Ragnar Gunnarsson (7 December 1891 – 13 March 1967) 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 ...

er 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 ...

, known for scoring the first goal in

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 history in 1915. He won one

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

for the

Sweden national football team The Sweden national football team ( sv, svenska fotbollslandslaget) represents Sweden in men's international football and it is controlled by the Swedish Football Association, the governing body of football in Sweden. Sweden's home ground is F ...

Athletic career

Football

On 15 August 1915, Gunnarsson scored the first ever competitive goal in

's history, in a 5–0 home win against Västerås SK. Earlier the same year, it had merged with local club Klara SK, where Gunnarsson had started his career.Persson, p. 60-62 During the first seasons, Hammarby failed to reach the later stages 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 Champions. Known as a prolific goalscorer, Gunnarsson was one of the club's early key players together with goalkeeper Victor Olsson and defender

Gösta Wihlborg Gösta "Pysen" Wihlborg (19 February 1898 – 28 November 1968) was a Swedish-American football player, best known for representing Hammarby IF. A full international between 1919 and 1923, he won 7 caps for the Sweden national team. Club career ...

. He won one cap for the Swedish football team, on 1 October 1916, playing the whole game in a 0–0 draw 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 ...

. Gunnarsson left Hammarby at the end of 1918.

Bandy

Like many other footballers at the time, Gunnarsson also played

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 ...

with

between 1915 and 1918.

Works cited

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gunnarsson, Ragnar 1891 births 1967 deaths Swedish footballers Swedish bandy players Association football forwards Hammarby Fotboll players Sweden international footballers Hammarby IF Bandy players Footballers from Stockholm