stockholm.
Overview
The district covers the large island of the same name (formerly called ''Åsön''). Although Södermalm usually is considered an island, wat ...
, Nyman started to compete in different sports with local club
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 ...
in his youth in the 1930s. He played bandy, football and ice hockey at junior and reserve level.
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 ...
established a handball section in 1939. Nyman was part of their first senior squad, together with other famous athletes such as
Holger Nurmela
Holger "Hogge" Nurmela (28 October 1920 – 1 March 2005) was a Swedish ice hockey, football and bandy player and manager, known for representing Hammarby IF in all three sports.
Athletic career Ice hockey
In 1937, Nurmela made his debut for H ...
and Georg Skoglund, also the brother of renowned footballer
Lennart Skoglund
Karl Lennart "Nacka" Skoglund (; 24 December 1929 – 8 July 1975) was a Swedish footballer who played as left winger. He began his career in his home country with Hammarby IF, but later played for several Italian clubs, most notably Inter Milan ...
.
In the beginning of the 1940s, Nyman got promoted to the senior roster of
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 ...
's hockey team. Hammarby won several Swedish Championship titles in his three seasons with the team, but Nyman did not play enough games to be awarded an official medal.
Staff career at Hammarby IF
Football
In
1946–47,
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 ...
's football team finished last in
Division 2, and got relegated to
Division 4
''Division 4'' is an Australian television police drama series made by Crawford Productions for the Nine Network between 1969 and 1975 for 301 episodes.
Synopsis
The series was one of the first dramas to follow up on the enormous success o ...
due to a restructuring of the
Swedish league system. The next season,
Folke Adamsson took over as the head coach of Hammarby, with Lennart Nyman being appointed as the new team manager.
The economy had collapsed and the club's entire existence was now threatened.
[Persson, p. 76.]
Nyman would, together with Folke Adamsson, lead Hammarby IF from Division 4 back to
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 ...
, the top tier, in just six seasons.
[Persson, p. 76.] The duo is credited with implementing a sense of work ethic and professionalism in the club.
In the
1953–1954 season, the second tier was won without a single loss, whilst using only 15 players.
[Persson, p. 81.]
Hammarby went on to compete in Allsvenskan for the rest of Nyman's stint as team manager, before leaving the role in 1961 after being recruited by the
Swedish Football Association
The Swedish Football Association ( sv, Svenska Fotbollförbundet, SvFF) is the governing and body of football in Sweden. It organises the football leagues – Allsvenskan for men and Damallsvenskan for women – and the men's and women's nati ...
.
Chairman
Nyman was the chairman of Hammarby IF's football section for a total of 32 years. Mainly between 1954 and 1984, later returning for a second stint between 1986 and 1987.
The highlight came in
1982
Events January
* January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00).
* January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...
when Hammarby finished second in the Allsvenskan table, going unbeaten the whole season. In the following playoff to decide the Swedish champion, the club went on to beat
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 the quarter-finals and
Elfsborg
Idrottsföreningen Elfsborg, more commonly known as IF Elfsborg or simply Elfsborg (), is a professional football club based in Borås, Sweden, and is affiliated to the Västergötlands Fotbollförbund. They play in the Allsvenskan and have spe ...
in the semi-finals. In the finals against
IFK Göteborg
Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Göteborg (officially IFK Göteborg Fotboll), commonly known as IFK Göteborg, IFK (especially locally) or simply Göteborg, is a Swedish professional football club based in Gothenburg. Founded in 1904, it is the ...
, Hammarby won 2–1 in the first leg away, but lost 1–3 in the home game at
Söderstadion
Söderstadion ''(translated in English as Southern Stadium)'' was a football and bandy stadium in Stockholm, Sweden. It was opened in 1966 and closed in 2013, being replaced by nearby Tele2 Arena.
Söderstadion had a capacity of 12,800 depending ...
to a record crowd, missing out on the gold medal.
Simultaneously, Nyman was the chairman of Hammarby IF's main board, that organised all of the 16 sections in the club participating in a variety of different sports, for 25 years between 1965 and 1990.
As a sports administrator, Nyman got known for being a tough negotiator who governed with an iron fist, who rewarded athletes that showed loyalty to the club.
His ever favourite athlete at Hammarby was ice hockey, bandy and football player
Åke Andersson.
Managerial career
Sweden
Nyman was the team manager of the
Swedish national B team between 1957 and 1959.
From 1908 to 1961, the Swedish Football Association appointed an International Selection Committee which acted as national team managers. After failing to qualify for the
1962 World Cup, Nyman was appointed as the first actual manager of team
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
.
During his tenure, Sweden reached the quarter-finals of the
1964 UEFA European Championship. They started their play-off against
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
and won the first game and drew the second leg. In the second round, Sweden beat
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
, 3–2, after a first leg tie. In the quarter-finals, Sweden played against the defending champions, the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
. Sweden tied the first game but lost the second.
Sweden also failed to qualify for the
1966 World Cup, finishing behind winners
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
and ahead of
Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...
in the play-off group.
Nyman left his position as Sweden's manager in 1965, being replaced by
Orvar Bergmark
Orvar Bergmark (16 November 1930 – 10 May 2004) was a Swedish football defender, manager and bandy player. He was the second Swedish national manager ever, and managed to qualify the Swedish national football team for the FIFA World Cup ...
.
His favourite national player was the
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 their ...
defender
Åke "Bajdoff" Johansson.
Managerial statistics
Personal life
Outside of sports, Nyman started his professional career with the grocery retail group
Konsum before being recruited to work as a manager at their competitor
ICA. Nyman was later employed by the newspaper
Metro
Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to:
Geography
* Metro (city), a city in Indonesia
* A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center
Public transport
* Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...
. He was politically active in the
Moderate Party
The Moderate Party ( sv, Moderata samlingspartiet , ; M), commonly referred to as the Moderates ( ), is a liberal-conservative political party in Sweden. The party generally supports tax cuts, the free market, civil liberties and economic liber ...
.
References
Works cited
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nyman, Lennart
1917 births
1998 deaths
Sportspeople from Stockholm
Swedish football managers
Hammarby IF-related people
Hammarby Fotboll directors and chairmen
Hammarby Fotboll non-playing staff
Sweden national football team managers
Moderate Party politicians
Swedish ice hockey players
Swedish male handball players