Thomas Gunnar Nordahl (born 24 May 1946) 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 lea ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

. He is also a former manager. He played his club football for

Degerfors IF Degerfors IF is a Swedish professional association football, football club located in Degerfors. The club, formed 13 January 1907, is currently playing in the highest tier in Swedish football, Allsvenskan. Background Degerfors IF first played ...

Örebro SK Örebro Sportklubb, more commonly known as Örebro SK, Örebro or (especially locally) ÖSK, is a Swedish professional football club based in Örebro. The club are affiliated to Örebro Läns Fotbollförbund and play their home games at Behrn ...

R.S.C. Anderlecht Royal Sporting Club Anderlecht, commonly abbreviated to RSC Anderlecht (, , ) or RSCA (, , ), is a Belgian professional football club based in Anderlecht, Brussels Capital-Region. Anderlecht plays in the Belgian First Division A and is the mos ...

, and

BK Forward Bollklubben Forward, commonly known as BK Forward, is a football team from Örebro, Sweden. They play in Div 2 Norra Götaland. The club plays in a small multipurpose stadium called Trängens IP. The base of the club is in the western end of dow ...

during a career that spanned between 1964 and 1980. A full international between 1967 and 1975, he won 15

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

and scored 5 goals for the Sweden national team. He represented Sweden at the

1970 FIFA World Cup The 1970 FIFA World Cup was the 9th edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's senior national teams. Held from 31 May to ...

. After his playing career he worked as a manager with BK Forward,

Sandvikens IF Sandvikens IF is a Swedish football club located in Sandviken. The club, formed 6 June 1918, has played 21 seasons in the highest Swedish league, but is in the second highest Swedish league, Superettan. Sandvikens IF are affiliated to the Gest ...

Motala AIF Motala AIF is a Swedish football club located in Motala in Östergötland. Other sports that the club promotes include athletics, orienteering, ice hockey, road cycling, and skiing. Background Since their foundation on 29 August 1907 Motala A ...

, and

IFK Norrköping Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Norrköping, more commonly known as IFK Norrköping or simply Norrköping, is a Swedish professional association football, football club based in Norrköping. The club is affiliated to Östergötlands Fotbollför ...

. He is the son of former professional footballer

Gunnar Nordahl Nils Gunnar Nordahl (; 19 October 1921 – 15 September 1995) was a Swedish professional footballer. 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, ...

.Gunnar Nordahl
Swedish Olympic Committee

Club career

Nordahl made his debut in the

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 ...

in 1964 for

when he was 17 years old. A year later, he moved to

and became a key player there. He played 77 matches for the Swedish side and scored 41 goals. 1968 he moved to the Italian club

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

, who had finished third in

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 ...

during the 1967–68 season. However, shortly after Nordahl signed the contract, the Serie A issued a ban which stopped all clubs from bringing in foreign players. Nordahl was contracted with Juventus but couldn't play because of this ban. This forced Juventus to loan him out to Belgian side

. Nordahl stayed in Anderlecht for three years, until 1971; after those three years, his contract with Juventus ended, but the ban still had not been lifted. Nordahl left the club without playing a match for them and went to his old club Örebro. He played there for 7 years between 1971 and 1978, making 175 appearances and scoring 65 goals, resulting in a total of 252 appearances and 106 goals for the club. In 1979 (the season began 1980) he went to another Swedish club,

, and played 45 matches and scored 21 goals. In 1980, an injury forced Nordahl to quit playing football and the age of 34.

International career

Nordahl made 15 international appearances for the Sweden national team between 1967 and 1975, and scored 5 goals. He also made 15 appearances for the Swedish youth teams. Nordahl was included in the Swedish squad for the

in Mexico.

Coaching career

Following his retirement from professional football, Nordahl went on to coach a number of Swedish clubs, including BK Forward,

, and

Career statistics

International

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

Honours

RSC Anderlecht *

Belgian First Division The Belgian Pro League (; ; ), officially the Jupiler Pro League () for sponsor Jupiler, is a professional association football league in Belgium and the highest level of the Belgian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs from the 2023– ...

: 1967–68 *

Inter-Cities Fairs Cup The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, most commonly referred to as the Fairs Cup and sometimes as the European Fairs Cup or Fairs Cities' Cup, was a European football competition played between 1955 and 1971. The Fairs Cup was the idea of FIFA vice-presid ...

: 1969-70 (runners-up) Individual *

Stor Grabb STOR may refer to: * ''Short Term Operating Reserve'', see National Grid Reserve Service * STØR, American furniture chain * STOR2RRD, an open-source software tool See also *JSTOR, digital library *Stor (born 1987), Swedish rapper *Stör, a rive ...

: 1975

References

External links

*
Career stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nordahl, Thomas Living people 1946 births Men's association football midfielders Swedish men's footballers Sweden men's international footballers 1970 FIFA World Cup players Degerfors IF players Örebro SK players Juventus FC players R.S.C. Anderlecht players Swedish football managers Swedish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Swedish expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Norway Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Norway IFK Norrköping managers Sandvikens IF managers BK Forward players Belgian Pro League players Allsvenskan players Footballers from Norrköping 20th-century Swedish sportsmen Nordahl family