Harald Nielsen

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Harald Ingemann Nielsen (born October 26, 1941) is a Danish former football (soccer) player, who most notably played professionally for Italian club Bologna F.C. where he was the league top scorer (capocannonieri) in Bologna's 1964 Serie A championship winning season. Harald Nielsen played 14 games for the Denmark national football team in 1959 and 1960, scoring 15 goals, and he was known as Guld-Harald (Gold-Harald).

[edit] Biography

Harald Nielsen was born in Frederikshavn and started his footballing career in hometown club Frederikshavn fI, where he debuted in the second best Danish league in March 1959. From his position of center forward, Nielsen finished the top scorer of the league as Frederikshavn won promotion to the Danish football championship. Harald Nielsen made his debut for the Danish national team on September 13, 1959 against Norway in Oslo, as the then youngest Danish national team player ever. Only 17 years old, he scored a single goal in the 4-2 win.

In the top Danish league, Nielsen debuted for Frederikshavn against Boldklubben Frem in March 1960. Frederikshavn won 3-1, with Harald Nielsen scoring all three goals. The team finished the league in fifth place, as Nielsen became league top scorer. In the summer of 1960 he represented Denmark at the 1960 Summer Olympics football tournament in Rome. Denmark finished runners-up and Nielsen was the leading goals scorer of the tournament.

In 1961, Harald Nielsen moved abroad to play professionally for Bologna F.C. in Italy. As the Danish Football Association did not allow professionals to represent the Danish national team until 1971, Nielsen was banned from the national team at 19 years of age, and would not play another national team match. At Bologna, il freddo danese (the cold Dane) was a part of the 1964 Serie A winning squad, and he was the Italian league topscorer in both 1963 and 1964. Following six seasons at Bologna, Harald Nielsen moved to Internazionale F.C. in 1967, in a transfer deal which made him the most expensive player in the world at the time. At Inter, Nielsen did not find the same degree of success as in Bologna, and following years at S.S.C. Napoli and U.C. Sampdoria, he ended his career in 1970.

After his active career, Harald Nielsen opened started a firm which imported Italian leather works to Scandinavia. He became involved in professionalising football in Denmark in the 1970s, and in 1977 he and later Danish Minister of Science Helge Sander planned to found a professional Danish football league. They did not succeed, but the Danish Football Association introduced professional football in Denmark from 1978. Harald Nielsen became the first chairman of newly founded Danish club FC København in 1992, a post he held until 1997.

[edit] Honours

Olympic medal record
Competitor for  Denmark
Men's Football
Silver	1960 Rome	Team competition

• Serie A : 1964

[edit] External links

• Danish national team profile
• Harald Nielsen at the Internet Movie Database
• (Danish) 1960erne.dk profile