Gunnar Andersson (14 August 1928 – 1 October 1969) was a Swedish

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

. He is widely considered one of

Olympique de Marseille Olympique de Marseille (, ; oc, Olimpic de Marselha, ), also known simply as Marseille or by the abbreviation OM (, ), is a French professional men's football club based in Marseille, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Founded in 1899, the club pl ...

's best strikers, and is the highest scorer of the club. Born in Sweden, he represented the France national football B team once.

Career

Andersson started his career in Sweden, where he was nicknamed ''Säffle'', before playing for Danish side Kjøbenhavns BK before being transferred to Olympique de Marseille, where he became a key player. Having scored 194 goals in 220 matches, he is the highest scorer of the club ahead of

Jean-Pierre Papin Jean-Pierre Roger Guillaume Papin (born 5 November 1963) is a French football manager and former professional player who played as a forward. He was named the Ballon d'Or and IFFHS World's Top Goal Scorer of the Year in 1991. Papin was known for ...

(182) and Josip Skoblar (176). With ''l'OM'' he was also Division 1 top goalscorer in 1951–1952 and 1952–1953 and runner-up in the 1953–54 Coupe de France. He also played for other French teams such as

FC Girondins de Bordeaux Football Club des Girondins de Bordeaux (), commonly referred to as Girondins de Bordeaux ( oc, Girondins de Bordèu) or simply Bordeaux, is a French professional Association football, football club based in the city of Bordeaux in Gironde (de ...

and

AS Aix Pays d'Aix Football Club, also known as Aix FC is a French association football club based in the city of Aix-en-Provence. The team was founded in 1941 as a merger of Football Club Aixois and Union Sportive Aixoise football clubs. Their best ...

. Despite his success in France, he never played for the

Sweden national football team The Sweden national football team ( sv, svenska fotbollslandslaget) represents Sweden in men's international football and it is controlled by the Swedish Football Association, the governing body of football in Sweden. Sweden's home ground is F ...

because of a policy not to select players based outside Sweden, such as Andersson and Gunnar Nordahl. However, as he obtained French citizenship in 1954, he was capped once for the France B team in 1956, but was disappointing and was never called again. He died in 1969, as he was heading to

Stade Vélodrome The Stade Vélodrome (; oc, Estadi Velodròm, ), known as the Orange Vélodrome for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium in Marseille, France. It is home to the Olympique de Marseille football club of Ligue 1 since it opened in 1937, ...

, to see a match against Dukla Prague in the

1969–70 European Cup Winners' Cup The 1969–70 season of the European Cup Winners' Cup football club tournament was won by Manchester City in a final victory against Górnik Zabrze. Preliminary round First round First leg Second leg ''Rangers won 2–0 o ...

. He remains today one of the best players to wear ''l'OM'' uniform and one of the most appreciated by supporters.

Honours

Marseille * Coupe de France runner-up:

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

Individual * Division 1 top goalscorer: 1951–1952, 1952–1953

References

External links

Article and photos on a Olympique de Marseille fan site
* Article on Gunnar Andersson http://mondediplo.com/2003/02/15soccer {{DEFAULTSORT:Andersson, Gunnar 1928 births 1969 deaths People from Arvika Municipality French footballers France B international footballers Swedish footballers Swedish emigrants to France French people of Swedish descent Association football forwards Ligue 1 players IK Arvika players IFK Göteborg players Kjøbenhavns Boldklub players Olympique de Marseille players Montpellier HSC players FC Girondins de Bordeaux players Pays d'Aix FC players Expatriate footballers in France Expatriate footballers in Denmark Sportspeople from Värmland County