Ragnar "Ragge" Blom (7 February 1921 – 10 February 2010) 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 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 ...

and

bandy Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two teams wearing ice skates on a large ice surface (either indoors or outdoors) while using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal. The international governing body for bandy is ...

player, 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 ...

and

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 ...

in both sports.

Athletic career

Football

In 1936, at age 15, Blom made his senior debut for local club Avesta IF. At the beginning of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Blom joined the

Swedish Armed Forces The Swedish Armed Forces ( sv, Försvarsmakten, "the Defense Force") is the government agency that forms the armed forces of Sweden, tasked with the defense of the country as well as with promoting Sweden's wider interests, supporting internati ...

and moved to

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, where he continued to play football with IK Sture in the Swedish lower divisions. At IK Sture, Blom impressed and got discovered by

Per Kaufeldt Per Ludvig Gösta Kaufeldt (1 August 1902 – 21 March 1956) was a Swedish football and bandy player. He won a bronze medal at the 1924 Summer Olympics. Kaufeldt is the all-time top scorer of AIK, with 122 goals in 170 matches; he won the natio ...

, a former Swedish national player and current manager of

. In 1943, he made his debut for the club in Division 2, Sweden's second tier. Blom impressed at Hammarby and became known as a hard-working, fast-paced and versatile right-back, who also was a set piece specialist. In 1946, Blom transferred to

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 ...

and made his debut 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 a 2–1 win against

Degerfors IF Degerfors IF is a Swedish football club located in Degerfors. The club, formed 13 January 1907, is currently playing in the highest tier in Swedish football, Allsvenskan. Background Degerfors IF first played in the Allsvenskan in 1939 maki ...

on 8 September. He would, however, only make 3 appearances for the side in total, before leaving the club for

Sundbybergs IK Sundbybergs IK is a Swedish football club located in Sundbyberg. Background Sundbybergs IK, (abbreviated as SIK), is a sports club based in Sundbyberg. The club currently has thirteen sections and around 3000 members catering for the sports of f ...

in the lower divisions. In 1950, Blom returned to Hammarby IF. Hammarby got promoted back to Allsvenskan after winning the 1953–1954 Division 2 season, where the club went unbeaten whilst using only 15 players.Persson, p. 81. Blom made 10 appearances for the club throughout the season, before announcing his retirement from football.

Bandy

Blom was also a prominent bandy player and represented both

and

, Sweden's first tier. He also played bandy with the third big club from Stockholm,

Djurgårdens IF Djurgårdens Idrottsförening, commonly known simply as Djurgårdens IF, Djurgården (), and (especially locally) Djurgår'n (), Dif or DIF – is a Swedish sports association with several sections, located in Stockholm. Name The club is named ...

. He returned to Hammarby IF after his playing career, being a part of their backroom staff between 1957–1963 and 1967–1971.

References

Works cited

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Blom, Ragnar 1921 births 2000 deaths Association football defenders Swedish footballers Swedish bandy players Hammarby Fotboll players Hammarby IF Bandy players AIK Bandy players Djurgårdens IF Bandy players AIK Fotboll players Allsvenskan players People from Avesta Municipality Sportspeople from Dalarna County