David Nielsen (footballer)
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| David Nielsen | ||
| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | David Jean Nielsen | |
| Date of birth | December 1, 1976 | |
| Place of birth | Skagen, Denmark | |
| Position | Striker | |
| Club information | ||
| Current club | I.K. Start | |
| Number | 19 | |
| Youth clubs | ||
| Skagen IK Frederikshavn fI |
||
| Professional clubs* | ||
| Years | Club | Apps (goals) |
| 1993-1996 1996 1996-1997 1997-2001 2000-2001 2001-2002 2001-2002 2002-2003 2003-2005 2005-2006 2006-current |
Odense BK Lyngby FC (loan) Fortuna Düsseldorf FC København Grimsby Town (loan) Wimbledon FC Norwich City (loan) Norwich City Aalborg BK FC Midtjylland I.K. Start |
9 (2) 13 (10) 13 (1) 108 (36) 17 (5) 23 (4) 5 (5) 53 (9) 40 (17) |
|
* Professional club appearances and goals |
||
David Jean Nielsen (born December 1, 1976) is a Danish professional football (soccer) player, who currently plays at Norwegian club I.K. Start. 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, but has never represented the Danish senior national team.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
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 Odense BK 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 secondary 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 FC 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. In April 2004, David Nielsen and fellow teammate Jimmy Nielsen raked up a debt of £160,000 with bookmakers in Aalborg, though AaB director Lynge Jacobsen decided to help out both financially as well as arrange counselling for gambling addiction. After a traning 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 I.K. Start.
[edit] Honours
- Danish Cup: 1997
- 1999 F.C. Copenhagen Player of the Year
[edit] 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
