- David Nielsen
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David Nielsen 
Personal information Full name David Jean Nielsen Date of birth December 1, 1976 Place of birth Skagen, Denmark Height 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) Playing position Forward Youth career 1982–1992 Skagen 1992–1993 Frederikshavn Senior career* Years Team Apps† (Gls)† 1993–1996 OB 9 (2) 1996 → Lyngby (loan) 13 (10) 1996–1997 Fortuna Düsseldorf 13 (1) 1997–2001 Copenhagen 108 (36) 2000–2001 → Grimsby Town (loan) 16 (5) 2001–2003 Wimbledon 23 (4) 2001–2002 → Norwich City (loan) 26 (8) 2003–2005 AaB 24 (11) 2005–2006 Midtjylland 30 (8) 2006–2007 Start 13 (5) 2007 OB 14 (3) 2008 → Strømsgodset (loan) 23 (9) 2009–2010 Brann 33 (4) 2011 Fyllingen 0 (0) National team 1992 Denmark U16 3 (3) 1991–1992 Denmark U17 21 (14) 1993–1995 Denmark U19 18 (13) 1996–1997 Denmark U21 8 (3) Teams managed 2011 Løv-Ham (assistant) 2011– Nest-Sotra * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 13 July 2011.
† Appearances (Goals).David Jean Nielsen (born 1 December 1976) is a Danish retired football player.
He has played for a number of Danish clubs, as well as Fortuna Düsseldorf in Germany and English clubs Grimsby Town, Wimbledon and Norwich City. His greatest triumph was the 1997 Danish Cup victory, which he won with Danish club F.C. Copenhagen. He played 46 matches and scored 33 goals for various Danish youth national teams between 1992 and 1997, including eight games and three goals for the Denmark national under-21 football team.
Nielsen has attracted controversy at various times in his career for falling into serious gambling debt, assaulting a team mate and then, in November 2008, admitting matchfixing in a Danish game played in 2004.
Contents
Biography
Playing career
Born in Skagen, Nielsen started playing youth football in Skagen IK and Frederikshavn fI. He scored 17 goals in 24 matches for the Danish under-16 and under-17 national teams. He received offers from English club Tottenham Hotspur and Bayern Munich in Germany,[1] but decided to stay in Denmark, as he was brought to OB in the top-flight Danish Superliga in May 1993, 16 years old.[2] Here he became known for his elaborate goal celebration, a round off stretch jump with a backtuck.[1]
He was loaned out to Lyngby FC in January 1996, where he got his national breakthrough with 10 goals in 13 league games. When his Odense contract ran out in the Summer 1996, he moved abroad to play for Fortuna Düsseldorf in the German Bundesliga championship. He did not find playing success with the club, and after half a year in Germany, Nielsen moved back to Denmark to play for F.C. Copenhagen in a DEM 600,000 transfer deal in February 1997.[3] He played three and a half years at F.C. Copenhagen, with whom he won the 1997 Danish Cup. He was club top goalscorer in 1998, 1999 and 2000, and was elected 1999 F.C. Copenhagen Player of the Year.
He was loaned out to English club Grimsby Town in the second tier of English football, the English First Division in October 2000, as Grimsby had a hard time scoring goals.[4] When his loan deal ended in March 2001, Nielsen moved on to English club Wimbledon F.C. on a free transfer. He joined Norwich City F.C. on loan in December 2001, and scored 5 goals in 5 games during his loan spell, prompting Norwich manager Nigel Worthington to pay £210,000 to Wimbledon to secure his services on a permanent basis. Whilst playing for Norwich City he was a member of the team that reached the final of the First Division play-offs in May 2002. However, he was unable to maintain his initial impressive scoring rate and left the club at his own request to return to Denmark in August 2003.
