Gunnar Nordahl

Nils Gunnar Nordahl (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈɡɵ̌nːar ˈnûːɖɑːl]; 19 October 1921 – 15 September 1995)^[1] was a Swedish professional footballer. A highly prolific, powerful, and physically strong striker, with an eye for goal, he is best known for his spell at AC Milan from 1949 to 1956, in which he won the scudetto twice, and also the title of pluricapocannoniere, with an unprecedented five top scorer (capocannonieri) awards, more than any other player in the history of the Italian championship.^[2]

Gunnar Nordahl

Nordahl with AC Milan in the 1950s
Personal information
Full name	Nils Gunnar Nordahl
Date of birth	(1921-10-19)19 October 1921
Place of birth	Hörnefors, Sweden
Date of death	15 September 1995(1995-09-15) (aged 73)
Place of death	Alghero, Italy
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Position(s)	Striker
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1937–1940	Hörnefors IF	41	(68)
1940–1944	Degerfors IF	77	(56)
1944–1949	IFK Norrköping	95	(93)
1949–1956	AC Milan	257	(210)
1956–1958	Roma	34	(15)
1959–1960	Karlstad BIK	24	(11)
Total		528	(499)
International career
1942–1948	Sweden	33	(43)
Managerial career
1958–1959	AS Roma (player-manager)
1959–1961	Karlstad BIK
1961–1964	Degerfors IF
1967–1970	IFK Norrköping
1971–1973	IF Saab
1974	IK Sleipner
1975–1976	Östers IF
1977–1978	AIK
1979–1980	IFK Norrköping
Medal record Men's Football Representing  Sweden Olympic Games 1948 London Team Competition
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Nordahl is Milan’s all-time record goalscorer, and he long held the record for most goals for a single club in the history of Italian league, before being surpassed by Francesco Totti in January 2012.^[3] He still holds the record for goals per appearance in Italy. He had several nicknames in Italy, whereof the most famous was Il Cannoniere ("The Prime Gunner"). He was also known as Il Pompiere ("The Fireman") and Il Bisonte ("The Bison'").

A full international between 1942 and 1948, he won 33 caps and scored 43 goals for the Sweden national team. He represented his country at the 1948 Summer Olympics, where he was the joint top scorer alongside Denmark's John Hansen as Sweden won gold.

Nordahl is considered to be one of the greatest Swedish players^[4][5] and one of the best strikers of all-time.^[6][7] In 2017, he was included in FourFourTwo magazine's list of the 100 greatest players of all time, at the 54th position.^[8]

He is the father of former footballer Thomas Nordahl.^[9][10]

Club career

Sweden

Nordahl playing for IFK Norrköping in 1948

Nordahl started out at Hörnefors IF in Sweden before moving to first Degerfors IF and then IFK Norrköping. He won four Swedish championships with IFK Norrköping and once scored seven goals in one game. During his time in Swedish clubs, Nordahl scored 149 goals in 172 matches.^[11]

Italy

Nordahl transferred to AC Milan on 22 January 1949. This made him the first Swedish player to play in a foreign league.^[12] Later, he would team up with his national team strike partners, Gunnar Gren and Nils Liedholm to form the renowned Gre-No-Li trio. Playing eight seasons with Milan, he is Serie A's multi-top-scorer a record five times (1949–50, 1950–51, 1952–53, 1953–54 and 1954–55).^[6][13] Nordahl is also Milan's all-time top-scorer, with 210 league goals.^[14]

Nordahl is the third-highest Serie A goalscorer of all time, with 225 goals in 291 matches,^{[11][13][14][15]} only behind Silvio Piola^[6] and Francesco Totti.^[15] That makes Nordahl the top goalscorer among non-Italian players,^[13] and he is also the most efficient goalscorer goals in Serie A ever with 0.77 goals/match.^[6][13] He was nicknamed Il Pompiere ("The Fireman"), because of his former job while he played in Sweden.^[5]

From left to right: Juventus' Parola and AC Milan's Nordahl prior to a friendly match at San Siro in 1950

After leaving Milan, Nordahl played for Roma for two seasons. Nordahl's record for most goals scored in Serie A (not including Divisione Nazionale, before Serie A was installed) of 35 in 1949–50 in a season was broken by Gonzalo Higuaín in the 2015–16 season who scored 36.^[16][17] Nordahl, together with the mentioned Gre-No-Li is today legendary in Milan. When Milan striker Andriy Shevchenko scored his 100 goal in Serie A for Milan, it is said that some old Milanese supporters commented: "Well he can double that number, and then add another 26, then, and just then, he has passed Il Cannoniere."

