David Nielsen (footballer)
Encyclopedia
David Jean Nielsen is a Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 retired football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 player.

He has played for a number of Danish clubs, as well as Fortuna Düsseldorf
Fortuna Düsseldorf
' is a German association football club based in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, currently playing in the second tier of German league football, the 2. Fußball-Bundesliga...

 in Germany and English clubs Grimsby Town
Grimsby Town F.C.
Grimsby Town Football Club is an English football club based in the seaside town of Cleethorpes, in North East Lincolnshire, England, who compete in the Conference National. They were formed in 1878 as Grimsby Pelham and later became Grimsby Town...

, Wimbledon
Wimbledon F.C.
Wimbledon Football Club was an English professional association football club from Wimbledon, south-west London. Founded in 1889 as Wimbledon Old Central Football Club, the club spent most of its history in amateur and semi-professional non-League football before being elected to the Football...

 and Norwich City
Norwich City F.C.
Norwich City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. As of the 2011–12 season, Norwich City are again playing in the Premier League after a six-year absence, having finished as runner up in the Championship in 2010–11 and winning automatic promotion.The...

. His greatest triumph was the 1997 Danish Cup
Danish Cup
The Danish Cup is the official "knockout" cup competition in Danish football, run by the Danish Football Association. The cup has been contested annually since 1955...

 victory, which he won with Danish club F.C. Copenhagen
F.C. Copenhagen
F.C. Copenhagen is a professional Danish football club in Copenhagen, Denmark. It is part of the Parken Sport & Entertainment....

. 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
Denmark national under-21 football team
The Denmark national under-21 football team has played since 1976 and is controlled by the Danish Football Association. Before 1976, the age limit was 23 years.-U-21 European Championship:*1978 – Quarterfinals*1980 to 1984 – Did not qualify...

.

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.

Playing career

Born in Skagen
Skagen
Skagen is a projection of land and a town, with a population of 8,515 , in Region Nordjylland on the northernmost tip of Vendsyssel-Thy, a part of the Jutland peninsula in northern Denmark...

, Nielsen started playing youth football in Skagen IK and Frederikshavn fI
Frederikshavn fI
Frederikshavn forenede Idrætsklubber is a Danish sports club based in Frederikshavn. The club has branches in football, handball, swimming, gymnastics and wrestling....

. 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, but decided to stay in Denmark, as he was brought to OB in the top-flight Danish Superliga
Danish Superliga
The Danish Superliga is the current Danish football championship tournament, and administered by the Danish Football Association. It is the highest association football league in Denmark and is currently contested by 12 teams each year, with 2 teams to be relegated, which proves to be one of the...

 in May 1993, 16 years old. Here he became known for his elaborate goal celebration, a round off stretch jump with a backtuck.

He was loaned out
Loan (football)
In sports, a loan involves a particular player being allowed to temporarily play for a club other than the one he is currently contracted to. Loan deals may last from a few weeks to all season-long....

 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
Fortuna Düsseldorf
' is a German association football club based in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, currently playing in the second tier of German league football, the 2. Fußball-Bundesliga...

 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
F.C. Copenhagen
F.C. Copenhagen is a professional Danish football club in Copenhagen, Denmark. It is part of the Parken Sport & Entertainment....

 in a DEM
DEM
- Codes :* DEM, the ISO 4217 code for Deutsche Mark, the former currency of Germany- Computing :* Digital elevation model, a digital representation of ground surface topography or terrain** .dem, a common extension for USGS DEM files...

 600,000 transfer deal in February 1997. He played three and a half years at F.C. Copenhagen, with whom he won the 1997 Danish Cup
Danish Cup
The Danish Cup is the official "knockout" cup competition in Danish football, run by the Danish Football Association. The cup has been contested annually since 1955...

. 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
Football League First Division
The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship....

 in October 2000, as Grimsby had a hard time scoring goals. When his loan deal ended in March 2001, Nielsen moved on to English club Wimbledon F.C.
Wimbledon F.C.
Wimbledon Football Club was an English professional association football club from Wimbledon, south-west London. Founded in 1889 as Wimbledon Old Central Football Club, the club spent most of its history in amateur and semi-professional non-League football before being elected to the Football...

 on a free transfer. He joined Norwich City F.C.
Norwich City F.C.
Norwich City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. As of the 2011–12 season, Norwich City are again playing in the Premier League after a six-year absence, having finished as runner up in the Championship in 2010–11 and winning automatic promotion.The...

 on loan in December 2001, and scored 5 goals in 5 games during his loan spell, prompting Norwich manager Nigel Worthington
Nigel Worthington
Nigel Worthington is a former Northern Ireland international footballer and manager.He was manager of the Northern Ireland national team from 2007 until after their final Euro 2012 qualifying campaign match against Italy in October 2011.As a player, he was a left full back and occasional left...

