I know the match results already. What puzzles me is that I haven't heard much about the individual players. Obviously this team either had great talent or just meshed at the right time (I don't want this to become a debate about the positive effects of hosting, even tho there's obviously some sort of relationship). Anyhow, who were Sweden's key players, where did they play their club ball, and how were their club teams during this period?
Sweden's 1958 team had many great stars who made huge impact especially in Italian football. Any veteran Italian football fan can testify to that. Kurt Hamrin, all-time topscorer in Fiorentina until Batistuta beat his record by a single goal, played in 1958 and scored a classic goal dribbling his way from the cornerflag before scoring from virtually no angle against West Germany in the semifinal. There was also Gunnar Gren nicknamed "il professore" in AC Milan probably because of his baldness. Superb player. He was 37 years old in 1958, but still great. He was one third of the "Gre-No-Li" Swedish trio which dominated in AC Milan in the 1950s. "LI" was Nils Liedholm who spent 12 seasons at AC Milan winning a number of Italian championships. "NO" was Gunnar Nordahl, but he didn't play in 1958 (Serie A's second best goalscorer of all time and arguably the greatest of all foreign AC Milan legends). There was also the very skillful Lennart Skoglund, who also played in Brazil 1950 when Sweden won bronze medals. He too spent more than a decade in Italy for clubs like Inter and Sampdoria and won titles there. Sweden's team had great stars, but Pele's emergence has overshadowed everything. People might wonder why Sweden failed to qualify for World Cups around that era and the solution is simple. The Swedish football federation boycotted all players who played abroad for a number of years after WW II and up to 1958. Foreign based players were regarded as traitors to the Swedish game, but when Sweden was awarded the 1958 tournament, the federation knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to promote Swedish football and all the Italian based players, most of them now ageing, were called back after much debate. 1954 should have been Sweden's best year, but wasn't because of the boycott. 1962 was too late for their golden generation.
Thanks, Bauser. I had also wondered why Sweden hadn't been heard from in previous Cups, but you answered that one as well.