Football legend was 89 years old
DFB nightmare Kurt Hamrin is dead
Kurt Hamrin celebrated his greatest successes in Italy, where he is still the record goalscorer for AC Florence. He reached the final of the 1958 World Cup with the Swedish national team – by defeating the German team, whose fans made Hamrin the villain.
Swedish football is mourning the loss of its legend Kurt “Kurre” Hamrin. The former winger died at the age of 89, according to a statement from his former club AC Florence. Hamrin became known to a wider German audience at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden – and became a bogeyman for many German fans.
The attacker was one of the outstanding players at the tournament in Sweden, scoring a total of four goals and leading the hosts to the runner-up spot in the World Cup. In the final, Hamrin's team lost 2:5 to Brazil, with 17-year-old Pelé adding the final goal shortly before the end. In Germany, however, the focus was mainly on the semi-final, which the DFB team lost 1:3 (1:1) in Gothenburg despite leading 1:0. The Germans felt disadvantaged by the referee and even spoke of a scandalous match.
Hamrin in 1970 on an away trip with SSC Napoli.
(Photo: IMAGO/piemags)
Hamrin scored the decisive goal in front of almost 50,000 spectators in the Ullevi Stadium – and provoked the sending off of Erich Juskowiak after just under an hour. From the perspective of the German audience, this red card was the cause of the defeat, which dashed the reigning world champions' hopes of successfully defending their title. In the match for third place, the DFB team lost 3:6 to France, with Just Fontaine scoring his 10th to 13th goals and thus still holds the record for the most goals at a World Cup.
For Hamrin, the World Cup in his home country was the highlight of his surprisingly short national team career – because he was active in Italy for a long time, he only played 32 times for Sweden and scored 16 goals. “Kurre” also played twice for the Swedish national ice hockey team, but then decided to play football. Like many other Swedes, he moved to Italy, coming from AIK Solna to Juventus Turin in 1956. Via Calcio Padova he came to AC Florence, for whom he scored 208 goals in 362 competitive matches – to this day, no one has scored more goals for Fiorentina.
Because of his light-footed style of play, Hamrin was also called “the little bird” (Italian: l'uccellino). From Florence he moved to AC Milan and then to SSC Napoli, before ending his career at IFK Stockholm in Sweden. With Milan, Hamrin won the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1967, became Italian champion in 1968 and won the European Cup, the predecessor of the Champions League, in 1969. Hamrin also led Fiorentina to the Cup Winners' Cup (1961), to two victories in the Italian Cup (1961 and 1965) and to the Mitropa Cup title (1966).
