Lars "Råttan" Boman (6 March 1931 – 18 November 2014) was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

football player 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 ...

, 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 ...

Club career

AIK

Born and raised in Stockholm, Boman started to play football with local clubs

Westermalms IF Westermalms IF FK is a Swedish football club located in Stockholm that competed in the Allsvenskan for two seasons in the late 1920s. The club currently play eight tiers lower in Division 7 Stockholm D. The original colours of the team were bl ...

and Ursvik IF as a youngster, before joining

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 ...

at age 17, competing with their youth side and B-team. Boman made his senior debut for AIK in

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 ...

, Sweden's top tier, in the 1952–53 season, aged 21. He would, however, have a hard time breaking into the side as a regular, due to injuries and tough competition. Boman only made two league appearances in total for the club in total: playing the full 90 minutes in a 1–3 home loss against IF Elfsborg and in a 0–1 away loss against

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 ...

Hammarby

Before the 1954–55 season, Boman joined

rivals A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant o ...

, newly promoted to Allsvenskan. Several other AIK players like Ragnar Blom, Axel Ericsson and Olle Nyström also transferred to Hammarby around this time. Boman immediately established himself as a starting left winger in the Swedish first division for Hammarby. He became known for his strong left foot, pace, technique, finesse and dribbling skills. He went on to play seven full seasons with Hammarby in Allsvenskan. In 1957–58, Hammarby also spent one year in the second tier, where the team scored an impressive 117 goals in 33 fixtures throughout the season, getting instantly promoted. Boman chose to retire in late 1962, at age 34. In total, he made 150 league appearances for Hammarby and scored 46 goals.

International career

Boman won 8 caps, and scored 2 goals, for the Sweden B team between 1954 and 1959. He was also called up as a reserve to the Sweden national team on one occasion, without getting any playing time.

Personal life

His nickname "Råttan" (in English: "the Rat") allegedly derived from Boman getting chased by a cat, along the length of the pitch, in a reserve game with AIK. The moniker was later passed on to famous Swedish ice hockey player Rolf Edberg. Professionally, he worked as a salesman and in advertising. Between 1968 and 1977, after his playing career, Boman was a board member of Hammarby IF, where he focused on sponsorships and the club's matchday programme. In 1977, after a traffic accident, Boman was forced to have one his legs amputated, and later used a wheelchair for several years. He died on 18 November 2014, aged 83.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boman, Lars 1931 births 2014 deaths Footballers from Stockholm Swedish footballers Association football midfielders Allsvenskan players Hammarby Fotboll players AIK Fotboll players