Ralf Sigvard Edström (born 7 October 1952) 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, rugby ...

who played as a forward. Widely regarded as Sweden's best player in the 1970s, he started off his career with Degerfors IF in the late 1960s and went on to represent

Åtvidabergs FF Åtvidabergs Fotbollförening, also known simply as Åtvidabergs FF, Åtvidaberg, Åtvid or (especially locally) ÅFF, is a Swedish professional football club based in Åtvidaberg. The club is affiliated with Östergötlands Fotbollförbund and ...

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; en, Philips Sports Association ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional football department, w ...

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 ...

, Standard Liege, and

AS Monaco Association Sportive de Monaco Football Club SA, commonly referred to as AS Monaco () or Monaco, is a professional football club based in Monaco that is member of French Football Federation (FFF) and competes in Ligue 1, the top tier of Frenc ...

before retiring at

Örgryte IS Örgryte Idrottssällskap, commonly referred to as Örgryte IS, Örgryte () or (especially locally) ÖIS or Öis, is a Swedish sports club based in Gothenburg. It consists of four departments, namely bowling, football, athletics and wrestling. H ...

in 1985. A full international between 1972 and 1980, he won 40

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

for the Sweden national team and scored 15 goals. He represented his country at the 1974 and 1978

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

s and was awarded

Guldbollen Guldbollen (''Golden Ball'') is a Swedish football award given by ''Aftonbladet'' and the Swedish Football Association to the best male Swedish footballer each year. History The award was created by Bengt Liljedahl and between 1946 to 1965 it was ...

as Sweden's best player in 1972 and 1974.

Club career

Starting his career in Degerfors IF, a club known to produce many young talents, Edström moved to

and became national champion in 1972. He moved to

in 1973 and was part of the team that became national champion in 1974/75 and 1975/76. On club level, he became not only Swedish Champion, but also Dutch (twice) and French Champion. He also won the Swedish, Dutch and Belgian Cups and was voted Swedish player of the year twice (1972 and 1974, winning

). He injured his knee while at

which prevented him from playing any games for

and ultimately led to his retirement from professional football in 1985.

International career

Edström made 40 appearances for the Swedish national team and scored 15 times. He is most noted for his performance in the 1974 FIFA World Cup where he had a big part in Sweden finishing fifth, and he made six appearances and scored four goals during this tournament.FIFA profile
/ref> While representing Sweden at the 1978 FIFA World Cup in Argentina, Edström was arrested for speaking to a person in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

; however, the Argentine military released him upon recognising its error (that he was not one of its citizens but a professional footballer who was in the country for the tournament it was hosting).

Personal life

He has been an expert radio commentator since the 1980s.

Career statistics

Club

Source

International

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

Honours

Åtvidabergs FF * Allsvenskan:

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...

Svenska Cupen Svenska Cupen (, ''The Swedish Cup'') is a knockout cup competition in Swedish football and the main Swedish football cup. Svenska Cupen usually refers to the men's tournament, although a women's tournament is also held. Each year 96 teams compe ...

: 1970–71 PSV Eindhoven *

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 c ...

: 1974–75, 1975–76 * KNVB Cup: 1973–74, 1975–76 IFK Göteborg *

: 1978–79 Standard Liege *

Belgian Cup The Belgian Cup (french: link=no, Coupe de Belgique; nl, Beker van België []; german: link=no, Belgischer Fußballpokal) is the main Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in Belgium, run by the Belgia ...

: Belgian Cup 1980-81, 1981 AS Monaco *

French Division 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

: 1981–82 Individual *

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 ...

: 1972, 1974 * ''World Soccer'' World XI: 1975 *Swedish Football Hall of Fame: 2003

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Edstrom, Ralf 1952 births Living people Swedish footballers Åtvidabergs FF players Degerfors IF players IFK Göteborg players PSV Eindhoven players AS Monaco FC players Örgryte IS players Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in Belgium Expatriate footballers in France Expatriate footballers in Monaco Standard Liège players Sweden international footballers 1974 FIFA World Cup players 1978 FIFA World Cup players Swedish expatriate footballers Swedish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Swedish expatriate sportspeople in France Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Monaco Allsvenskan players Ligue 1 players Eredivisie players Belgian First Division A players Swedish association football commentators Association football forwards People from Degerfors Municipality Sportspeople from Örebro County