Kenneth Ohlsson
Kenneth Ohlsson
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Kenneth Ohlsson

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Kenneth Ohlsson

Lars Kenneth "Kenta" Ohlsson (born 7 September 1948) is a Swedish former football player and manager. He represented Hammarby IF throughout his whole playing career, as a one club man, and holds the club record for most league appearances in total (396). Ohlsson also made one appearance for Sweden, in 1978.

Kenneth Ohlsson was born in Stockholm and grew up in the suburb of Bagarmossen, together with his younger brother Billy Ohlsson who later would become a footballer. His neighbour Olle Nyström, who was a player for Hammarby IF, convinced him to join the club's youth setup in the late 1950s.

In 1966, Ohlsson made his debut for the senior team, at age 17, in Division 2, Sweden's second tier. He soon broke into the side as a regular, playing with the likes of Lennart Skoglund and Tom Turesson, and Hammarby won a promotion to Allsvenskan the same year. He made his debut in Allsvenskan in 1967, playing all but three league fixtures throughout the campaign, but Hammarby finished at the foot of the table and suffered an immediate relegation.

The upcoming two seasons, Hammarby fought for a promotion from the second division. In 1969, Ohlsson scored 12 goals for Hammarby, of which in each of the two successful Allsvenskan qualification games against Sandåkerns SK and Helsingborgs IF. Ohlsson returned to the top tier with Hammarby in 1970, where he would compete for the rest of his career. Hammarby surprisingly finished 5th in the table same year, as Ohlsson had re-positioned himself from playing as a forward to a central midfielder. He got known as a hard-working and technically gifted playmaker with a strong passing game, also being a set piece-specialist.

Ohlsson was a regular member of Sweden's under 19 and under 21 sides up until 1973. By then, his younger brother Billy Ohlsson had been promoted to Hammarby's first team, and the two would go on to form a fruitful partnership in the offensive play. Kenneth Ohlsson grew out to become the club's star player, together with goalkeeper Ronnie Hellström, but Hammarby would fail to produce any sort of challenge for the Allsvenskan title in the upcoming years.

He scored a career-best tally of 13 goals in Allsvenskan 1976. A year later, in 1977 Hammarby reached the final of Svenska Cupen, the main domestic cup, but lost 0–1 to Östers IF. On 19 April 1978, Ohlsson won his only cap for the Sweden national team in a 3–1 friendly win against West Germany. Many pundits thought that Ohlsson would get called up to the 1978 FIFA World Cup the same summer, but manager Georg Ericson ultimately left him out of the squad. The decision was met with much disappointment from Ohlsson, who had sought a move to a club abroad to play professionally.

In 1980, Hammarby finished 6th in Allsvenskan, their best result in ten years. With players like Klas Johansson, Mats Werner, Thom Åhlund, Thomas Dennerby, Michael Andersson, Ulf Eriksson and Mikael Rönnberg – Hammarby started to establish themselves as a contender for the Allsvenskan title the upcoming seasons. Ohlsson later said:

The football we played in Hammarby around 1980... It did not exist in Sweden before we invented it. A completely superior attacking football.

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