Mikkel Beck

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Personal information
Mikkel Beck
Full name	Mikkel Venge Beck
Date of birth	May 12, 1973
Place of birth	Aarhus, Denmark
Position	Striker
Youth clubs
	Bramdrupdam G&IF Kolding IF
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1992-1993 1993-1996 1996-1999 1999 1999-2000 2000 2000 2000-2002 2002	B 1909 Fortuna Köln Middlesbrough Derby County Nottingham Forest (loan) QPR (loan) AaB (loan) OSC Lille AaB (loan)	13 (2) 79 (26) 91 (24) 18 (2) 10 (8) 33 (5) 12 (4)
National team
1993-1995 1995-2000	Denmark u-21 Denmark	9 (3) 19 (3)
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Mikkel Venge Beck (born May 12, 1973) is a Danish former football (soccer) player, who played for a number of clubs, most famously for Middlesbrough FC and Derby County in the English Premier League. He scored 3 goals in 19 games for the Danish national team, and represented Denmark at the international Euro 1996 and Euro 2000 tournaments.

[edit] Biography

He started his career with Danish lower league club Kolding IF, before he played a single season in the Danish Superliga championship for B 1909. He moved abroad to play professionally for German 2nd Bundesliga club Fortuna Köln in 1993, 20 years old. Following a back injury which kept him out from August 1994 to February 1995,^[1] Beck scored in each of his first five games after recovery, and he received his first call-up for the Danish national team in May 1995. He scored three goals in his first six national team games, and Beck was subsequently voted the 1995 Danish Sports Talent of the Year. He was included in the Danish national squad for the Euro 1996 in England, where he played two games. Following the tournament, he was sold to English Premier League club Middlesbrough FC.

He joined Middlesbrough in the 1996-97 season, which ended in the club being relegated to the English First Division, even though Middlesbrough reached the 1997 FA Cup final. Beck stayed with the club, and was a part of the squad which won promotion to the Premier League the very next year. After 24 goals in 91 league matches for Middlesbrough, he moved to league rivals Derby County in March 1999 in a transfer deal worth 8,5 million DKK.^[2]

He didn't find success with his new club, and never became an integrated part of the team. Seeking playing time, Beck underwent loan deals to English lower league clubs. He signed a two-month loan deal to Nottingham Forest in November 1999, but after a month at the club he was recalled to Derby, as the club experienced a lack of strikers.^[3] He sat a single match on the bench, before Derby bought Croatian striker Branko Strupar and Beck was once more out of the team. He was then loaned out to Queens Park Rangers in February 2000, on a three month deal. Despite good play for QPR, Beck was once more recalled in April 2000, in order to go on loan at Danish Superliga club Aalborg Boldspilklub (AaB) for the rest of the 1999-2000 Superliga season.

During his last year at Middlesbrough, and through the rest of his time in England, Beck had lost his place in the Danish national team. At AaB, he scored eight goals in ten matches and led the team to the Danish Cup final, and he was brought back to the Danish national team squad for the Euro 2000 in France. He played in two matches, and following the tournament he was bought by French Ligue 1 club OSC Lille for £500,000.^[4] Unhappy with Lille coach Vahid Halilhodžić' principle of rotating the players, Beck went on loan to AaB once again in February 2002.^[5] Hoping to be called up to the Danish national team for the 2002 World Cup, in repeat of his AaB loan in 2000, Beck was injured in the last months of the tournament and was not considered for the squad. Back at Lille, he suffered a string of injuries which kept him out of football for one and a half years. In January 2004, he trained with English club Crystal Palace, but as injuries resurfaced during his stay at Palace, he did not get a contract and Beck retired.

Following his retirement, he became a player agent.