Bengt Ove Kindvall (born 16 May 1943) is a Swedish former professional

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, rugb ...

who played as a striker. He started his career at IFK Norrköping, where he played until he joined

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after i ...

in 1966 and became professional. The same year, he won the Guldbollen, as the best Swedish footballer of the year. He is regarded as one of Sweden's greatest ever players. A full international between 1965 and 1974, he won 43 caps and scored 16 goals for the Sweden national team. He represented his country at the 1970 and 1974 FIFA World Cups.

Club career

With

he won two national championships as well as the 1970

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

. In the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

against

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foo ...

he scored the winning goal in

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only ...

. In his five seasons with the club, Kindvall scored 129 league goals in 144 games. He returned to Sweden and Norrköping 1971, where he played for three years, until ending his career in IFK Göteborg. He was the first non-Dutchman to be named

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is ...

top scorer, doing so in 1968, 1969 and 1971. No other foreigner achieved this until

Romário Romário de Souza Faria Figueiredo (born 29 January 1966), known simply as Romário (), is a Brazilian politician and a former professional footballer. A prolific striker renowned for his clinical finishing, he scored over 750 goals and was ...

in 1989. Kindvall earned the

Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal The Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal ( sv, Svenska Dagbladets guldmedalj, but usually simply called ''Bragdguldet'', "The Feat Gold") is an annual award "for the most significant Swedish sports achievement of the year". It has been awarded by a jury l ...

in 1969, in that year, he was named as the fourth best player in Europe.

International career

Kindvall played 43 games with the national team and scored 16 goals. He participated in the 1970 and

1974 FIFA World Cup The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the tenth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in West Germany (and West Berlin) between 13 June and 7 July. The tournament marked the first time that the ...

, playing a major role in the team's qualification for the former.

Personal life

He is the father of former footballers Niclas Kindvall and Tina Kindvall, and brother of Kaj Kindvall, a radio host.

Career statistics

International

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

Honours

IFK Norrköping *

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 ...

: 1962, 1963 Feyenoord * Intercontinental Cup: 1970 *

: 1969–70 * Intertoto Cup: 1967,

1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * J ...

: 1968–69, 1970–71 *

KNVB Cup The KNVB Beker (; en, KNVB Cup), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organized by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Ou ...

: 1968-69 Individual * Guldbollen: 1966 *

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 ...

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo ...

* Eredivisie top scorer: 1967–68, 1968–69, 1970–71 *

Ballon d'Or The Ballon d'Or (; ) is an annual football award presented by French news magazine '' France Football'' since 1956. Between 2010 and 2015, in an agreement with FIFA, the award was temporarily merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year (f ...

fourth place:

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

(shared with

Johan Cruyff Hendrik Johannes Cruijff (, internationally known as Johan Cruyff; 25 April 1947 – 24 March 2016) was a Dutch professional football player and manager. As a player, he won the Ballon d'Or three times, in 1971, 1973 and 1974. Cruyff was a p ...

)

References

*
Profile
*

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kindvall, Ove 1943 births Living people People from Norrköping Swedish footballers Association football forwards Sweden international footballers 1970 FIFA World Cup players 1974 FIFA World Cup players IFK Norrköping players Feyenoord players IFK Göteborg players Allsvenskan players Eredivisie players UEFA Champions League winning players Swedish expatriate footballers Swedish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Sportspeople from Östergötland County