19 October: Nordahl, Milan's all-time top scorer
Gunnar Nordahl
«il Pompiere»
- Degerfors IF 1940-1944 · 56 goals
- IFK Norrköping FK 1944-1949 · 93 goals
- A.C. Milan 1949-1956 · 210 goals
- A.S. Roma 1956-1958 · 15 goals
- Karlstad BK 1959-1961 · 11 goals
Fireman and Olympic champion
In Sweden football was amateur, and Nordahl, as well as scoring goals by the bucketload for IFK Norrköping, worked as a fireman. In 1948 he was Sweden's top scorer at the London Olympics, where they won gold.
The following year he joined Milan. Once he turned professional, the Swedish federation stopped selecting him: the rules of the time only allowed amateurs to play for the national team, which is why he missed the 1950 World Cup.
Gre-No-Li
At Milan he was joined by two other Swedish Olympic champions, Gunnar Gren and Nils Liedholm. From the first syllables of their surnames the Italians christened them Gre-No-Li, and the trio became a legend. With them Milan won the 1951 league title, their first in forty-four years.
Nordahl was Serie A's top scorer in five seasons. He left Milan with 221 goals, a record that not even Shevchenko, born on 29 September and second on the list, ever threatened.
🔴⚪ Sporting Gijón players born this day
They played for Sporting Gijón and were born on this same day. There is only their data here: we would rather name them than leave them out, and rather give the bare facts than invent a story.
Guillermo de Amores 🔴⚪
- Liverpool Fútbol Club 2011-2017
- Fluminense Football Club 2018-2019
- Boston River S.A.D. 2019-2020
- Centro Atlético Fénix 2020
- Deportivo Cali 2021-2022
- Club Atlético Lanús 2022-2023
Ovidio Bango Cuervo 🔴⚪
- Real Sporting de Gijón
- Unió Esportiva Figueres
Another 46 internationally known footballers were born on this day. We do not list them for the sake of it: only those with a story to tell make it here.
📅 The almanac: pick any date
Every day of the year has its story. Highlighted days are already out: click to see who was born or what happened on that date. The faded ones go live on their day, at midnight (Spain time). 33 published.
Football almanac · Elopi23
January
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February
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March
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April
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May
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June
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July
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August
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September14 ★
- 11 September: Ruud Gullit
- 1111 September: Franz Beckenbauer
- 1818 September: Ronaldo
- 2020 September: Henrik Larsson
- 2121 September: Sándor Kocsis
- 2222 September: Thiago Silva
- 2323 September: Quini
- 2424 September: Marco Tardelli
- 2525 September: Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
- 2626 September: Michael Ballack
- 2727 September: Francesco Totti
- 2828 September: Javi Poves
- 2929 September: Andriy Shevchenko
- 3030 September: Frank Rijkaard
October19 ★
- 11 October: George Weah
- 22 October: Alisson Becker · Roberto Firmino
- 33 October: Zlatan Ibrahimović
- 44 October: Jorge Valdano
- 55 October: Kopa, Rial, Di Stéfano, Puskás and Gento
- 66 October: Bruce Grobbelaar
- 77 October: Diego Costa
- 88 October: Zvonimir Boban
- 99 October: Gheorghe Popescu
- 1010 October: Tony Adams
- 1111 October: Bobby Charlton
- 1212 October: Cristhian Stuani
- 1313 October: Raymond Kopa
- 1414 October: Matt Le Tissier
- 1515 October: Didier Deschamps
- 1616 October: Paulo Roberto Falcão
- 1717 October: Sergio Goycochea
- 1818 October: Julio Olarticoechea
- 1919 October: Gunnar Nordahl
November
Nothing from this month is out yet. One goes live each day, on its own date.
December
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★ published · ✎ written, waiting for their day · the red circle is today
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Dates, clubs, individual awards and photos come from Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons, under free licences, and update themselves. Ages are not written anywhere: they are calculated the moment you open the page, so this page always shows the right age, this year and twenty years from now. If any of these players signs for another club or wins an award, their profile picks it up on its own. What is written by hand is the story and the judgement: who the day belongs to, and why.