gais football
Gais Football
In 1909, the football section got a boost when Frigga’s football team (including the brothers Victor and Joel Björkman) joined Gais Football. Gai’s football team was led by Joel Björkman, who was a real strategist on the field and was appointed both team captain and board member. The 1915/1916 season was a breakthrough for the club. The national team was invited to meet Djurgården in Stockholm on August 16, 1915, and despite the Stockholmers winning 4-2, the match led to Gais fc being invited to play in the Swedish series. In addition to the Björkman brothers, Gais played profiles such as Fridolf Jonsson and Fritiof Hillén, who in 1917 became the team’s first national team member. In 1915, Albert “Abben” Olsson also made his debut in Gais Football, and the following year Nils Karlsson. Although Gais Football finished in fourth place (among a total of six teams), it was not allowed to continue in the series because they wanted a maximum of two teams from the same city in the league. And since IFK Gothenburg and Örgryte were already there, Gais had to quit. During the hard war year 1918, all comics were down.
At the same time, the time around the end of the First World War was also the beginning of Gai’s heyday, where the club until the mid – 1930s had 27 players in the national team. After the war, ordinary teams could be drafted again, and Ullevi was also given access. In 1919, FCGais became Swedish champion in football for the first time by winning the Swedish championship. In the final, the favorite Djurgården was defeated 4-1 at Stockholm’s stadium. Hill Hillen on the left side and the 18-year-old right-hander Rune Wenzel and the game organizer “Abben” Olsson formed the backbone of the team. In 1922, Gais won his second Swedish Championship gold, also this time at Stockholm’s stadium. Now the team has been strengthened in the form of Douglas Krook (from Jonsered) and center half Gunnar Holmberg. From 1921 until the start of the Allsvenskan in 1924, Gais Fotboll also got to participate in the Swedish series again where the team came 2nd (21/22), 1st (22/23) and 2nd (23/24).
