| Gunnar Nordahl |
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Gunnar Nordahl was the most effective striker that ever played
for AC Milan. His style of play was based on his enormous
strength. Nordahl had another four brothers who also played
football in the Swedish first division. He played in the Swedish
first division at Degerfors and IFK Norkopping. His career
landmarks during his time in the Swedish championship are
the four championships titles won during the time he played
for Norkopping and the seven goals scored against Landskrona
in a championship match. He was first called to the Swedish
national team in 1945. In 1948 he became the top scorer of
the Olympic Games football tournament with seven goals, where
he helped Sweden to win the Olymipic gold medal. It seemed
that his value was too big for the Swedish championship and
so it was. After he scored in the Swedish first league 149
goals in 172 matches played, he took the way of Italy, signing
a contract with AC Milan. This contract is the beggining of
a great era for AC Milan because Nordahl will be one of the
leading players of 'The Devils' in their way of winning the
most of the 50's Scudetto's (1950, 1954, 1956 and 1958) and
not only.
He arrived at AC Milan on the 22nd January 1949, and in his
first season wearing the red and black strips shirt, he scored
an outstanding 16 goals in 15 games. Later, in AC Milan arrived
his national side team mates, Gunnar Gren and Nils Liedholm,
all off them forming the well known GRE-NO-LI trio.
The transfer to the Italian championship was equal for him
with the retirement from the Swedish national team as the
Swedish had strict rules against professionalism in sports.
In his national team career, he scored 44 goals in 30 matches,
on of the highest average ever, almost 1,5 goals a match.
He played for AC Milan in eight seasons, in five of them being
the Serie A top scorer. He scored for Milan a total of 210
goals. At the end of his career he played in AS Roma for two
seasons. For AC Milan, he scored in Serie A a total of 210
goals.
He also contributed in a 7-1 AC Milan win against Juventus
Torino. Unfortunately, he died in 1995, and he will remain
for ever in history as one of the most powerful and greatest
players of the game.
Trophies won:
::4 x Swedish title
::1 x Swedish cup
::2 x Italian title
::2 x Coppa Latina
::1 x Olympic Gold Medal
::4 x Swedish Top Scorer
::1 x Olympic Games Top Scorer
::5 x Italian League Top Scorer
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