International career

Nordahl was first called up to the Sweden national team in 1942. In 1948, he helped Sweden to win the Olympic football tournament, achieving top tournament scoring status.^[18] The Swedish team also included his brothers Bertil and Knut Nordahl.^[1] Nordahl's transfer to Milan forced him to retire from the national team, as the rules at the time prevented professionals from serving on the Sweden national team and unavailable to the 1950 FIFA World Cup as were Gren and Liedholm. His 33 matches in the national team resulted in scoring 43 goals.^[6] However, both Nordahl and other Swedish professionals appeared in the euphemistic Sveriges proffslandslag ("Swedish professional national team") during the 1950s.^[19] The latter was discontinued in 1958, when Sweden, like many other nations, lifted the professional ban for respective national team consideration.

Career statistics

Club

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

Club	Season	League			Cup		Europe		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Hörnefors IF	1937–38	Division 3 Nedre Norrländskan	14	20	—		—		14	20
	1938–39	Division 3 Nedre Norrländskan	14	25	—		—		14	25
	1939–40	Division 3 Nedre Norrländskan	13	23	—		—		13	23
	Total		41	68	—		—		41	68
Degerfors	1940–41	Allsvenskan	17	15	—		—		17	15
	1941–42	Allsvenskan	21	13	—		—		21	13
	1942–43	Allsvenskan	20	14	—		—		20	14
	1943–44	Allsvenskan	19	14	—		—		19	14
	Total		77	56	—		—		77	56
Norrköping	1944–45	Allsvenskan	22	27	—		—		22	27
	1945–46	Allsvenskan	21	25	—		—		21	25
	1946–47	Allsvenskan	20	17	—		—		20	17
	1947–48	Allsvenskan	22	18	—		—		22	18
	1948–49	Allsvenskan	10	6	—		—		10	6
	Total		95	93	—		—		95	93
AC Milan	1948–49	Serie A	15	16	—		—		15	16
	1949–50	Serie A	37	35	—		—		37	35
	1950–51	Serie A	37	34	—		2[a]	4	39	38
	1951–52	Serie A	38	26	—		—		38	26
	1952–53	Serie A	32	26	—		2[b]	2	34	28
	1953–54	Serie A	33	23	—		—		33	23
	1954–55	Serie A	33	27	—		2[c]	1	35	28
	1955–56	Serie A	32	23	—		5[d]	4	37	27
	Total		257	210	—		5	4	268	221
Roma	1956–57	Serie A	30	13	—		—		30	14
	1957–58	Serie A	4	2	—		—		4	2
	Total		34	15	—		—		34	15
Karlstad BIK	1959	Division 2 Svealand			—		—
	1960	Division 2 Svealand			—		—
	Total		24	11	—		—		24	11
Career total			538	453	—		5	4	543	457

1. Appearance(s) in Latin Cup
2. Appearance(s) in Latin Cup
3. Appearance(s) in Latin Cup
4. Appearance(s) in European Cup

International

Appearances and goals by national team and year

National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Sweden	1942	4	2
	1943	5	5
	1944	0	0
	1945	5	7
	1946	3	2
	1947	7	15
	1948	9	12
Total		33	43

