Dan Ekner

Daniel Heimer " Dan " Ekner ( born July 5, 1927 in Gothenburg, † April 17, 1975 ) was a Swedish football player. The striker was characterized as a globetrotter and played in England, France, Italy, the United States, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands.

Career

Ekner began his football career at the Gothenburg club Örgryte IS. From the time of his second division, he moved in 1946 to IS Halmia in the Allsvenskan. In Halmstad he only stayed one season and returned back to Gothenburg in 1947, to join the IFK Göteborg. On the side of the national player Gunnar Gren and Arne Nyberg he reached midfield places with the team. In the summer of 1949, he toured with a team under the name Kamraterna FC by the United States.

1949 Ekner went to Britain to study economics. In the autumn he received an offer of Portsmouth, to compete for the club in the First Division. Between November and December of that year he ran to the side of Jimmy Dickinson, Peter Harris, Jack Froggatt, Jimmy Scoular and Reg Flewin in five league games on, where he remained without a goal. He was the first to Swede in the English Premier League at the second win of the English league title in the club's history. Whether he finished his studies is not known, but he ran the following summer on the French club Olympique Marseille. On the side of his compatriots Gunnar Johansson and Gunnar Andersson he came in 27 games for use and was prolific with eight goals this season than during his stay in England.

Ekner stayed only one season in France and moved to Italy, where were already a number of compatriots such as Nils Liedholm, Bror Mellberg or Bertil and Gunnar Nordahl under contract. New employer Ekners was Fiorentina, where he was the first Swede in the club's history. With ten goals this season he wore in his first year with the club to fourth place in Serie A. Having only one scoring it was granted in the following season, he moved to league rivals SPAL, where he ran aground another season in Serie A and scored five goals in 31 games.

After a total of 91 games in Serie A left Ekner 1954 Italy. Then he returned to the United States, where he joined the Chicago Vikings. After a year he returned to Europe and hired at Atlético Madrid, where he came to the side of players like Adrián Escudero or Enrique Collar for use. Again, he only stayed one season and then moved to Rot-Weiss Essen. In 1958 he moved on to PSV Eindhoven, where he was next to Trevor Ford and Steve Mokone one of the first foreigners of the club. In 1960 he returned to Sweden and let the finish career at Västra Frölunda IF and Örgryte IS.

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