Miklos Molnar

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Personal information
Miklos Molnar
Miklos Molnar appearing for the Danish national team.
Full name	Miklos Jon Molnar
Date of birth	June 10, 1970 (age 36)
Place of birth	Copenhagen, Denmark
Nickname	Danish Dynamite
Playing position	Striker
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1987-1988 1989 1990-1991 1991-1992 1992-1994 1994 1994-1995 1995-1996 1996-1997 1997-2000 2000	Hvidovre IF BK Frem Standard Liege Servette FC AS Saint-Etienne Lyngby BK FSV Frankfurt Herfølge BK Lyngby FC Sevilla FC Kansas City Wizards	31 (7) 26 (14) 41 (16) 34 (18) 19 (2) 18 (6) 20 (12) 21 (10) 38 (29) 44 (16) 17 (12)
National team
1989-1992 1990-2000	Denmark U21 Denmark	21 (8) 18 (2)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Miklos Jon Molnar (born June 10, 1970), nicknamed "Danish Dynamite", is a Danish former professional football (soccer) player, who played as a striker for a number of Danish and foreign clubs. He was the top goalscorer of the 1989 and 1997 Danish championships, and won the 2000 MLS Cup with American team Kansas City Wizards. He scored two goals in 18 caps for the Denmark national football team, and represented his country at the 1998 World Cup and 2000 European Championship tournaments. He was also a member of the Denmark team competing at the 1992 Summer Olympics.

When he stopped his professional soccer career in 2000, he cited a wish to become a professional triathlete before he became too old, as one of the reasons. He has only had limited success in that field.

[edit] Biography

Born in Copenhagen, Miklos Molnar started playing football with Copenhagen teams Hvidovre IF and BK Frem. Molnar was joint topscorer of the 1989 Danish 1st Division championship with 14 goals, and made his debut for the Danish under-21 national team in June 1989. In January 1990, he moved abroad to play for Standard Liège in Belgium. In his first full season at Liege, Molnar scored 11 goals in 26 games, and was called up to the Danish national team by national manager Richard Møller Nielsen. Molnar made his debut in September 1990, and went on play three national team games until June 1991.

He moved from Liège to Swiss club Servette FC in the summer 1991. Having scored 18 goals in 34 games in the Swiss 1992 Nationalliga A championship, Molnar was moved from the senior Danish national team back to the under-21 national team to help them qualify for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. He played in all Denmark's three games at the 1992 Olympics final tournament before elimination. He ended his under-21 career after the tournament, having scored a total eight goals in 21 youth caps, and having won the 1991 Danish under-21 Player of the Year award. After the 1992 Olympics, Molnar moved on to French club AS Saint-Étienne. He did not fit into Saint-Étienne's technical short passing tactics, and did not find goalscoring success at the club.

He was released from his contract in January 1994, and moved back home to Denmark. In February 1994, he agreed to play for Lyngby BK in the top-flight Danish championship, now called the Danish Superliga. With the stated ambition of moving abroad, Molnar played half a year at Lyngby, but did not get along with Lyngby manager Michael Schäfer. He moved to German club FSV Frankfurt in September 1994. Despite scoring 12 goals in 20 games in the 1994-95 German 2nd Bundesliga season, Molnar could not keep Frankfurt from relegation into the lower Regionalliga division.

Molnar went home to Denmark, and started playing for Superliga club Herfølge BK in September 1995. When Lyngby's first-choice striker David Nielsen left the club in June 1996, Molnar moved back to his old club to fill the spot. He was the leading goal scorer in the 1996-97 Superliga season with 26 goals in 33 games, and was recalled to the Danish national team by new national manager Bo Johansson, after a hiatus of more than five years. After three goals in five games at the start of the 1997-98 Superliga season, Molnar was sold to Spanish club Sevilla FC in the secondary Segunda División league, where he joined fellow Danish international Thomas Rytter.

In his first year at Sevilla, Molnar scored 10 goals in 27 games, and he was included in the Danish squad for the 1998 World Cup. He took part in one match at the tournament, when he most remarkably came on as a substitute in the 58th minute of the 1-1 draw with South Africa, only to be sent off eight minutes later. His second season at Sevilla was not as successful, and Molnar was dropped from the team. When visiting American international midfielder Chris Henderson in Colorado, a former teammate of his, Molnar had been fascinated by the atmosphere in the American Major League Soccer (MLS) championship. In January 2000, he moved to MLS to play for Kansas City Wizards. While at the Wizards, he was included in the Danish squad for the 2000 European Championship in June 2000. He played a single match at the tournament, before ending his national team career. He retired from football in October 2000, after scoring the game-winning goal in the 2000 MLS Cup, as the Wizards beat Chicago Fire 1-0.

[edit] Honours

1991 Danish under-21 Player of the Year
MLS Cup: 2000

[edit] External links

Danish national team profile
National Football Teams statistics
(German) FussballDaten German statistics
(Danish) Boldklubben Frem profile

	Denmark squad - 1998 FIFA World Cup Quarter-finalists
1 Schmeichel \| 2 Schjønberg \| 3 Rieper \| 4 Høgh \| 5 Heintze \| 6 Helveg \| 7 Nielsen \| 8 Frandsen \| 9 Molnar \| 10 M. Laudrup \| 11 B. Laudrup \| 12 Colding \| 13 Laursen \| 14 Wieghorst \| 15 Tøfting \| 16 Krogh \| 17 Goldbæk \| 18 Møller \| 19 Sand \| 20 Henriksen \| 21 Jørgensen \| 22 Kjær \| Coach: Johansson