Hans Nell

Nell was born and grew up in Upplands Väsby and started to play football with local club Väsby IK as a youngster, before joining Stockholm-based Hammarby IF in 1950, at age 18.^[2]

In his first seasons with the club, Nell established himself as a starting midfielder for Hammarby in Division 2, Sweden's second tier. By 1954, when Hammarby won a promotion to Allsvenskan, Nell had started to struggle in the competition and manager Folke Adamsson subsequently started to play him as a right back.^[3]

The re-positioning proved to be successful; he won three caps for the Swedish national B team between 1954 and 1957, and got known as an aggressive and quick defender.^[1][4] During the later stages of his career, Nell also featured as a centre-back.^[5]

He went on to play seven nine seasons with Hammarby in Allsvenskan, mostly as a regular.^[6] In 1957–58, Hammarby spent one year in the second tier, where the team scored an impressive 117 goals in 33 fixtures throughout the season, getting instantly promoted.^[7] They also competed in the second division in 1964, a season when Nell was plagued by injuries.^[8]

Nell decided to retire after the 1965 Allsvenskan season.^[9] In total, he made 243 league appearances for Hammarby and scored 13 goals.^[6]