Gunnar Nordahl
- Dag Jenkins
- Jan 3
- 3 min read
Nils Gunnar Nordahl was born in Hörnefors, in northern Sweden, on October 19, 1921.
He came from a football family, his four brothers were also players: Knut (2 seasons with Roma), Kettil (3 seasons with Atalanta), twins Gösta and Göran. Gunnar's son Thomas also went onto become a professional, representing Sweden 15 times with 5 goals.
Gunnar's first club was his local village of Hörnefors from 1937 to 1939. He played 41 games and scored 68 goals.
This early prolificacy earned him a move to Degerfors in the top flight in 1940. He stayed four seasons, playing 77 league games and scoring 56 goals. In 1940-41 Degerfors were runners-up in the Allesvenskan and in 1942-43 Nordahl was top scorer with 16 goals. Football was not professional yet so in these years he also worked as a lathe operator.
In 1944 he signed for IFK Norrköping and stayed five seasons. In this period "Snoka" won four league titles and a Svenska Cupen. He was top scorer in 1945 (27), 1946 (25) and 1948 (18). He played a total of 95 league games with an impressive 93 goals. From 1946 to 1949 he played alongside Nils Liedholm.
In January 1949 he moved to Italy and signed for A.C Milan where he was re-united with Liedholm. They were also joined by another Swede, Gunnar Gren from IFK Göteborg. The Gre-No-Li trio would be a great success, one of the best attacks in Serie A history.
Nordahl stayed in Milan for seven seasons. He played a total of 268 games with 221 goals (210 in A). The Rossoneri won the Scudetto twice, in 1951 (first for 44 years) and 1956 plus 2 Latin Cups (1951, 1956). He was top Serie A scorer a record 5 times, 1950 (35), 1951 (34), 1953 (26), 1954 (23) and 1955 (27). His managers in Milan were future Lazio, Giuseppe Bigogno, Lajos Czeizler (for three seasons), former and future Lazio Mario Sperone plus spells with Arrigo Morselli, Béla Guttmann and Héctor Puccinelli.
Nordahl had several nicknames in italy; "Il Cannoniere" (The Prime Gunner/ goalscorer), "Il Pompiere" (The Fireman) and "Il Bisonte" (The Bison)
In 1956, at 35, he joined Roma for two seasons. In his first year the Giallorossi finished 14th and he scored 13 goals. In his second he played little and from the 12th fixture onwards became the manager, finishing 5th.
In 1959 he returned to Sweden for two more seasons in the second tier with Karlstad BK as player-manager. He played 24 league games with 11 goals.
He then retired completely at 39.
At international level he earned 33 caps for Sweden with 43 goals. In 1948 he won Olympic gold in London. He scored 7 goals including one in the final (Yugoslavia 3-1). His appearances were limited by the fact that between 1950 and 1956 only amateurs could represent Sweden but despite this he is 3rd top scorer.
Nordahl then had a career as a manager in Sweden. He was in charge of Degerfors (1961-64), IFK Norköpping (1967-70), IF Saab (1971-73), Sleipner (1974), Öster (1975-76), AIK (1977-1978) and IFK Norköpping again (1979-80).
From the early 1980's he then became a travel agent for IFK Norköpping, organising the away trips for the fans.
Nordahl was a centre-forward, an exceptional one. He was strong (1.80 and 90 kilos), had great timing and a surgical finish. A combination which made him difficult to stop. In his career he scored at least 464 goals. He is 3rd top scorer in Serie A history with 225 goals (Silvio Piola is 1st with 290).
His records speak for themselves:
Top Milan goalscorer with 221 goals
Most times as Serie A top scorer (5) and most consecutive (3 with Michel Platini)
Most hat-tricks in Serie A (18, all with Milan)
Most braces in Serie A (49, with Silvio Piola)
Top foreign goalscorer in Serie A (225)
Top Milan goalscorer in a single season (38 in 1950-51)
Until 2016 he held the Serie A record for goals in a single season (35, then beaten by Gonzalo Higuain in 2016 and Ciro Immobile in 2020 with 36)
He is considered one of the best centre-forwards in football history. In the IFFHS list of best 20th century players he is 46th. In 2017 FourFourTwo magazine placed him at 54th greatest player of all time.
Nordahl died suddenly at 73. He had a heart attack while on holiday in Alghero in Sardinia on September 15, 1995.
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