 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
Allan Gaarde
Allan Gaarde is a Danish former professional football player in the midfielder position, who played 227 games and scored 48 goals for AaB Aalborg, and won the 1999 Danish Superliga championship with the club...

 in February 2005, David Nielsen was fired by the club. Within days, he was hired by league rivals FC Midtjylland
FC Midtjylland
FC Midtjylland is a professional Danish football team from Herning and Ikast. The team is a result of a merger between Ikast FS and Herning Fremad...

, to replace Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

ian striker Mohamed Zidan
Mohamed Zidan
Mohamed Abdullah Zidan is an Egyptian footballer. He currently plays as a striker for the German club Borussia Dortmund as well as the Egyptian national team. Nicknamed "Zizou", he is known for putting unique designs in his hair.-Early career:Zidan was born in Port Said, Egypt, to an Egyptian...

. 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
Stig Inge Bjørnebye
Stig Inge Bjørnebye is a retired Norwegian footballer who played in Norway, England, and Denmark, most notably for Liverpool and Blackburn Rovers. His preferred position was left back, which he occupied for domestic clubs and the national team...

. On 20 July 2007, he signed a 3-year contract with the Danish Superliga
Danish Superliga
The Danish Superliga is the current Danish football championship tournament, and administered by the Danish Football Association. It is the highest association football league in Denmark and is currently contested by 12 teams each year, with 2 teams to be relegated, which proves to be one of the...

 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. 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
Erik Huseklepp
Erik André Huseklepp is a Norwegian footballer forward who plays for Portsmouth and the Norwegian national team.-Early career:At the age of 18 he played youth football for Fyllingen...

. After his contract with Brann expires in June 2010 Nielsen plans to stay in Bergen and together with Per Ove Ludvigsen
Per Ove Ludvigsen
Per-Ove Ludvigsen is a former Norwegian football player. He played for SK Brann, after joining from local rivals Fyllingen Fotball after the latter club's relegation from the Norwegian Premier League in the 1993 season. In the 1990 season he won the first ever Kniksen award as a defender...

 and Kjetil Knutsen offer organized soccer practice for kids through a company called Max Fotball.

Controversies

By April 2004, David Nielsen and fellow AaB teammate Jimmy Nielsen
Jimmy Nielsen
Jimmy Nielsen is a Danish professional footballer currently playing for Sporting Kansas City in Major League Soccer....

 had raked up a debt of €201,000 with bookmakers in Aalborg
Aalborg
-Transport:On the north side of the Limfjord is Nørresundby, which is connected to Aalborg by a road bridge Limfjordsbroen, an iron railway bridge Jernbanebroen over Limfjorden, as well as a motorway tunnel running under the Limfjord Limfjordstunnelen....

. AaB director Lynge Jacobsen
Lynge Jacobsen
Lynge Jakobsen is a Danish former football player and current Sports director of the professional football club Aalborg BK , who competes in the best Danish league the Danish Superliga...

 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
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...

 and hand their UEFA Cup
UEFA Cup
The UEFA Europa League is an annual association football cup competition organised by UEFA since 1971 for eligible European football clubs. It is the second most prestigious European club football contest after the UEFA Champions League...

-berth as the Danish Cup winners on to the losing finalists from AaB. Nielsen was also motivated by his gambling debts, as UEFA Cup qualification would wield him a personal DKK
Danish krone
The krone is the official currency of the Kingdom of Denmark consisting of Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. It is subdivided into 100 øre...

300,000 bonus. AaB and F.C. Copenhagen drew the match, and F.C. Copenhagen eventually won the 2003-04 Superliga
Danish Superliga 2003-04
The 2003-04 Danish Superliga season was the 14th season of the Danish Superliga league championship, governed by the Danish Football Association. It took place from the first match on July 26, 2003 to the final match on May 29, 2004....

 championship by one point.

In February 2005, Nielsen was sacked by AaB when he physically attacked team-mate Allan Gaarde
Allan Gaarde
Allan Gaarde is a Danish former professional football player in the midfielder position, who played 227 games and scored 48 goals for AaB Aalborg, and won the 1999 Danish Superliga championship with the club...

 during a training session, leaving him with a concussion. 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."

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
Bergen
Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....

 and offers organized soccer practice for kids through a company called Max Fotball, together with Per Ove Ludvigsen
Per Ove Ludvigsen
Per-Ove Ludvigsen is a former Norwegian football player. He played for SK Brann, after joining from local rivals Fyllingen Fotball after the latter club's relegation from the Norwegian Premier League in the 1993 season. In the 1990 season he won the first ever Kniksen award as a defender...

 and Kjetil Knutsen.

Career statistics

Season Club Division League Cup Total
AppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
1994–95 OB Superliga
Danish Superliga
The Danish Superliga is the current Danish football championship tournament, and administered by the Danish Football Association. It is the highest association football league in Denmark and is currently contested by 12 teams each year, with 2 teams to be relegated, which proves to be one of the...

