Lars Olsen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lars Christian Olsen (born February 2, 1961) is a Danish former professional football defender and current football manager of Danish Superliga club Randers FC. In his active career, he most prominently played for Brøndby IF, with whom he won 7 Danish championships. He was elected the 1988 Danish Player of the Year, and Olsen played 84 matches and scored 4 goals for the Denmark national football team. From his position in the central defense, he captained Denmark in their 1992 European Championship win. In all he captained the Danish national team in a record 69 matches.

[edit] Biography

Born in Glostrup, he started his career at Danish 3rd Division team Glostrup IF 32 in 1979. He was selected for various national youth teams, and in 1981 he moved to top-flight Danish 1st Division team Køge BK. Before the 1985 season, he moved to league rivals Brøndby IF. In his first year at the club, he helped secure Brøndby's first Danish championship. He was called-up by Danish national team coach Sepp Piontek in April 1986, and Olsen made his national team debut in the 0-3 defeat to Bulgaria. He was once more called up in May 1987, and went on to become a constant player in the starting line-up.

He won both the 1987 and 1988 Danish championships, and following several games as captain of the national team he received the 1988 Danish Player of the Year award. He was selected to play at the 1988 European Championship, where he started the tournament on the bench as Morten Olsen was selected team captain and defensive organizer. Lars Olsen came on as a substitute in Denmark's first game, and went on to play the remaining two games, though Denmark were eliminated from the tournament.

Having won the 1989 Danish Cup trophy as well as a further two Danish championships, he left Brøndby in 1991. He moved abroad to play for Trabzonspor in Turkey, with whom he won the 1992 Turkish Cup. In June 1992, he captained the national team of manager Richard Møller Nielsen in Denmark's first trophy win at the 1992 European Championship.

He moved on to Belgian club R.F.C. Seraing after the European Championship triumph, before playing for Swiss side FC Basel from 1994 to 1996. While at Basel, he lost his place in the Danish national team. He moved back to Brøndby in 1996, where he finished his career winning the 1996 Danish championship, now called the Danish Superliga. He re-entered the Danish national team in April 1996 and Olsen was chosen to help Denmark defend the trophy at the 1996 European Championship. He did not play any games at the tournament, and he ended his career in 1996.

Following his retirement from his active career, Olsen coached various teams at Brøndby. He coached the reserve team, he was assistant manager of the first team, and he was youth team coach. In 2003, he moved to Randers FC in the second best Danish league, the 1st Division. He managed the team into promotion for the 2004-05 Superliga season, but the team was relegated after only one year in the Danish top-flight football. He stayed at the club and managed Randers to the 2006 Danish Cup victory, while the club secured promotion for the 2006-07 Superliga season.

[edit] Honours

Player

• Danish championship (6) : 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991 and 1995-96
• Danish Player of the Year : 1988
• Danish Cup : 1989
• Turkish Cup : 1992
• 1992 European Championship

Manager

• Danish Cup : 2006

[edit] External links

• Danish national team profile
• (Danish) Brøndby IF partial statistics
• (Danish) ShowStars profile

	Denmark squad - 1992 UEFA European Football Champions
1 Schmeichel | 2 Sivebæk | 3 K. Nielsen | 4 Olsen | 5 Andersen | 6 Christofte | 7 Jensen | 8 Mølby | 9 Povlsen | 10 Elstrup | 11 Laudrup | 12 Piechnik | 13 Larsen | 14 Frank | 15 Christensen Arensøe | 16 Krogh | 17 Christiansen | 18 Vilfort | 19 P. Nielsen | 20 Bruun | Coach: Møller Nielsen