 Gustavsson in 1968 | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | (1928-01-13)13 January 1928 | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Ringarum, Sweden | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of death | 16 February 2017(2017-02-16) (aged 89) | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of death | Norrköping, Sweden | ||||||||||||||||
| Position | Defender | ||||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | |||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | ||||||||||||||
| 1947–1955 | IFK Norrköping | 147 | (17) | ||||||||||||||
| 1956–1961 | Atalanta | 145 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 1961–1965 | Åtvidabergs FF | ||||||||||||||||
| International career | |||||||||||||||||
| 1951–1963 | Sweden | 57 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| Managerial career | |||||||||||||||||
| 1964–1970 | Åtvidabergs FF | ||||||||||||||||
| 1971–1972 | Swedish national youth team | ||||||||||||||||
| 1973–1974 | Östers IF | ||||||||||||||||
| 1975–1978 | IFK Norrköping | ||||||||||||||||
| 1979–1981 | Hammarby IF | ||||||||||||||||
| 1982–1983 | IK Sleipner | ||||||||||||||||
| 1985 | IFK Norrköping (Assistant) | ||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||||||||||||||||
Bengt Olov Emanuel "Julle" Gustavsson (13 January 1928 – 16 February 2017[1])[2][3] was a Swedish professionalfootballer andmanager. As player he played as adefender and representedSweden; he participated in thefinal of the1958 FIFA World Cup on home soil, losing out toBrazil, and won national championships withIFK Norrköping. As coach he ledÅtvidabergs FF into its golden era at the beginning of the 1970s.[4]
Bengt started playing with the local team ofGusum and in 1947 joined the then nationally dominating clubIFK Norrköping. At the end of the era of the great Hungarian coachLajos Czeizler he was supposed to replaceGunnar Nordahl in midfield after he moved toAC Milan in 1949. In his first match againstAIK he scored three goals, but the Austrian coachKarl Adamek, who was in charge from 1950 forward, moved him back into the defence where he should excel. In those years Norrköping won the Swedish championship of the years 1948, 1852 and 1956 and reached thecup final of 1953.
In October 1951, Gustavsson debuted in thenational team at their defeat againstDenmark in Copenhagen. This was the last match of the1948-51 Nordic Football Championship, which Sweden nevertheless finished as winner. In the following year he participated with Sweden at thefootball tournament of the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki.[5] After losing in the semifinals to the ascendingGolden Team ofHungary with 0–6 Sweden won the bronze medal, winning the third place match againstGermany with 2–0.[2] In 1953 Gustavsson was awarded theGuldbollen, theGolden Ball as Swedish footballer of the year.[4]
In 1956, Gustavsson joined the Italianfirst division sideAtalanta Bergamo. There he was from the beginning asLibero a stalwart of the defence. In 1958 Atalanta was relegated to thesecond division, but returned to the Serie A the season after under coach Karl Adamek, who was in charge of the team for a year.
In 1958 Gustavsson was nominated for the campaign of national team in theWorld Cup 1958 in Sweden, and was there part of the standard formation alongsideNils Liedholm, Lennart Skoglund and Kurt Hamrin who then also plied their trade in Italy. Losing toBrazil in the final 2–5 nevertheless secured the Swedes the best result in any World Cup.
After the season 1960–62, Gustavsson returned to Sweden and joined then second division sideÅtvidabergs FF. In June 1963 her played his 57th and last match for Sweden in a qualifying match for the1964 European Nations' Cup in Belgrade againstYugoslavia, which ended in a 0–0 draw. On club level he was player-manager from 1964 on. He finished his career as a player in 1965, but remained at the helm of the south Swedish club.
In 1967, he led the club for the only second time in its history – since a brief stint in 1951–52 – into the Swedish first division, theAllsvenskan, which was the beginning of the golden era of Åtvidabergs FF. He remained coach of the club until 1970, when the team defeatedSandvikens IF fromUppsala with 2–0 in the cup final and won its first national title.[4] Until 1973 three more titles should follow. Players likeConny Torstensson andBenno Magnusson are amongst the better known ones which Gustavsson integrated into the time during his time in Åtvidaberg.
From 1971 to 1972, Gustavsson had a brief spell as coach of the Swedish national youth team. In further years he was to coachÖsters IF from 1973 to 1974, from 1975 to 1978 and in 1985 as assistant IFK Norrköping,[6] from 1979 until 1981Hammarby IF and from 1982 to 1983 second division sideIK Sleipner, which was relegated in 1983.
As player:
As manager:
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