Nils-Åke Sandell (5 February 1927 – 29 May 1992) was a Swedish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player and manager.

Club career

Sandell started his playing career in his birth city

Lund Lund (, ;"Lund"
(US) and ) is a city in the provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, southern Swed ...

at local club

Lunds BK Lunds BK is a football club from Lund, Sweden founded in 1919. The club currently plays in Division 1 Södra. Despite their relative success Lunds BK has never competed in the Allsvenskan or Superettan, but has played nine seasons in the secon ...

. After a brief period at

IFK Malmö Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Malmö, more commonly known as IFK Malmö, is a Swedish sports club with several departments, located in Malmö. The club was founded on 23 April 1899. The football department of IFK Malmö is one of the oldest footb ...

he returned to Lund before moving to

Malmö FF Malmö Fotbollförening (), commonly known simply as Malmö FF or MFF, is a Swedish professional football club based in Malmö, Scania. They compete in the Allsvenskan, the top division of Swedish football, and play home matches at the Eleda S ...

in the 1952 season. After spending 4 years in Malmö Sandell had quite a reputation for being a goalscorer and tried his luck in Italy and

SPAL 1907 Società Polisportiva Ars et Labor, commonly referred to by the acronym SPAL (), is a professional football club based in Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. During the 2024–25 season the team played in Serie C, the third tier of the Italian foot ...

. After his period in Italy Sandell returned to Malmö FF and played one last season there in 1958. Malmoffplayers1955

International career

He played a crucial role in Sweden's triumph at the

1952–55 Nordic Football Championship The 1952–55 Nordic Football Championship was the sixth tournament staged. Four Nordic countries participated: Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on th ...

, being the top goal scorer of the tournament with 10 goals in 8 caps, and he was also part of Sweden's squad for the football tournament at the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics (, ), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad (, ) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952, were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1952 in Helsinki, Finland. After Japan declared in ...

, but he did not play in any matches.

Managerial career

After returning from Italy and playing for a couple of games during the 1958 season Sandell were asked to become manager of the club. He managed the club from 1959 to 1963 winning no titles. Sandells manager career continued throughout regional clubs in

Skåne Scania ( ), also known by its native name of Skåne (), is the southernmost of the historical provinces of Sweden, provinces () of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous w ...

and finished his career at IFK Malmö, nearly managing to promote them to

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; ), also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan (, ) is a professional association football league in Sweden and the highest level of the Swedish football league system. Founded in 1924, it operates on a system of promotion and relegatio ...

in 1980.

Honours

Sweden *

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, then part of the King ...

bronze medal:

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Cairo Fire, Black Saturday in Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, ...

Nordic Football Championship The Nordic Football Championship (, , , , commonly abbreviated NM or PM) was an international association football, football competition contested by the list of men's national football (soccer) teams, men's national football teams of the Nordic c ...

: 1952–1955 Individual * Nordic Football Championship top scorer: 1952–1955

References

Sources

* 1927 births 1992 deaths Swedish men's footballers Sweden men's international footballers Olympic footballers for Sweden Footballers at the 1952 Summer Olympics Allsvenskan players Serie A players Malmö FF players Lunds BK players SPAL players Swedish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Swedish football managers Malmö FF managers Men's association football forwards Footballers from Lund 20th-century Swedish sportsmen {{Sweden-footy-forward-stub