Torbjörn Nilsson

Nilsson in 2014
Personal information
Full name	Torbjörn Anders Nilsson
Date of birth	(1954-07-09)9 July 1954 (age 71)
Place of birth	Västerås, Sweden
Height	1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)
Position	Forward
Youth career
1966–1970	Jonsereds IF
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1971–1974	Jonsereds IF	80	(50)
1975–1976	IFK Göteborg	49	(34)
1976–1977	PSV Eindhoven	11	(2)
1977–1982	IFK Göteborg	114	(62)
1982–1984	1. FC Kaiserslautern	65	(22)
1984–1986	IFK Göteborg	49	(31)
1986–1990	Jonsereds IF	40	(14)
Total		408	(215)
International career
1975–1980	Sweden U21	8	(2)
1976–1985	Sweden	28	(9)
Managerial career
1988–1990	Jonsereds IF
1991–1993	Örgryte IS
1994–1995	IK Oddevold
1997–1999	Västra Frölunda IF
2001	BK Häcken
2002–2004	Sweden U-21
2008–2013	Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC
2017	IFK Göteborg (assistant coach)
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Torbjörn Anders Nilsson (born 9 July 1954) is a Swedish formerfootball player and manager. Aforward, he is considered one of the best Swedish footballers of all time. He is best remembered for his time withIFK Göteborg with which he won twoSwedish championship titles, the1981–82 UEFA Cup, and reached the semi-finals of the1985–86 European Cup. He also representedPSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands and1. FC Kaiserslautern in Germany during a career that spanned between 1971 and 1990. A full international between 1976 and 1985, he won 28caps for theSweden national team and scored nine goals. He represented his country at the1978 FIFA World Cup and was the 1982 recipient ofGuldbollen.

Nilsson was born inVästerås on 9 July 1954, and raised inHallstahammar. He and his family (father Göte, mother Daisy, the brothers Rolf and Bosse and sister Rose-Marie) moved toPartille, outsideGothenburg, before he started school, and he began his footballing career inJonsereds IF at the age of seven or eight.^[1] Nilsson joinedIFK Göteborg for the 1975 season, and helped the club climb back to the top tier of Swedish football,Allsvenskan, by winningDivision 2 in 1976.^[2] He tried his luck abroad withPSV Eindhoven, but returned to IFK after only one season. He then helped the team to atreble in 1982, theSwedish championship (IFK won bothAllsvenskan and the title-deciding play-off),Svenska Cupen, and theUEFA Cup. He was awardedGuldbollen, the Swedish footballer of the year award, for his heroics.

Nilsson moved toKaiserslautern inGermany, where he played two seasons, and was about to move toBenfica when his former Göteborg managerSven-Göran Eriksson left that club.^[1] Instead, Nilsson moved home to Gothenburg and his former club. When he ended his playing career after three seasons due to knee problems,^[3] Nilsson had led the club to another Swedish Championship, and nearly aEuropean Cup final in 1986. IFK was eliminated byFC Barcelona after having won the home leg 3–0. They lost the away match by the same score. Nilsson still regrets not taking a penalty in the ensuingpenalty shootout,^[1] which forced two young and inexperienced players —Roland Nilsson andPer Edmund Mordt — to the spot. Both missed their penalties.

It is a mystery to a lot of Swedes how Nilsson with all his talent never really made it big when playing for PSV and Kaiserslautern, but according to himself he was too shy to make it in those rougher top club environments.^[4]

Despite Nilsson's so-so stays abroad, and his short career in theSweden national team – for whom he played only 28 matches and scored nine goals – he is considered to be one of the greatest Swedish footballers of all time.^[5][6] He declined to play for the national team for four years in the early 1980s when he was at his prime, the most important reason for this was that Nilsson not felt comfortable in the national team and the coachLars Arnesson, who mixtured a lot with different formations, which did not suit the playing style that Nilsson liked.^[6] He instead concentrated on his club team, but made a comeback in the national team in 1984, scoring a goal in the 3–1 win againstPortugal in the1986 World Cup qualification. Nilsson was elected to the Swedish footballHall of Fame in 2003.

In a March 2020 Sky Sports interview,Sven-Göran Eriksson said that Nilsson was the best striker he had ever managed.^[7]

After ending his professional playing career, Torbjörn Nilsson acted as playing manager for his youth club Jonsereds IF,^[3] before becoming manager ofÖrgryte IS, then inDivision 1, in 1991. The club was relegated toDivision 2, but managed to advance two divisions into Allsvenskan the next year, thanks to the Swedish league system at the time. The luck did not last, however, and Örgryte was relegated from the highest league in 1993. Nilsson moved toIK Oddevold fromUddevalla, and brought the club to Allsvenskan for the first time in its history in 1995. He left his job after the season and did not take a new one for a year.

He then took the job as manager ofVästra Frölunda IF in 1997, and for the third time coached a team to a promotion to Allsvenskan. He stayed as manager for Västra Frölunda for two seasons and led the club to a fifth and seventh place, the two best seasonal results the club has enjoyed. He took another one-year break before starting his fourth spell as manager for a Gothenburg club,BK Häcken, in 2001. He only stayed for one year, not being able to keep the club in the highest league. Instead he became the manager of theSweden under-21 team, leading the team through a successful qualification to the2004 UEFA U-21 Championship, where the team narrowly lost the semi-final and third place matches after penalty shootouts andextra time, respectively. He did not coach any team between 2004 and 2008, but then resumed his managerial career in Gothenburg's best women's team,Kopparbergs/Göteborg FC.

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

List of international goals scored by Torbjörn Nilsson

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition	Ref.
1	11 August 1976	Malmö Stadium,Malmö, Sweden	Finland	5–0	6–0	1972–77 Nordic Football Championship	[10]
2	28 June 1978	Ryavallen,Örebro, Sweden	Finland	1–0	2–1	1978–80 Nordic Football Championship	[11]
3	14 November 1979	Merdeka Stadium,Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Malaysia	1–0	3–1	Friendly	[12]
4	17 November 1979	National Stadium, Singapore	Singapore	1–0	5–0	Friendly	[13]
5				4–0
6				5–0
7	28 February 1981	Lahtis Storhall,Lahti, Finland	Norway	1–2	4–2	Friendly	[14]
8	1 March 1981	Lahtis Storhall, Lahti, Finland	Finland	1–2	1–2	Friendly	[15]
9	14 November 1984	Alvalade Stadium,Lisbon, Portugal	Portugal	3–1	3–1	1986 FIFA World Cup qualifier	[16]

IFK Göteborg

• UEFA Cup:1981–82
• Swedish Champion:1982,1984
• Svenska Cupen:1978–1979,1981–82

Individual

• Guldbollen: 1982
• Allsvenskan top scorer:1981
• European Cup top scorer:1984–85 (7 goals, shared withMichel Platini),1985–86 (7 goals)
• UEFA Cup top scorer:1981–82 (9 goals)
• Årets ärkeängel: 1979^[17]

• Swedish men's footballers
• Swedish expatriate men's footballers
• Allsvenskan players
• IFK Göteborg players
• PSV Eindhoven players
• 1. FC Kaiserslautern players
• Bundesliga players
• Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands
• Expatriate men's footballers in Germany
• 1978 FIFA World Cup players
• Swedish football managers
• Örgryte IS managers
• BK Häcken managers
• Footballers from Gothenburg
• Footballers from Västerås
• 1954 births
• Living people
• Sweden men's international footballers
• IK Oddevold managers
• Men's association football forwards
• UEFA Europa League–winning players
• UEFA Champions League top scorers
• 20th-century Swedish sportsmen

• CS1 Swedish-language sources (sv)
• CS1 German-language sources (de)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from September 2025
• Ifkdb template using Wikidata property P11905