He signed with Superliga club Aalborg BK (AaB), where he rediscovered his goalscoring ability. Following a training ground bust-up with teammate Allan Gaarde in February 2005, David Nielsen was fired by the club. Within days, he was hired by league rivals FC Midtjylland, to replace Egyptian striker Mohamed Zidan. He was let go by FCM in May 2006, and he moved abroad to play for Norwegian club IK Start. He became an immediate hit scoring seven goals in 21 matches, but left the club during the reign of manager Stig Inge Bjørnebye. On 20 July 2007, he signed a 3-year contract with the Danish Superliga side OB. On the 26th of March he went on a loan deal with the Norwegian club Strømsgodset IF, for the rest of 2008.
Nielsen was sold to the Norwegian club Brann as a part of a deal were Njougu Demba Nyren went in the opposite direction in January 2009.[5][6] During his stay in Brann, Nielsen has spent most of his time as a substitute and when he has been playing he have had the role as a facilitator for the other striker Erik Huseklepp.[7] After his contract with Brann expires in June 2010 Nielsen plans to stay in Bergen and together with Per Ove Ludvigsen and Kjetil Knutsen offer organized soccer practice for kids through a company called Max Fotball.[8]
Controversies
By April 2004, David Nielsen and fellow AaB teammate Jimmy Nielsen had raked up a debt of €201,000 with bookmakers in Aalborg.[9] AaB director Lynge Jacobsen decided to help out financially and arranged for gambling addiction counselling.
In his 2008 autobiography, Nielsen admitted playing to deliberately lose a Superliga match between AaB and his former club F.C. Copenhagen in May 2004. As AaB had lost the Danish Cup final to F.C. Copenhagen earlier that year, winning the Superliga would propel F.C. Copenhagen into the UEFA Champions League and hand their UEFA Cup-berth as the Danish Cup winners on to the losing finalists from AaB. Nielsen was also motivated by his gambling debts,[10] as UEFA Cup qualification would wield him a personal DKK300,000 bonus.[11] AaB and F.C. Copenhagen drew the match, and F.C. Copenhagen eventually won the 2003-04 Superliga championship by one point.
In February 2005, Nielsen was sacked by AaB when he physically attacked team-mate Allan Gaarde during a training session, leaving him with a concussion.[9] Nielsen later explained in his autobiography that Gaarde was "pretentious... talking loudly about wine in Italian. "I told him: 'The next time you speak Italian I will break you in half. You're not f***ing Italian - you spent eight months there.' So when he did it again I decided to break his shitting legs like sticks. I jumped at him and bang. Jackpot. Felt good."[9]
During the pre-season of 2010/2011 in a friendly against English side Leeds United he made a 'shocking high-footed' tackle against Scottish winger Robert Snodgrass, who was out injured and missed the start of the campaign. Robert branded the player a 'Silly Boy', after making such a reckless, dangerous tackle in a pre-season friendly. Robert had suffered a serious knee injury and he was lucky to be only injury for a few months, as it was a potentially career threatening injury.
