Gunnar Nordahl
Nils Gunnar Nordahl (pronounced [ˈɡɵ̌nːar ˈnûːɖɑːl]; 19 October 1921 – 15 September 1995)[1] was a Swedish football player. 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]
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. Nordahl is considered to be one of the greatest Swedish football players of all-time,[4] and regarded as one of the best strikers in football history.[5][6] In 2017, he was included in FourFourTwo magazine’s list of the 100 greatest players of all time, at the 54th position.[7]
He is the father of former footballer Thomas Nordahl.[8][9]
Nordahl transferred to AC Milan on 22 January 1949. 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).[5][11] Nordahl is also Milan’s all-time top-scorer, with 210 league goals.[12]
Nordahl is the third-highest Serie A goalscorer of all time, with 225 goals in 291 matches,[10][11][12][13] only behind Silvio Piola[5] and Francesco Totti.[13] That makes Nordahl the top goalscorer among non-Italian players,[11] and he is also the most efficient goalscorer goals in Serie A ever with 0.77 goals/match.[5][11] He was nicknamed il pompiere (the fireman), because of his former job while he played in Sweden.[4]
From left to right: Juventus’ Parola and AC Milan’s Nordahl prior 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.[14][15] 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.