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

List of international goals scored by Gunnar Nordahl

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition	Ref.
1	28 June 1942	Parken, Copenhagen, Denmark	Denmark	2–0	3–0	Friendly	[20]
2	4 October 1942	Råsunda Stadium, Solna, Sweden	Denmark	2–0	2–1	Friendly	[21]
3	20 June 1943	Parken, Copenhagen, Denmark	Denmark	2–2	2–3	Friendly	[22]
4	12 September 1943	Råsunda Stadium, Solna, Sweden	Hungary	1–0	2–3	Friendly	[23]
5				2–1
6	7 November 1943	Üllői úti stadion, Budapest, Hungary	Hungary	4–2	7–2	Friendly	[24]
7				5–2
8	24 June 1945	Råsunda Stadium, Solna, Sweden	Denmark	1–1	2–1	Friendly	[25]
9	1 July 1945	Parken, Copenhagen, Denmark	Denmark	2–1	4–3	Friendly	[26]
10	30 September 1945	Råsunda Stadium, Solna, Sweden	Denmark	1–1	4–1	Friendly	[27]
11	21 October 1945	Råsunda Stadium, Solna, Sweden	Norway	2–0	10–0	Friendly	[28]
12				3–0
13				8–0
14				10–0
15	7 July 1946	Råsunda Stadium, Solna, Sweden	Switzerland	7–2	7–2	Friendly	[29]
16	6 October 1946	Gamla Ullevi, Gothenburg, Sweden	Denmark	3–2	3–3	Friendly	[30]
17	15 June 1947	Parken, Copenhagen, Denmark	Denmark	1–0	4–1	1937–47 Nordic Football Championship	[31]
18				2–0
19	26 June 1947	Råsunda Stadium, Solna, Sweden	Denmark	4–0	6–1	Friendly	[32]
20	28 June 1947	Helsinki Olympic Stadium, Helsinki, Finland	Norway	1–1	5–1	Friendly	[33]
21				2–1
22				3–1
23				4–1
24	24 August 1947	Ryavallen, Örebro, Sweden	Finland	2–0	7–0	1937–47 Nordic Football Championship	[34]
25				4–0
26				5–0
27	14 September 1947	Råsunda Stadium, Solna, Sweden	Poland	1–1	5–4	Friendly	[35]
28				4–2
29	5 October 1947	Råsunda Stadium, Solna, Sweden	Norway	2–0	4–1	1937–47 Nordic Football Championship	[36]
30				3–1
31	19 November 1947	Highbury, London, England	England	1–2	2–4	Friendly	[37]
32	2 August 1948	White Hart Lane, London, England	Austria	1–0	3–0	1948 Summer Olympics	[38]
33				2–0
34	5 August 1948	Selhurst Park, London, England	South Korea	2–0	12–0	1948 Summer Olympics	[39]
35				4–0
36				9–0
37				10–0
38	13 August 1948	Wembley Stadium, London, England	Yugoslavia	2–1	3–1	1948 Summer Olympics	[40]
39	19 September 1948	Ullevaal Stadium, Oslo, Norway	Norway	1–1	5–3	1948–51 Nordic Football Championship	[41]
40				2–2
41				3–2
42				4–2
43				5–2

Honours

IFK Norrköping^[6]

• Allsvenskan: 1944–45, 1945–46, 1946–47, 1947–48
• Svenska Cupen: 1945

AC Milan^[6][10]

• Serie A: 1950–51, 1954–55
• Latin Cup: 1951, 1956

Sweden^[6]

• Olympic Gold Medal: 1948
• Nordic Football Championship: 1937–1947

Individual

• Allsvenskan top scorer: 1942–43, 1944–45, 1945–46, 1947–48^[6]
• Swedish Footballer of the Year: 1947^[9]
• Olympic Games Top Scorer: 1948
• Serie A Top Scorer: 1949–50, 1950–51, 1952–53, 1953–54, 1954–55^[6][10]
• Serie A Team of The Year: 1951,^[42] 1955^[43]
• AC Milan Hall of Fame^[10]
• Venerdì's 100 Magnifici^[44]
• Nordic Football Championship top scorer: 1937–1947
• Allsvenskan Player of the Century: 1924–2024^[45]

Records

• Most goals scored for AC Milan: 221
• Most Serie A Top Scorer titles: 5
• Most consecutive Serie A Top Scorer titles: 3 (record shared with Michel Platini)
• Most braces scored in Serie A: 49 (record shared with Silvio Piola)
• Most hat-tricks scored in Serie A: 17 (all with AC Milan)

See also

• List of men's footballers with 500 or more goals
• List of footballers who achieved hat-trick records