Personal life
He lives in Bergen and offers organized soccer practice for kids through a company called Max Fotball, together with Per Ove Ludvigsen and Kjetil Knutsen.[8]
Career statistics
Season Club Division League Cup Total Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals 1994–95 OB Superliga 8 2 ? ? 8 2 1995–96 1 0 ? ? 1 0 Lyngby BK 13 10 ? ? 13 10 1996–97 Fortuna Düsseldorf Bundesliga 13 1 2 1 15 2 1996–97 FC København Superliga 14 1 ? ? 14 1 1997–98 31 11 ? ? 31 11 1998–99 30 15 ? ? 30 15 1999–00 26 8 ? ? 26 8 2000–01 7 1 ? ? 7 1 2000–01 Grimsby Town First Division 17 5 2 1 19 6 Wimbledon 11 2 0 0 11 2 2001–02 12 2 1 0 13 2 Norwich City 23 8 3 0 26 8 2002–03 33 6 4 0 37 6 2003–04 2 0 1 0 3 0 2003–04 AaB Superliga 24 11 ? ? 24 11 2004–05 16 6 ? ? 16 6 FC Midtjylland 10 2 ? ? 10 2 2005–06 20 6 ? ? 20 6 2006 Start Tippeligaen 13 5 2 3 15 8 2007 8 2 1 1 9 3 2007–08 OB Superliga 14 3 0 0 14 3 2008 Strømsgodset Tippeligaen 23 9 3 2 26 11 2009 Brann 23 4 2 2 25 6 2010 10 0 0 0 10 0 2011 Fyllingen Third Division 0 0 1 0 1 0 Career total 402 120 22 10 424 130 Honours
- Danish Cup: 1997
- 1999 F.C. Copenhagen Player of the Year
Biography
- David Nielsen, "'Sorte Svin'" (black pig), Denmark, 2008
References
- ^ a b Torben Larsen, "Ingen kan juble så smukt", B.T., May 20, 1995
- ^ Leif Rasmussen, "Ob skærer i truppen", Ekstra Bladet, May 4, 1993
- ^ Christian Thye-Petersen, "Skiftedag hos FCK", Jyllands-Posten, February 26, 1997
- ^ Steffen Dam, "En ny start for David Nielsen", Jyllands-Posten, October 12, 2000
- ^ "OB køber Demba-Nyrén // OB Online". Ob.dk. 2009-01-21. http://www.ob.dk/?NewsID=16930. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
- ^ "Sportsklubben Brann - Ekte lidenskap har et navn". Brann.no. http://www.brann.no/index.php?valg=nyhet&nyhet=7203. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
- ^ Pamer, Anders (5 May 2010). "Nielsen legger opp" (in Norwegian). Bergens Tidende (Bergen). http://fotball.bt.no/eliteserien/article168433.ece. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
- ^ a b Pamer, Anders (7 May 2010). "Lanserer private treninger for barn" (in Norwegian). Bergens Tidende (Bergen). http://fotball.bt.no/eliteserien/article168770.ece. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
- ^ a b c "PLANET SOCCER - The Irish Times - Mon, Nov 03, 2008". The Irish Times. 2008-11-03. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2008/1103/1225523317105.html. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
- ^ "The Pink'un". New.pinkun.com. http://new.pinkun.com/content/ncfc/story.aspx?brand=PINKUNOnline&category=Norwich&tBrand=PINKUNOnline&tCategory=Norwich&itemid=NOED03%20Nov%202008%2010%3A02%3A22%3A040. Retrieved 2009-01-26.
- ^ http://spn.dk/fodbold/article1499099.ece
External links
- (Danish) OB profile
- (Norwegian) IK Start profile
- (Danish) AaB profile
- (Danish) Danish national team profile
- (Danish) Danish Superliga statistics
- Ex-Canaries - Norwich City profile
- (German) German career statistics
- Soccerbase career statistics
- "David Nielsen" (in Norwegian). Norsk & Internasjonal Fotballstatistikk. Bergensavisen. http://nifs.no/personprofil.php?person_id=4843. Retrieved 28 April 2009.
Awards Preceded by
Bjarne GoldbækF.C. Copenhagen Player of the Year
1999Succeeded by
Michael Mio NielsenCategories:- 1976 births
- Living people
- Danish footballers
- Denmark under-21 international footballers
- Odense Boldklub players
- Lyngby Boldklub players
- AaB Fodbold players
- F.C. Copenhagen players
- Danish Superliga players
- Grimsby Town F.C. players
- Norwich City F.C. players
- Wimbledon F.C. players
- FC Midtjylland players
- IK Start players
- SK Brann players
- Fortuna Düsseldorf players
- Fußball-Bundesliga players
- Expatriate footballers in Germany
- Expatriate footballers in England
- Expatriate footballers in Norway
- Danish expatriate footballers
- Norwegian Premier League players
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