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Werner Nilsen

Norwegian American soccer player (1904-1992)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 27, 2026
Entity authorityQ2626637
Source-derived summary

Werner "Scotty" Nilsen (February 4, 1904 – May 10, 1992) was a soccer player who played as a forward. He is one of the highest scoring players in United States soccer history, scoring 131 goals in 239 games with the Boston Soccer Club. He won five consecutive National Challenge Cups during his career, and four doubles. Born in Norway, he earned two caps with the United States national team in 1934. He is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

Club career

Early career

Nilsen played for Norwegian club Skiens Grane before moving to the United States in 1923. When he arrived, he settled in Boston where he began playing for local amateur and semi-professional soccer teams including the Norwegian-Americans and Hub F.C., both in the Boston and District League.

Boston

In 1926, Nilsen signed with the Boston Soccer Club of the American Soccer League (ASL). At the time, the ASL was establishing itself as one of the top leagues, both nationally and internationally, and the Wonder Workers were a rising team in the league. Nilsen began as a right half, then moved into the front line as either a center forward or right inside.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Werner Nilsen” as norwegian American soccer player (1904-1992). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1904, 1992, 1934, 1923—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1904-02-04, 1904-02-24—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. The account is most persuasive where Werner, Nilsen and Norwegian can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as norwegian American soccer player (1904-1992). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2626637. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1904, 1992, 1934 and 1923.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Werner Nilsen”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Werner Nilsen primary sources, Werner Nilsen archive and Werner research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Werner Nilsen”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Werner Nilsen” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.