AaB Fodbold

See also: Aalborg Boldspilklub

Aalborg BK (football)

Full name	Aalborg Boldspilklub
Short name	AaB
Founded	1885
Ground	Energi Nord Arena, Aalborg (Capacity: League matches: 13.800 UEFA matches: 10.500)
Owner	AaB A/S
Sports director	Lynge Jakobsen
Head coach	Magnus Pehrsson
League	Danish Superliga
2009–10	Superliga, 5th
Supporters groups	AaB Support Club
Home colours Away colours

AaB Fodbold,^[1] also referred to as Aalborg BK^[2] or AaB,^[3] is the football team of Danish sports conglomerate Aalborg Boldspilklub, located in Aalborg. They play in the Danish Superliga and have won three Danish Superliga championships and two Danish Cup trophies.

They are the first Danish football team to ever have knocked out an Italian team in the European competitions, as they beat Italian club Sampdoria in the 2007–08 edition of the UEFA Cup.

History

Aalborg BK was a part of the top-flight Danish leagues from the 1928–29 season, until the relegation of the club in 1947. The club came back to the best league in 1963, and except from the years of 1972, 1978 and 1981–1986, Aalborg BK has since been a part of the various editions of the Danish football championship. Despite its many years in the Danish championship, the club never won a championship title, but Aalborg BK won the Danish Cup competition in 1966 and 1970. Paid football was introduced in Denmark by the Danish Football Association in 1978. As Aalborg BK returned to the best Danish league, the club founded the professional branch of AaB A/S in 1987 to run a professional football team.^[4]

Through the 1990s, the club won its first two Danish championships. In the Danish Superliga 1994-95 season, 24 goals from league topscorer Erik Bo Andersen secured the championship title for the team of coach Poul Erik Andreasen. The club was initially eliminated by Dynamo Kyiv in the qualification matches for the UEFA Champions League 1995-96, but following a bribing scandal Kyiv was banned from the tournament and Aalborg BK entered in their place. Aalborg BK thus became the first Danish team to compete in the UEFA Champions League. As they managed a 2–1 home win over Panathinaikos and a 2–2 draw with Porto in the six matches the club played in the initial group stage, Aalborg BK was eliminated. Erik Bo Andersen left the club for Scottish club Rangers, but in Søren Frederiksen, the club found its next goal-getter. Though not the league top scorer, Frederiksen scored 17 goals in the Danish Superliga 1998-99 which the club won under guidance of Swedish coach Hans Backe. Once again, Aalborg BK faced Dinamo Kyiv in the Champions League qualification, but this time they fell short, losing 1–2 at home and drawing 2–2 in Kyiv after a late Aalborg BK goal was disallowed for being behind the goal line.

Since then, the club established itself in the top half of the Superliga and won a bronze medal and qualified for the UEFA Intertoto Cup 2007. Aalborg BK beat Honka on the away goals rule (2–2 in Finland and 1–1 in Denmark) in the second round, and in the third and final round Aalborg BK faced Gent and drawed, 1–1, in the away game but beat them 2–1 in the following home match. Thus they "won" a place in the UEFA Cup's second qualification round and met Helsinki, the first match ended 2–1 to Helsinki, but in the last match Aalborg BK won 3–0 and were thus ready for the UEFA Cup 2007-08. Drawing the Italian team Sampdoria in the First Round, which have Antonio Cassano and Vincenzo Montella as notable players, made the task seem impossible. Aalborg BK made it again on the away goals rule (getting 2–2 in Genoa and managing 0–0 in Aalborg), and qualified for the group stage – being the first Danish team ever, to send an Italian team "out of Europe." In the group stage Aalborg BK was seeded in the lowest pot, and drew Anderlecht, Tottenham Hotspur, Getafe, and Hapoel Tel Aviv. Drawing with Anderlecht at home, and losing 2–3 to Tottenham (after being ahead 2–0 after the first half) forced Aalborg BK to win at home against Getafe, a match Aalborg BK lost 1–2.

In the 2007–2008 season Aalborg BK won their third Danish Championship. League top scorer was Jeppe Curth from Aalborg BK. Aalborg BK qualified for the qualification to the UEFA Champions League and in the first round Aalborg BK easily eliminated Modriča 7–1. In the final round before the group stage, Aalborg BK defeated Kaunas 2–0 both at home and away and reached the group stage of the Champions League for the second time, the first time a Danish team has achieved this. In the group stage, they finished third in Group E, ahead of Celtic with 6 points.

Their first match in the 2008/09 UEFA Cup was against Spanish side Deportivo La Coruña. Aalborg BK won the first leg at home 3–0 and the second leg on Estadio Riazor 1–3 beating Deportivo securing a 6–1 aggregate. Aalborg BK thereby earned a place among the last 16 teams where they faced Manchester City. After a 2–0 loss in Manchester in the first leg Aalborg BK fought back to tie the score with a 2–0 win at home. The tie ended in agony however, as Aalborg BK were defeated by 4–3 on penalties.

Stadium

Since 1920, Aalborg BK has played its games at Aalborg Stadion. The stadium was opened on 18 July 1920 with a north-south aligned playing field. The first spectator seats was built in 1927, and in 1937 a wooden terrace for 3,000 standing spectators was built. In 1960, the stadium burned down and a new east-western aligned concrete stadium was opened in 1962. In recent years the stadium have been enlarged and rebuilt so that it now has modern facilities and roof over all spectator stands.^[5] The stadium currently has the capacity of 16,000 people (7,700 seats) or 10,500 people (all seats).

Players

Current squad

Up to date as of 2010-09-02.

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Karim Zaza 3 DF Kjetil Wæhler 4 DF Lasse Nielsen 5 DF Kenneth Emil Petersen 6 MF Louay Chanko 8 MF Rasmus Würtz 9 FW Dickson Nwakaeme 10 FW Jeppe Curth 11 FW Daniel Fredheim Holm 14 FW Jones Kusi-Asare 15 MF Dennis Marshall 16 DF Kasper Bøgelund 17 FW Chris Rolfe 19 FW Marcus Tracy

No. Position Player 20 FW Henrik Dalsgaard 22 GK Nikolai Larsen 24 DF Jens-Kristian Sørensen 25 DF Michael Sten Jensen 26 DF Jakob Ahlmann Nielsen 27 MF Patrick Kristensen 28 DF Tobias Ørtoft 29 FW Nicklas Helenius Jensen 30 MF Mathias Wichmann 31 MF Denis Dedovic 32 FW Ronnie Schwartz 33 MF Kasper Kusk 36 MF Daniel Christensen

Noted players

Current management

AaB Fodbold

• Sports director Lynge Jakobsen (1996–)
• Head coach Magnus Pehrsson (2009–)
• Assistant coach Patrik Johansson (2009–)

AaB Fodbold is owned by AaB A/S.

Former head coaches

The following managers have coached AaB since it re-entered the Danish top-flight in 1986:

• Peter Rudbæk (started 1983)
• Poul Erik Andreasen (1990)
• Sepp Piontek (1995)
• Per Westergaard (1996)
• Lars Søndergaard (1997)
• Hans Backe (1998)
• Peter Rudbæk (2000)
• Poul Erik Andreasen (2002)
• Søren Kusk Larsen (2003)
• