Zlatan Ibrahimovic recently announced that he was looking to sign another contract at Milan, in his 40th year, having led the line alongside Olivier Giroud as the Rossoneri lead the Serie A table and look for a first Serie A win since 2011. He has helped the cause with more than just his eight goals this season; he is an icon, a gravitational presence that inspires and intimidates in equal measure. But he is far from the first Swede to make his way to the San Siro, and in the minds of many, he may not even be the best.
Gre-No-Li, not a breakfast cereal, was the nickname of the Swedish attacking trio of Gunnar Gren, Gunnar Nordahl, and Nils Liedholm. Their legend as a front line began in 1948, but they had spectacularly successful careers separately in Sweden before that. Liedholm scored 46 goals in 108 games for IFK Norrkoping and IK Sleipner in the decade that led his nation to the 1948 Olympics, Gunnar Gren scored 95 in just over 200 appearances for Garda BK and IFK Goteborg. Gunnar Nordahl was the star, with 149 goals in 172 games for Degerfors IF and then IFK Norrkoping. Norrkoping won 4 league titles between 1945 and 1948, with Nordahl and Liedholm dominating. And when the Second World War had ended and the London Olympics came around, Sweden were able to put all three of them together. That’s where the magic happened.
To say that Sweden won Gold convincingly would be an understatement. This was a time when Olympic football was still held in much higher regard than it is now, and coming from an amateur league while most of Europe and South America were professionalising made them something of an unknown quantity, but definitely underdogs. But they blew away all of their opponents, scoring 22 goals in just four games, including the 12-0 demolition of South Korea at Selhurst Park. Nordahl was top scorer for the tournament with seven goals, and European giants came looking for some easy pickings from the Swedish league to bolster their sides. But it wasn’t Milan who pounced quickest.
Juventus and Inter were the dominant forces in Italy, and it was the Old Lady who made the first approach for Nordahl. But they also made approaches for a number of players who had starred at the Olympics, and en route to Turin the Swede discovered that Juventus had signed the Danish forward Johannes Ploger. Not wanting to play second-fiddle, he joined Milan instead, where he carried his impressive Olympic form into the 1948-49 season. Milan finished third, behind city rivals Inter and the other Turin side, Torino, but things were about to change. Nordahl convinced his club to sign Gren and Liedholm, and with the Gre-No-Li reunited, Milan were ready to compete for the title for the first time in over four decades.
The 1949-50 season was one of huge upheaval in Italian football, and huge disappointment for the Rossoneri. The Superga Air Disaster, just before the start of the season, saw a plane crash into the Basilica of Superga. The plane was carrying the Torino football team, who had been so strong up to that point in their history that they were nicknamed Grande Torino. All passengers on the plane died, and Torino have never been able to recover their position in Italian football. The season went ahead as planned, but Torino were clearly unable to compete for the Scudetto, giving Milan a tragic opportunity to end their barren run.
Nordahl was the out-and-out striker, leading the line and scoring the goals, while Gren took his place as an incisive inside forward. Sitting behind them, as an advanced playmaker, was the youngest of the trio, Nils Liedholm. Over the course of the season, he became a role model for midfielders across Europe, with his ability to dictate play and spot a pass. He was the pendulum that made Milan tick. But more than that, his influence impacted the professionalism of footballers. Where most would enjoy their life away from the training ground, drinking and smoking among other, less savoury, pursuits, Liedholm spent his time in recovery or at the running track, improving his fitness so that he would always be able to make that final run at the end of the game.
This season was to be Nordahl’s finest, scoring 35 goals in a league in which it was notoriously difficult to find the net. It was a record that would stand for 65 years, until Gonzalo Higuain scored 36 in 2015-16. But for Milan as a club it would end in disappointment. Despite smashing Juventus 7-1, their game management was generally poor, as evidenced by a 6-5 defeat to Inter, a game in which they had led 4-1. Their inconsistency eventually handed Juventus the title, with Nordahl’s Capocannoniere the only consolation (Nordahl would go on to win the top scorer award five times, a record as yet unmatched.)
The 1950-51 season would be different, however, although it went right down to the wire. Nordahl was in impressive form once more, with 34 goals, and Liedholm so imperious that he earned the nickname Il Professor, dictating Milan’s attacking play like never before. The side scored 107 goals as they pulled away from Juventus, but Inter just would not drop points. On the final day of the season, Milan lead their city rivals by a point, needing only to win to secure their first Scudetto for 44 years. But Lazio were not easy opponents, and were determined to spoil the party. A close game finished 2-1 to the side from Rome, and Milan’s players waited nervously for news from Inter’s game against Torino. When that score came through, the players erupted into celebration. Inter had lost by the same scoreline, and the title was theirs.
This would prove to be the high point for Gre-No-Li, with Gunnar Gren joining Fiorentina the following season. Nordahl and Liedholm continued their impressive form, but Inter and Juventus forced their way back to the top of Italian football. In 1955, they led Milan to another Scudetto, before Nordahl left for Roma, where he continued to add goals. He still stands as Italian football’s third highest goalscorer of all time, behind the legendary figures of Silvio Piola and Francesco Totti. Liedholm remained at Milan until 1961, reaching the European Cup Final in 1958 and adding two more Scudetto to Milan’s trophy cabinet.
The idea that Milan would spend the second half of the twentieth century right at the top of Italian football, and go into the new millennium as the dominant force, was something that would have seemed fanciful before 1950. But all of that dominance can be traced back to the revolution that Gre-No-Li started, laying the groundwork for one of Europe’s most successful ever sides.
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