Jens Martin Knudsen (footballer)

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Personal information
Jens Martin Knudsen
Date of birth	June 11, 1967 (1967-06-11) (age 41)
Place of birth	Saltangará, Faroe Islands
Height	1,81 m.
Playing position	goalkeeper player/manager
Club information
Current club	NSÍ Runavík
Number	1
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1985-1986 1986-1987 1988-1991 1992-1997 1998-1999 1999 1999-2000 2000 2000 2001-2002 2003 2004-2007	NSÍ Runavík Frederikshavn fI NSÍ GÍ Gøta Leiftur GÍ → Ayr United (loan) B36 Tórshavn Leiftur NSÍ NSÍ NSÍ	? (?) ? (?) ? (?) 105 (0) 36 (0) 1 (0) 4 (0) 1 (0) 16 (0) 36 (0) ? (?) 69 (0)
National team²
1988-2006	Faroe Islands	65 (0)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 4 November 2007. ² National team caps and goals correct as of 11 October 2007. * Appearances (Goals)

Jens Martin Knudsen (born 11 June 1967, in Saltangará) was a Faroese footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He was perhaps best known for wearing a cap in his matches as a result of an injury he suffered at age 14.

1 Club career
2 International career
3 Personal life
4 External links
5 References

[edit] Club career

Knudsen started his career as an amateur footballer for local team NSÍ Runavík. In 1992 he moved to GÍ Gøta to win a Faroese championship medal four times in a row between 1993 and 1996. After two seasons in Iceland with Leiftur he returned to the Faroe Islands and spent a short time on loan at Scottish team Ayr United before moving back to Leiftur for one more season. In 2001 he finally returned to his NSÍ again to become player/manager. At the age of 40, he retired from NSÍ Runavík.

[edit] International career

He is famous for his 65 appearances for the Faroe Islands national football team,^[1] and his penchant for wearing a white, wooly bobble hat.^[2] Knudsen made his debut in an August 1988 friendly match against Iceland, the country's first FIFA-recognized match.

Despite being one of the weaker members of UEFA, the Faroe Islands pulled off one of the most famous upsets in soccer history beating then FIFA World Cup 1990 competitors Austria 1-0 in a UEFA 92 qualifier. Knudsen was one of the heroes on that night, pulling off a massive string of saves and becoming a cult hero in the process. At the time he was a part-time forklift truck driver from the Runavik fish factory.

On the BBC TV series Fantasy Football League in 1996, he appeared with presenters Frank Skinner and David Baddiel on the shows famous segment Phoenix From The Flames to re-create the famous moment. David and Frank played the part of the Austrian strikers and Jens played the part of himself, saving their shots exactly the same as in the actual match with the real footage played after.

He played his final international match on 14 May 2006 against Poland.