Gre-No-Li is a contraction of the surnames of three 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 lea ...

Gunnar Gren Johan Gunnar Gren (; 31 October 1920 – 10 November 1991) was a Swedish professional association football, football player and coach. He is best remembered for playing for IFK Göteborg and AC Milan. A second striker, creative forward, known f ...

, Gunnar Nordahl and

Nils Liedholm Nils Erik Liedholm (; 8 October 1922 – 5 November 2007) was a Swedish association football, football midfielder and coach. ''Il Barone'' (the Baron), as he is affectionately known in Italy, was renowned for being part of the Swedish "Gre-No-Li ...

. The denomination was colloquially used after these players composed a formidable trio of attacking players while playing for the Sweden national team and

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

club

A.C. Milan (), commonly referred to as Milan or AC Milan () mainly outside of Italy, is an Italian professional Football club (association football), football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Founded in 1899, the club competes in the Serie A, the top tie ...

in the 1950s. The three forwards led Sweden to Olympic

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

at the 1948 Olympic tournament in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Shortly after that success, in January 1949, centre-forward Nordahl joined Milan, and was accompanied by Gren and Liedholm in the summer of the same year. The impact of the trio was immediate. Nordahl scored 16 goals in 15 matches in the second half of the 1948–49 season, and in the 1949-50 season Milan scored 118 goals in 38 matches (a record in 20-teams Serie A seasons). The trio's most notable achievement at the club came the following season, when Milan won the ''

scudetto The ''scudetto'' (; Italian for 'little shield') is a decoration having the colors of the flag of Italy which is sewn onto the jersey of the Italian sports clubs that won the highest level championship of their respective sport in the previous ...

''; their first was won 44 years previously. Others have won the title: 1955 (Liedholm and Nordahl); 1957 and 1958 (Liedholm but Gren and Nordahl had moved away). Gunnar Nordahl was particularly successful in Italy, as he was the overall top-scorer in five out of seven

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

seasons, between 1949 and 1956. He remains, as of 2023, the third-highest goalscorer in the history of the league, and the all time top-scorer in Milan history. The trio's contribution was fundamental also in archieving two

Latin Cup The Latin Cup was an international official football tournament for club sides from the Southwest European nations of France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. In 1949, the football federations came together and requested FIFA launch the competition ...

s, in 1951 and 1956, the latter won without Gren, who had left the club in 1953. Nordahl left Milan in 1956 to join

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: People, characters, figures, names * Roma or Romani people, an ethnic group living mostly in Europe and the Americas. * Roma called Roy, ancient Egyptian High Priest of Amun * Roma (footballer, born 1979), born ''Paul ...

, while Liedholm stayed with the club as a leader in the midfield and being the captain from 1956 to 1961, when he retired from football.

References

External links

*
Article on ''Futbol Factory''
(Archived) {{Sweden men's national football team AC Milan Swedish men's footballers Nicknamed groups of association football players 1949–50 in Italian football 1950–51 in Italian football 1951–52 in Italian football 1952–53 in Italian football