Marc Rieper

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Marc Rieper-Jensen (born June 5, 1968) is a Danish former professional football (soccer) player, who most notably played as a central defender for English club West Ham United F.C. and Celtic F.C. from Scotland. He played 61 matches and scored two goals for the Denmark national football team, first as the defensive partner of Lars Olsen and most prominently as part of a defending duo with Jes Høgh in the Euro 1996 and 1998 FIFA World Cup tournaments. He is the older brother of footballer Mads Rieper.

Born in Rødovre, Rieper started his career at Danish club AGF Aarhus in 1988. While at AGF, he debuted for the Danish national team in the 1-0 friendly match win against Sweden on September 5, 1990. He played a further three national team matches before moving on to Danish Superliga rivals Brøndby IF in 1992. While at Brøndby, he secured a place in the national team starting line-up, as he played 38 matches in a row from October 1992 to August 1996.

Rieper won the 1994 Danish Cup trophy with Brøndby, before he moved abroad in December that year to play for West Ham United F.C. in England. While at West Ham, he was selected for the Danish national team which won the the 1995 King Fahd Cup, with Rieper playing full time in all three matches. He also played full time in Denmark's three matches at the Euro 1996 tournament. In 1997, he went to Scotland to play for Celtic F.C., with whom he won the 1998 Scottish Premier League championship. At the 1998 FIFA World Cup, Rieper played full time for the Danish national team, and scored a goal against Saudi Arabia. Denmark's World Cup campaign ended in a quarter-final defeat to later runners-up Brazil. Following one year at Celtic, Rieper suffered a foot injury which ended his career in late 1998.

Following his retirement he spent some time in 2001 as an assistant coach at childhood club AGF Aarhus. Through his connections to Celtic, he brought over many reserve team players to AGF Aarhus, including later Republic of Ireland international player Liam Miller. As head coach John Stampe was fired in 2002, Rieper resigned from the club as well. He now owns and runs a hotel in the town of Aarhus.

[edit] Honours

• Danish Cup 1994, with Brøndby IF
• King Fahd Cup 1995, with Denmark
• Scottish Premier League 1998, with Celtic
• Scottish League Cup 1997, with Celtic

[edit] External links

• Danish national team profile
• Sporting-Heroes career statistics
• National Football Teams career statistics

v • d • e Denmark squad - UEFA Euro 1996 1 Schmeichel • 2 Helveg • 3 Rieper • 4 Olsen • 5 Høgh • 6 Schjønberg • 7 B.S. Nielsen • 8 Thomsen • 9 Beck • 10 M. Laudrup • 11 B. Laudrup • 12 Piechnik • 13 Larsen • 14 Risager • 15 E.B. Andersen • 16 Høgh • 17 A. Nielsen • 18 Vilfort • 19 Tøfting • 20 Laursen • 21 S. Andersen • 22 Krogh • Coach: R.M. Nielsen

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