8 2 ? ? 8 2
1995–96 1 0 ? ? 1 0
Lyngby BK
Lyngby Boldklub
Lyngby Boldklub is a professional Danish football club founded in 1921. It is based at Lyngby Stadion in Kongens Lyngby, Denmark. From 1994 to 2001 the club was known as Lyngby FC.-History:...

13 10 ? ? 13 10
1996–97 Fortuna Düsseldorf
Fortuna Düsseldorf
' is a German association football club based in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, currently playing in the second tier of German league football, the 2. Fußball-Bundesliga...

Bundesliga 13 1 2 1 15 2
1996–97 FC København Superliga
Danish Superliga
The Danish Superliga is the current Danish football championship tournament, and administered by the Danish Football Association. It is the highest association football league in Denmark and is currently contested by 12 teams each year, with 2 teams to be relegated, which proves to be one of the...

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
Football League First Division
The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship....

17 5 2 1 19 6
Wimbledon
Wimbledon F.C.
Wimbledon Football Club was an English professional association football club from Wimbledon, south-west London. Founded in 1889 as Wimbledon Old Central Football Club, the club spent most of its history in amateur and semi-professional non-League football before being elected to the Football...

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
2003–04 Football League First Division
-League Table:-First leg:-----Second leg:*Aggregate score 4-4. Crystal Palace win 5-4 on penalties.----*West Ham United win 2-1 on aggregate.-Final:...

2 0 1 0 3 0
2003–04 AaB Superliga
Danish Superliga
The Danish Superliga is the current Danish football championship tournament, and administered by the Danish Football Association. It is the highest association football league in Denmark and is currently contested by 12 teams each year, with 2 teams to be relegated, which proves to be one of the...

24 11 ? ? 24 11
2004–05 16 6 ? ? 16 6
FC Midtjylland
FC Midtjylland
FC Midtjylland is a professional Danish football team from Herning and Ikast. The team is a result of a merger between Ikast FS and Herning Fremad...

10 2 ? ? 10 2
2005–06 20 6 ? ? 20 6
2006
2006 in Norwegian football
The 2006 season is the 101. season of competitive football in Norway.*Tippeligaen 2006 *Adeccoligaen 2006 *Norwegian Football Cup 2006*Toppserien 2006 -Men's national team:...

Start Tippeligaen
Tippeligaen
Tippeligaen is a Norwegian professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the Norwegian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. The league is also unofficially known under its neutral name Eliteserien , although the name has never been official...

13 5 2 3 15 8
2007
2007 in Norwegian football
The 2007 season is the 102. season of competitive football in Norway.* Tippeligaen 2007 * Adeccoligaen 2007 * Norwegian Football Cup 2007* Toppserien 2007 -Men's national team:...

8 2 1 1 9 3
2007–08 OB Superliga
Danish Superliga
The Danish Superliga is the current Danish football championship tournament, and administered by the Danish Football Association. It is the highest association football league in Denmark and is currently contested by 12 teams each year, with 2 teams to be relegated, which proves to be one of the...

14 3 0 0 14 3
2008
2008 in Norwegian football
The 2008-season is the 103. season of competitive football in Norway.*Tippeligaen 2008 *Adeccoligaen 2008 *Norwegian Football Cup 2008*Toppserien 2008 -Men's national team:...

Strømsgodset Tippeligaen
Tippeligaen
Tippeligaen is a Norwegian professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the Norwegian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. The league is also unofficially known under its neutral name Eliteserien , although the name has never been official...

23 9 3 2 26 11
2009
2009 in Norwegian football
The 2009-season is the 104. season of competitive football in Norway.*2009 Tippeligaen *2009 Adeccoligaen *2009 Norwegian Football Cup*2009 Toppserien -Men's national team:...

Brann 23 4 2 2 25 6
2010
2010 in Norwegian football
The 2010-season is the 105. season of competitive football in Norway.*2010 Tippeligaen *2010 Adeccoligaen *2010 Norwegian Football Cup*2010 Toppserien -Men's national team:...

10 0 0 0 10 0
2011
2011 in Norwegian football
The 2011-season is the 106. season of competitive football in Norway.The season began on 18 March 2011 for Tippeligaen, 03 April 2011 for Adeccoligaen, with Fair Play ligaen and 3. Divisjon both starting six days later on 09 April 2011. 2. Divisjon, and 3...

Fyllingen
Fyllingen Fotball
Fyllingen Fotball is a Norwegian association football club from Fyllingsdalen, Bergen, Hordaland.It was founded as a formally independent section of the alliance sports club Fyllingen IL on 1 January 1994. Fyllingen IL was founded on 6 June 1946...

Third Division
Norwegian Third Division
The Norwegian Third Division is the fourth highest division of the men's football league in Norway. Like the rest of the Norwegian football league system, the season runs from spring to autumn, running approximately from April to October...

0 0 1 0 1 0
Career total 4021202210424130

External links

OB profile IK Start profile AaB profile Danish national team profile Danish Superliga statistics
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