Jesper Christiansen

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Jesper Christiansen
Personal information
Full name	Jesper Ringsborg Christiansen
Date of birth	April 24, 1978 (1978-04-24) (age 30)
Place of birth	Roskilde, Denmark
Height	1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)
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) 98 (0)
National team2
1998-1999 2005-present	Denmark U21 Denmark	05 (0) 09 (0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 24 May 2008. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 2 June 2008. * Appearances (Goals)

Jesper Ringsborg Christiansen (born April 24, 1978) is a Danish professional footballer, who plays as a goalkeeper for F.C. Copenhagen in the Danish Superliga. He has played eight games for the Denmark national football team, and represented Denmark at the 2002 FIFA World Cup as an unused substitute. With F.C. Copenhagen, he has won the 2005-06 and 2006-07 Superliga championship, and Christiansen was named the 2005, 2006 and 2007 Danish Goalkeeper of the Year.

[edit] Biography

[edit] Danish breakthrough

Born in Roskilde, Christiansen competed with later national team player Peter Madsen to be the best forward on Zealand in his teenage years. At 17, he did not want the life of a professional footballer, and chose to play amateur football in Serie 3, the 4th lowest level of Danish football. For fun, he tried playing the position of goalkeeper, in which position he caught the attention of higher ranking clubs. Roskilde B 1906 offered him a contract in 1997, and he was Roskilde's goalkeeper for one season, before he followed his coach to Ølstykke FC.

In 1998, he moved to Odense Boldklub (OB) in the second tier of Danish football, the Danish 1st Division. He helped OB win promotion to the top-flight Danish Superliga, where he got his national breakthrough. When OB legend Lars Høgh retired in January 2000, a string of strong displays by Christiansen showed a strong temper and good reflexes. He looked the long term replacement of Lars Høgh, though Christiansen never got the chance to make a decent bid for 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.

[edit] On the bench in Glasgow

In Glasgow, he played alongside fellow Dane Peter Løvenkrands, with whom he became good friends,^[1] and he played a handful of games in his first time at Rangers, including a few outings in the UEFA Champions League. When first choice goalkeeper Stefan 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 he was put on loan.

His first loan deal with Danish Superliga club Vejle Boldklub in 2001 was a personal success for Christiansen. Though Vejle was relegated to the 1st Division, he was called up to the Danish national team by national team manager Morten Olsen. He was chosen for the Danish squad at the 2002 FIFA World Cup in South Korea and Japan as a backup for goalkeeper Thomas Sørensen, and was an unused substitute throughout the tournament. After the period in Vejle, he was loaned out to VfL Wolfsburg. This period, was one of the worst in his career, and he was dropped from the national team. He did not play a single first team game for Wolfsburg, and could not get friends in Germany. Christiansen later said he would rather warm the bench in Rangers, than in Wolfsburg.^[1]

[edit] Danish success

In the winter transfer window of the 2003-04 Superliga season, 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 transferred to Brøndby IF. At Viborg, Christiansen showed the impressive form that he had displayed for Odense and Vejle once more. He was recalled to the Danish national team, and made his national team debut on June 2, 2005, in the 1-0 friendly match win against Finland. He played his second game in October 2005, when he came on as a substutute in a 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification 2-1 win against Kazakhstan. He quickly established himself as an understudy for starting national team goalkeeper Thomas Sørensen, and made a number of appearances at times when Sørensen were injuried.

Following one and a half year at Viborg, Christiansen moved to F.C. Copenhagen (FCK) in the summer of 2005. At FCK, he was assigned the no. 1 jersey as the club's first choice for the goalkeeping position. His debut in the FCK-jersey came on July 20, 2005, keeping a clean sheet as AaB were defeated 1-0 at Aalborg Stadion in Aalborg. In the autumn 2006, he was an important part of FCK's participation in the 2006-07 UEFA Champions League, producing many great saves. This brought renewed interest from foreign clubs, as he and team mate Michael Silberbauer were both rumoured on their way to English club Everton in the 2006 winter transfer window.^[2] The transfer never materialized, and in January 2007, Christiansen expressed his desire to further his career by moving to a club in a bigger league,^[3] but a new 5 year long contract cancelled every rumour.^[4]

In the season opening match 2007-08 against FC Nordsjælland at Farum Park, Christiansen was close to score on a header, as it hit the inside of the post, and was parried by Nordsjælland keeper Kim Christensen, after a corner kick deep into extra time.In May 2008 he was linked with a £1million move to West Bromwich Albion^[5]

[edit] Honours

Team

• Danish 1st Division: 1998-99, with Odense
• Danish Superliga: 2005-06 & 2006-07, with Copenhagen

Individual

• Danish Goalkeeper of the Year: 2005, 2006 and 2007
• Danish Team of the Year (Goalkeeper): 2005, 2006 and 2007

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Danish national team profile
• F.C. København profile
• (Danish) Vejle Boldklub profile
• (Danish) Career stats, by Danmarks Radio

v • d • e 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