PHOTO: Bildbyrån
There is a reason why he is called “God”.
Torbjörn Nilsson is one of Swedish football’s all-time greats.
But when he himself gets the chance to name Sweden’s best footballer of all time, it will be a completely different choice.
The football career once took off in the small parent club Jonsereds IF for a seven-year-old Torbjörn Nilsson. At the age of 19, he then took the step over to the significantly larger IFK Göteborg and there everything would take off in earnest with an impressive 34 goals in 49 games.
Nilsson’s career
Just two years later, PSV Eindhoven themselves heard and signed the Swede to the Netherlands. But there, Nilsson didn’t get it right at all and returned home to “Blåvitt” again after only half a season.
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IFK Göteborg was to be the place where Torbjörn Nilsson enjoyed himself the most during his career and where he was also at his best. The icon would go on to score a whopping 332 goals for the “Angels”, which he is still the club’s top scorer with to this day.
READ MORE: Torbjörn Nilsson’s remarkable advice as a coach – which worked unsuspected miracles: ‘The day I met God’
God in Gothenburg
Nilsson won two SM golds, two cup titles and then the biggest with the successful Uefa Cup win in 1982. He won the Golden Ball, became top scorer in the Allsvenskan, top scorer in the Uefa Cup, top scorer in the European Cup on two occasions and honored with the nickname “God” by the citizens of Gothenburg.
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Torbjörn Nilsson is considered to be one of Swedish football’s best strikers of all time, and in 1998 we got that confirmed. When the players in the Allsvenskan had to vote for Sweden’s best soccer player that year, “God” received a whopping 39% of the votes.
READ MORE: Here, Torbjörn Nilsson picks out the 11 best he has ever played with
Sweden’s best
Was second Gunnar Nordahl with 22%, came third Thomas Brolin with 9% and beyond Lennart “Nacka” Skoglund in fourth place with 7%. When Nilsson himself is asked who is Sweden’s best soccer player of all time, he humbly does not answer himself.
– In terms of results, it’s probably Gunnar Nordahl. Brolin was also good, he then revealed in an interview with GT.
When the poll and interview were done in 1998, it was before a certain one Zlatan Ibrahimovic entered Swedish football and it would have been interesting to know what “God” had answered the question today.
What do you think of Torbjörn Nilsson’s choice? Share the article and have your say!
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