Jesper Christiansen

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Jesper Christiansen
Personal information
Full name	Jesper Ringsborg Christiansen
Date of birth	April 24, 1978 (age 28)
Place of birth	Roskilde, Denmark
Height	1.93 m
Playing position	Goalkeeper
Club information
Current club	F.C. Copenhagen
Number	1
Youth clubs
	Borup IF Ringsted IF
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1997–1998 1998 1998–2000 2000–2003 2001–2002 2002–2003 2004–2005 2005–present	Roskilde B 06 Ølstykke FC Odense BK Rangers F.C. Vejle BK (loan) VfL Wolfsburg (loan) Viborg FF F.C. Copenhagen	00 (0) 04 (0) 12 (0) 03 (0) 14 (0) 00 (0) 46 (0) 52 (0)
National team2
1998–1999 2005–present	Denmark U21 Denmark	05 (0) 07 (0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 11 March 2007. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 28 March 2007. * Appearances (Goals)

Jesper Christiansen (born April 24, 1978 in Roskilde, Denmark) is a Danish professional footballer playing for F.C. Copenhagen. He is playing with the no. 1 and is the first choice for the goalkeeping position. Christiansen is one of Denmark's best goalkeepers, and is the reserve-keeper for Thomas Sørensen on the Danish national team. He has represented Denmark in six matches, and was reserve-keeper at the 2002 FIFA World Cup in South Korea and Japan. In 2005 and 2006 he got the Danish goalkeeper award The Golden Goalie.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Club career 1.2 International career 2 Honours 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Club career

When Christiansen was a teenager, he was competing with later national team striker Peter Madsen to be the best forward on Zealand. At 17, he didn't want the professional life, and played amateur football with his friends in Serie 3 (4th lowest Danish football level), where he for fun went into the box and was their goalkeeper. This prompted Roskilde B 1906 to offer him a contract, and he was Roskilde's goalkeeper for one season, before he followed his coach to Ølstykke FC.

He got his big breakthrough with Odense BK in the Danish Superliga, where a dozen of strong diplays showed a strong temper and good reflexes. He looked the long term replacement of club goalkeeping legend Lars Høgh, though Christiansen never got the chance to make a decent bid for the Høgh's record 817 games for OB. As Scottish club Rangers suffered injuries in their goalkeeping staff, the search for replacements turned to Christiansen who was eager to move abroad at 22 years of age. In Glasgow he became good friend with fellow Dane Peter Løvenkrands.^[1]

A handful of games at Rangers, including a few outings in the UEFA Champions League, was not enough to keep first choice keeper Stefan Klos on the bench. When Klos returned from his injury, he once again took control of the goalkeeper spot. Christiansen couldn't force his way in to the starting line-up, and underwent a few loan deals. First loan-out to Vejle Boldklub home in Denmark was successful. After the period in Vejle, he was loaned out to VfL Wolfsburg. This period, was one of the worst in his career. He did not play a single first team game, and he could not get friends in Germany. Christiansen later said he would rather warm the bench in Rangers, than in Wolfsburg.^[1]

In the winter of 2003-04, Christiansen returned to Denmark once more to play for Viborg FF, following a string of goalkeeper switches; former Viborg goalkeeper Arek Onyszko moving to Odense BK, replacing Karim Zaza who had changed to Brøndby IF. At Viborg, Christiansen showed the impressive form that he had displayed for Odense and Vejle once more. Following one and a half year at the club, he moved to F.C. Copenhagen (FCK) in the summer of 2005.

His debut in the Copenhagen-jersey came on July 20, 2005 against AaB on Aalborg Stadion in Aalborg. FCK won 1-0. In the autumn 2006 he was a big part of FCK's UEFA Champions League-campaing, with many great savings. This resulted also in winter transfer rumours, which sent him to Everton together with team fellow Michael Silberbauer.^[2] In a January 2007 interview with Danish paper B.T., he told that he wants to come further with his career, referring to a possible future move to either the English Premier League, German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A or the Spanish La Liga.^[3]

[edit] International career

Christiansen was first called up to Morten Olsen's national team squad during his loan time at Vejle, and was also chosen to the 2002 FIFA World Cup, which he saw from the bench. Then the bad time at Wolfsburg came, and he was off again.

Jesper were back in the squad again when he came to FCK and he got his debut on June 2, 2005, in the 1-0 friendly against Finland. He played his second game, a 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification 2-1 win against Kazakhstan, in October 2005. He played the second half of both games, both times coming on as a substitute. Later he has played 4 further matches when Thomas Sørensen got an injury.

[edit] Honours

Team

• Danish Superliga: 2005-2006, with Copenhagen
• Danish 1st Division: 1998-1999, with Odense

Individual

• 2005 and 2006 The Golden Goalie
• 2005 and 2006 Danish Team of the Year (Goalkeeper)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Danish national team profile
• F.C. København profile
• Vejle Boldklub profile
• Career stats, by Danmarks Radio
• First and only English fansite for Jesper Christiansen

	Denmark squad - 2002 FIFA World Cup
1 Sørensen | 2 Tøfting | 3 Henriksen | 4 Laursen | 5 Heintze | 6 Helveg | 7 Gravesen | 8 Grønkjær | 9 Tomasson | 10 Jørgensen | 11 Sand | 12 N. Jensen | 13 Lustü | 14 C. Jensen | 15 Michaelsen | 16 Kjær | 17 Poulsen | 18 Løvenkrands | 19 Rommedahl | 20 Bøgelund | 21 Madsen | 22 Christiansen | 23 Nielsen | Coach: Olsen

F.C. Copenhagen - Current Squad
1 Christiansen | 2 Jacobsen | 3 Jensen | 4 Nørregaard | 5 Hangeland | 6 Linderoth | 7 Aílton | 8 Silberbauer | 9 Berglund | 10 Grønkjær | 11 Allbäck | 13 Hutchinson | 14 Gravgaard | 16 Thomassen | 17 Wendt | 21 Villadsen | 22 Bertolt | 23 W. Kvist | 24 Brandrup | 26 Hansen | 29 L. Qvist | 31 Gall | 41 Coe | Coach Solbakken