Bjarne Goldbæk

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Bjarne Goldbæk (born October 6, 1968) is a Danish former professional footballer and current sports pundit for Kanal 5. He played for a number of foreign clubs, including Chelsea F.C. and Fulham F.C. in England and several clubs in Germany. He most prominently won the 1990 German Cup tournament and 1990-91 German Bundesliga championship with 1. FC Kaiserslautern. For the Denmark national football team, Goldbæk was capped 28 times, and he was a part of the Danish squads for the 1998 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2000 tournaments.

[edit] Biography

Born in Copenhagen, Goldbæk started his career with Danish club B 1901, before he was snapped up by the top-flight Danish 1st Division club Næstved IF in 1987.^[1] Goldbæk quickly moved abroad to play for Schalke 04 of the German Bundesliga in November that year, and he got his debut for the Danish national team on November 18, 1987 in the 0-1 defeat to the German national team. In December 1989, Goldbæk changed clubs to Bundesliga rivals 1. FC Kaiserslautern, where he won the German Bundesliga championship in the 1990-91 season. He further played for Tennis Borussia Berlin and FC Cologne in Germany, before he returned to Denmark to play for F.C. Copenhagen in 1996.

At F.C. Copenhagen he quickly became a mainstay in the team, and he was awarded the 1998 F.C. Copenhagen Player of the Year award. Following good displays and a goal scored in two UEFA Cup Winners' Cup matches against Chelsea, he joined that club for £330,000 in November 1998, in a deal that sent fellow Dane Brian Laudrup from Chelsea to Copenhagen. The Danish international originally made a big impression when he moved to Stamford Bridge, but he was not in favour with Chelsea's manager Gianluca Vialli who tried to off-load him to Birmingham City and Nottingham Forest. Goldbæk struggled to hold down a regular rotation place at Chelsea, before Fulham snatched the attacking midfielder from Chelsea at the cost of £650,000 in January 2000.

He made his Fulham debut in a 1-0 home defeat at the hands of Grimsby Town, but soon became an important player as Fulham won the English First Division crown in the 2000-01 season. As Fulham manager Jean Tigana's team strengthened, it appeared Goldbæk's future was becoming bleak at the club. He made just 18 appearances in the 2001-02 season. However, he started the next campaign in the picture as he came on as a substitute in the InterToto Cup game against FC Haka from Finland in early July 2002. He left Fulham to play for German Regionalliga club Rot-Weiß Essen in 2003. He was the team captain when the club earned promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga in 2004, but as Rot-Weiß Essen were relegated to the Regionalliga again the following year, Goldbæk retired his active career in summer 2005.

[edit] Honours

• German Cup: 1990, with Kaiserslautern
• German Bundesliga: 1991, with Kaiserslautern
• Danish Cup: 1997, with F.C. Copenhagen

[edit] Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• Bjarne Goldbæk is also the name of a fictional character from the cult-tv show Casper & Mandrilaftalen, played by Frank Hvam. In one episode, the character Bjarne Goldbæk is sold to F.C. Copenhagen in order to save the show from bankruptcy.

[edit] References

1. ^ "Dagens portræt - Farligt og flittigt talent", Politiken, November 18, 1992

[edit] External links

• DBU profile (Danish national team career stats)
• FussballDaten profile (German career stats)
• NipserStat profile (F.C. Copenhagen career stats)
• National Football Teams career statistics

v • d • e Denmark squad - 1998 FIFA World Cup 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

v • d • e Denmark squad - UEFA Euro 2000 1 Schmeichel • 2 Schjønberg • 3 Henriksen • 4 Høgh • 5 Heintze • 6 Helveg • 7 A. Nielsen • 8 Grønkjær • 9 Tomasson • 10 Jørgensen • 11 Sand • 12 Colding • 13 Laursen • 14 B.S. Nielsen • 15 Tøfting • 16 Sørensen • 17 Goldbæk • 18 Molnar • 19 Bisgaard • 20 Gravesen • 21 Beck • 22 Kjær • Coach: Johansson