Sven Nilsson (15 June 1909 – 5 March 1983) was a Swedish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player and manager. He is most famous for being

Malmö FF Malmö Fotbollförening (), commonly known simply as Malmö FF or MFF, is a Swedish professional football club based in Malmö, Scania. They compete in the Allsvenskan, the top division of Swedish football, and play home matches at the Eleda S ...

's manager during their first Championship season in 1944. Nilsson's son Bertil Nilsson is a former football player who himself played 342 matches for Malmö FF.

Player career

Nilsson played 302 matches in total (of which 172 were league matches) for

and was one of the players who were banned in 1934 when the club was caught paying their players which was against the rules at the time. He was capped for

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

once in a World Cup qualifier in Hamburg in 1937. Nilssons international career ended as he was called into the military as

WWII World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

raged through Europe.

Manager career

After his player career Nilsson coached

during three different periods. He was manager of the club in 1944 when they won their first Swedish Championship. Nilsson was also manager of the club from 1945 to 1947 and in 1950 between managers.

Honours as manager

;Malmö FF *

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; ), also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan (, ) is a professional association football league in Sweden and the highest level of the Swedish football league system. Founded in 1924, it operates on a system of promotion and relegatio ...

(1):

1944 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 2 – WWII: ** Free France, Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command First Army (France), French Army B, part of the Sixt ...

Svenska Cupen Svenska cupen (, ), also known as the Swedish Cup in English, is a knockout cup competition in Swedish football and the main Swedish football cup. ''Svenska cupen'' usually refers to the men's tournament, although a women's tournament is also ...

(3): 1944, 1946, 1947

References

* 1909 births Swedish men's footballers Sweden men's international footballers Allsvenskan players Malmö FF players Swedish football managers Malmö FF managers 1983 deaths Men's association football defenders Allsvenskan managers 20th-century Swedish sportsmen {{Sweden-footy-defender-stub