Morten Bisgaard
Encyclopedia
Morten Bisgaard is a retired 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...

 professional 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, who played as a midfielder
Midfielder
A midfielder is an association football position. Some midfielders play a more defensive role, while others blur the boundaries between midfielders and forwards. The number of midfielders a team uses during a match may vary, depending on the team's formation and each individual player's role...

. He played eight games and scored one goal for the Denmark national football team
Denmark national football team
The Denmark national football team represents Denmark in association football and is controlled by the Danish Football Association , the governing body for the football clubs which are organized under DBU...

, and represented his country at the 2000 European Championship
2000 UEFA European Football Championship
The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, or Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Football Championship, which is held every four years and organized by UEFA, association football's governing body in Europe....

. He now works as a commentator and expert on 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...

 on the Danish TV channel Canal 9
Canal 9 (Denmark)
CANAL9 is a Danish television channel owned by the TV4 Group and C More Entertainment.The channel is designed for men and was launched as a low-pay sister channel to Canal+ and share sports rights with Canal+ Sport, and is based on sports, mostly football including broadcasts from the Danish...

 along with former players Peter Møller
Peter Møller
Peter Møller-Nielsen is a Danish former professional football player who became a sports journalist after ending his football career in December 2005. He won three Danish Superliga championships for the rival clubs Brøndby IF and F.C. Copenhagen, and became the most scoring Superliga player ever...

 and Stig Tøfting
Stig Tøfting
Stig Tøfting , nicknamed Tøffe, and The Lawn Mower, is a former Danish professional footballer and assistant coach, who most recently was the assistant of Erik Rasmussen at AGF....

.

Biography

Born in Randers
Randers
Randers is a city in Randers municipality on the Jutland peninsula in central Denmark. It is Denmark's sixth-largest city, with a population of 60,656 . Randers city is the main town of the municipality and the site of its municipal council.-Overview:Randers municipality has 94,750 inhabitants...

, Bisgaard started playing football with local clubs. While playing for Randers Freja, he debuted for the Danish under-19 national team in October 1990, 16 years old. He made his senior debut for Randers Freja in the Danish 2nd Division West
Danish 2nd Division West
The 2nd Division West is a group in the Danish 2nd Division with teams from Jutland and Funen Football Associations. The winners gain promotion for the Danish 1st Division, while the last-place finishers risk relegation into the Denmark Series....

 during the 1991-92 season. In July 1992, he moved 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...

 championship. He stayed another half year with the Randers Freja, while finishing his education. In January 1993, Bisgaard 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 Viborg FF
Viborg FF
Viborg FF is a Danish professional football club located in Viborg. The full name of the club is Viborg Fodsports Forening , but the name is frequently abbreviated as Viborg FF or VFF. The club was founded in 1896, but would have to wait more than a century before winning its only countrywide...

 in the Danish 1st Division
Danish 1st Division
The 1st Division has been the name of the second highest football league in Denmark since 1991. From 1945 to 1991 the 1st Division was the name of the highest level of football in Denmark...

, and helped the club win promotion for the Superliga in the summer 1993.

Bisgaard started his OB career in the summer 1993. He was a part of the OB team that eliminated multiple European Cup
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...

 winners Real Madrid
Real Madrid
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol , commonly known as Real Madrid, is a professional football club based in Madrid, Spain. The club have won a record 31 La Liga titles, the Primera División of the Liga de Fútbol Profesional , 18 Copas del Rey, 8 Spanish Super Cups, 1 Copa Eva Duarte and 1 Copa de la...

 from the international 1994-95 UEFA Cup tournament. OB had lost the first match 2-3 at home in Odense
Odense
The city of Odense is the third largest city in Denmark.Odense City has a population of 167,615 and is the main city of the island of Funen...

. In the second game, Bisgaard came on as a substitute for wingback Steen Nedergaard
Steen Nedergaard
Steen Nedergaard is a Danish former professional footballer who played in the full-back position.Nedergaard spent the majority of his career in Denmark with Odense BK. He won 14 caps for the Danish under-21 national team, and was lauded as 1990 Danish under-21 Player of the Year...

. 15 seconds before the game ended, Bisgaard scored the final goal in OB's 2-0 win, and secured the club advancement in the tournament. OB was then eliminated by Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 club A.C. Parma in the quarter-finals.

Bisgaard got his national breakthrough in the 1996-96 Superliga
Danish Superliga 1996-97
The 1996-97 Danish Superliga season was the 7th season of the Danish Superliga league championship, governed by the Danish Football Association...

 season, when he played all 33 league games and scored 16 goals for OB. He was called up to the first Danish national team
Denmark national football team
The Denmark national football team represents Denmark in association football and is controlled by the Danish Football Association , the governing body for the football clubs which are organized under DBU...

 match of new national manager Bo Johansson, and Bisgaard made his international debut in the August 1996 game against Sweden
Sweden national football team
The Swedish national football team represents Sweden in association football and is controlled by the Swedish Football Association, the governing body for Football in Sweden. Sweden's home ground is Råsunda Stadium in Stockholms län and their head coach is Erik Hamrén. Sweden made their first...

. He played an additional national team game in April 1997, before he was sold to Italian club Udinese
Udinese Calcio
Udinese Calcio is an Italian football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, and currently plays in the Serie A. Founded in 1896, Udinese is the second oldest club in the Serie A, after Genoa....

 in the summer 1998. In his first year at Udinese, Bisgaard only played three games in the Italian Serie A
Serie A
Serie A , now called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by Telecom Italia, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and has been operating for over eighty years since 1929. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new...

 championship, and was dropped from the national team. He played 20 games and scored one goal in his second season at Udinese, and was included in the Danish squad for the 2000 European Championship
2000 UEFA European Football Championship
The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, or Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Football Championship, which is held every four years and organized by UEFA, association football's governing body in Europe....

. He played two games at the tournament, both Denmark losses. Bisgaard played a further three national team games, before his national team career ended in October 2000.

He eventually moved back to Denmark, to play for defending Superliga champions 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....

 (FCK) in the summer 2001. He helped guide FCK to the 2003 and 2004 Superliga championships, as well as the 2004 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...

 trophy. In the summer 2004, he moved to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 to play for Derby County
Derby County F.C.
Derby County Football Club is an English football based in Derby. the club play in the Football League Championship and is notable as being one of the twelve founder members of the Football League in 1888 and is, therefore, one of only ten clubs to have competed in every season of the English...

 in the Football League Championship
Football League Championship
The Football League Championship is the highest division of The Football League and second-highest division overall in the English football league system after the Premier League...

. In 2005, he lost his regular place in the first team squad. He managed 104 appearances and scored 10 goals in his three years at the club, from an attacking midfield position. As his Derby contract expired in the summer 2007, speculation had him joining a Superliga team. Especially Randers FC
Randers FC
Randers FC is a Danish professional football team based in Randers, which plays in the top-flight Danish Superliga championship. Founded as a merger on January 1, 2003, the club builds upon the license of Randers Freja, a former three-time Danish Cup winning team...

 would be an obvious bid as future employer, as his previous coach Colin Todd
Colin Todd
Colin Todd is an English football manager and former player. As a player, he made more than 600 appearances in the Football League, playing for Sunderland, Derby County, Everton, Birmingham City, Nottingham Forest, Oxford United and Luton Town, and also played in the North American Soccer League...

 will manage them from the summer 2007, but on 23 July 2007, his old club OB signed him on a two-year contract. He left the club in the summer of 2009, and subsequently retired from football.

External links

OB profile Danish national team profile
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