Guldbollen (Golden Ball) is a Swedish football award given by Aftonbladet and the Swedish Football Association to the best male Swedish footballer each year.

History

The award was created by Bengt Liljedahl^[1] and between 1946 and 1965 it was awarded in cooperation with Stockholms-Tidningen.^[2]

The first Guldbollen award was given in 1946 to Gunnar Gren.^[3] In 1973, Bo Larsson of Malmö FF became the first player to win the award for a second time, having previously won it in 1965. Zlatan Ibrahimović is the only player to win the award more than twice, winning it twelve times between 2005 and 2020.^[4]

The female equivalent of the award, Diamantbollen, was established in 1990. Both Guldbollen and Diamantbollen are now awarded at the Fotbollsgalan.

Winners

Year	Player	Club(s)
1946	Gunnar Gren	IFK Göteborg
1947	Gunnar Nordahl	IFK Norrköping
1948	Bertil Nordahl	Degerfors IF
1949	Knut Nordahl	IFK Norrköping
1950	Erik Nilsson	Malmö FF
1951	Olle Åhlund	Degerfors IF
1952	Kalle Svensson	Helsingborgs IF
1953	Bengt Gustavsson	IFK Norrköping
1954	Sven-Ove Svensson	Helsingborgs IF
1955	Gösta Löfgren	Motala AIF
1956	Gösta Sandberg	Djurgårdens IF
1957	Åke Johansson	IFK Norrköping
1958	Orvar Bergmark	Örebro SK
1959	Agne Simonsson	Örgryte IS
1960	Torbjörn Jonsson	IFK Norrköping
1961	Bengt Nyholm	IFK Norrköping
1962	Prawitz Öberg	Malmö FF
1963	Harry Bild	IFK Norrköping
1964	Hans Mild	Djurgårdens IF
1965	Bo Larsson	Malmö FF
1966	Ove Kindvall	IFK Norrköping Feyenoord
1967	Ingvar Svahn	Malmö FF
1968	Björn Nordqvist	IFK Norrköping
1969	Tommy Svensson	Östers IF
1970	Jan Olsson	VfB Stuttgart
1971	Ronnie Hellström	Hammarby IF
1972	Ralf Edström	Åtvidabergs FF
1973	Bo Larsson (2)	Malmö FF
1974	Ralf Edström (2)	PSV Eindhoven
1975	Kent Karlsson	Åtvidabergs FF
1976	Anders Linderoth	Östers IF
1977	Roy Andersson	Malmö FF
1978	Ronnie Hellström (2)	1. FC Kaiserslautern
1979	Jan Möller	Malmö FF
1980	Rolf Zetterlund	IK Brage
1981	Thomas Ravelli	Östers IF
1982	Torbjörn Nilsson	IFK Göteborg 1. FC Kaiserslautern
1983	Glenn Hysén	IFK Göteborg PSV Eindhoven
1984	Sven Dahlkvist	AIK
1985	Glenn Strömberg	Atalanta
1986	Robert Prytz	Young Boys
1987	Peter Larsson	IFK Göteborg Ajax
1988	Glenn Hysén (2)	Fiorentina
1989	Jonas Thern	Malmö FF Benfica
1990	Tomas Brolin	IFK Norrköping Parma
1991	Anders Limpar	Arsenal
1992	Jan Eriksson	IFK Norrköping 1. FC Kaiserslautern
1993	Martin Dahlin	Borussia Mönchengladbach
1994	Tomas Brolin (2)	Parma
1995	Patrik Andersson	Borussia Mönchengladbach
1996	Roland Nilsson	Helsingborgs IF
1997	Pär Zetterberg	Anderlecht
1998	Henrik Larsson	Celtic
1999	Stefan Schwarz	Valencia Sunderland
2000	Magnus Hedman	Coventry City
2001	Patrik Andersson (2)	Bayern Munich Barcelona
2002	Freddie Ljungberg	Arsenal
2003	Olof Mellberg	Aston Villa
2004	Henrik Larsson (2)	Celtic Barcelona
2005	Zlatan Ibrahimović	Juventus
2006	Freddie Ljungberg (2)	Arsenal
2007	Zlatan Ibrahimović (2)	Internazionale
2008	Zlatan Ibrahimović (3)	Internazionale
2009	Zlatan Ibrahimović (4)	Internazionale Barcelona
2010	Zlatan Ibrahimović (5)	Barcelona Milan
2011	Zlatan Ibrahimović (6)	Milan
2012	Zlatan Ibrahimović (7)	Milan Paris Saint-Germain
2013	Zlatan Ibrahimović (8)	Paris Saint-Germain
2014	Zlatan Ibrahimović (9)	Paris Saint-Germain
2015	Zlatan Ibrahimović (10)	Paris Saint-Germain
2016	Zlatan Ibrahimović (11)	Paris Saint-Germain Manchester United
2017	Andreas Granqvist	Krasnodar
2018	Victor Lindelöf	Manchester United
2019	Victor Lindelöf (2)	Manchester United
2020	Zlatan Ibrahimović (12)	Milan
2021	Emil Forsberg	RB Leipzig
2022	Dejan Kulusevski	Tottenham Hotspur
2023	Dejan Kulusevski	Tottenham Hotspur

Source:^[5]

By club

Club	Wins
IFK Norrköping	11
Malmö FF	8
Paris Saint-Germain	5
Barcelona	4
IFK Göteborg	4
Milan	4
Arsenal	3
Helsingborgs IF	3
Internazionale	3
1. FC Kaiserslautern	3
Manchester United	3
Östers IF	3
Borussia Mönchengladbach	2
Celtic	2
Degerfors IF	2
Djurgårdens IF	2
Parma	2
PSV Eindhoven	2
Tottenham Hotspur	2
Åtvidabergs FF	2
AIK	1
Ajax	1
Anderlecht	1
Aston Villa	1
Atalanta	1
Bayern Munich	1
Benfica	1
IK Brage	1
Coventry City	1
Fiorentina	1
Hammarby IF	1
Juventus	1
RB Leipzig	1
VfB Stuttgart	1
Sunderland	1
Valencia	1
Young Boys	1
Örebro SK	1
Örgryte IS	1
Krasnodar	1