Kurt Roland "Kurre" Hamrin (; born 19 November 1934) is a Swedish former professional

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 ...

who played as a winger. He began his career in his home country with

AIK AIK Fotboll (), more commonly known simply as AIK (), an abbreviation for Allmänna Idrottsklubben (meaning ''the public'' or ''general sports club''), is a Swedish football club competing in Allsvenskan, the top flight of Swedish football. The ...

, but later played for several Italian clubs, most notably

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fol ...

, with whom he won two

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

titles, a

Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

, and a

Mitropa Cup The Mitropa Cup, officially called the La Coupe de l'Europe Centrale or Central European Cup, was one of the first international major European football cups for club sides. It was conducted among the successor states of the former Austria-Hunga ...

over nine years, making over 350 appearances for the club and scoring over 200 goals in all competitions. A prolific goalscorer, he is currently the eighth highest goalscorer of all-time in Italy's

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

, with 190 goals. In addition to his success at club level, Hamrin also had a successful international career, and was a member of the Swedish team that reached the

1958 FIFA World Cup Final The 1958 FIFA World Cup Final took place in Råsunda Stadium, Solna (near Stockholm), Sweden, on 29 June 1958 to determine the champion of the 1958 FIFA World Cup. Brazil won the World Cup by defeating Sweden, the host country, and thus won their ...

on home soil; he is commonly regarded as one of the greatest Swedish footballers of all-time, as well as one of Fiorentina's greatest players ever.

Club career

Hamrin first played for

in Sweden, whom he joined in the 1952–53 season. He then joined Italian side Juventus in 1956 and played 23 games during his single season there, notching eight goals. After that one season, he joined

Padova Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

on loan, where he scored 20 goals in 30 games. He would only stay there for one season again, however, as he was sold to

in 1958, where he stayed until 1967, playing 289 Serie A games and scoring 150 goals. While at Fiorentina, he won the

in 1961 and 1966, as well as the

1960–61 European Cup Winners' Cup The 1960–61 season of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, European Cup Winners' Cup club association football, football tournament was won by Italian club ACF Fiorentina, Fiorentina in two-legged final victory against Rangers F.C., Rangers of Scotland. O ...

(finishing the competition as the top–scorer with six goals, including one in the second leg of the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

, a 2–1 home victory over Rangers), and the 1966

. Hamrin is commonly regarded as one of Fiorentina's greatest ever players, and is the team's all–time highest goalscorer, with 208 goals. He joined

A.C. Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional Association football, football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 ...

in 1967 and played there for two seasons, winning the league title in

1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * Janu ...

; he also scored both goals for Milan as they overcame

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

2–0 in the 1968 European Cup Winners' Cup Final. The following season, the team won the European Cup. His final Italian club was

Napoli Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, whom he joined from Milan in 1969. In 1971, he return to Sweden, playing one season for

IFK Stockholm IFK Stockholm is multi-sports club in Stockholm, Sweden. It is most known for its football team. Background The club was formed 1 February 1895 as IF Kamraterna (IFK) by two young students, Louis Zettersten and Pehr Ehnemark, and was the first I ...

before retiring in 1972.

International career

Hamrin played 32 times for Sweden between 1953 and 1965, scoring 17 goals. Most Swedes remember him best for the goal he scored against

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

in the semi finals of the 1958 FIFA World Cup on home soil. The goal allowed Sweden to win the match 3–1, and secure a place in the

against

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, where they were defeated 5–2, however.

After retirement

After his retirement as a footballer, Hamrin moved to Florence with his family, where he is still living today. He also worked as scout for A.C. Milan from 1998 to 2008. Kurt Hamrin 2015

A member of "Exilgnagare" – a club for

supporters worldwide, Hamrin is probably one of the finest players the club ever produced and is still a big favourite among the supporters at the club. Hamrin, settled in Florence after his spell at

; he still follows his beloved

, and usually makes the trip home every summer to catch a couple of games.

Style of play

Hamrin was a fast, creative, elegant, and technically skilled

right winger A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, who was gifted with outstanding pace, as well as good vision, and opportunism in front of goal. A direct and efficient two–footed player, he was known in particular for his flair, as well as his incredible

dribbling In sports, dribbling is maneuvering a ball by one player while moving in a given direction, avoiding defenders' attempts to intercept the ball. A successful dribble will bring the ball past defenders legally and create opportunities to score. A ...

and striking ability with either foot, and stood out for his ability to utilise his speed to get past his opponents; he was also capable of beating players in one–on–one situations with elaborate moves and

feints Feint is a French term that entered English via the discipline of swordsmanship and fencing. Feints are maneuvers designed to distract or mislead, done by giving the impression that a certain maneuver will take place, while in fact another, or e ...

, such as the

nutmeg Nutmeg is the seed or ground spice of several species of the genus ''Myristica''. ''Myristica fragrans'' (fragrant nutmeg or true nutmeg) is a dark-leaved evergreen tree cultivated for two spices derived from its fruit: nutmeg, from its seed, an ...

. Moreover, he was a highly prolific goalscorer. Despite his playing ability, however, he was also known to be injury–prone.

Career statistics

International

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

Honours

Fiorentina *

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tourn ...

: 1960–61 *

: 1966 *

: 1960–61, 1965–66 A.C. Milan * European Cup: 1968–69 * UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1967–68 *

: 1967–68 Sweden *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

runner-up:

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

Individual * Allsvenskan top scorer: 1954–55 * UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Top Scorer: 1960–61 (6 goals) *

FIFA XI FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

: 1967 * UEFA President Award: 2014 * ACF Fiorentina Hall of Fame: 2012 * Fiorentina All-time XI * Fiorentina All-time top scorer

References

External links

Kurt Hamrin
aik.se {{DEFAULTSORT:Hamrin, Kurt 1934 births Living people Association football wingers Expatriate footballers in Italy Swedish expatriate footballers Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Swedish footballers AIK Fotboll players Allsvenskan players Sweden international footballers Serie A players Juventus F.C. players ACF Fiorentina players A.C. Milan players S.S.C. Napoli players Calcio Padova players 1958 FIFA World Cup players Footballers from Stockholm IFK Stockholm players UEFA Champions League winning players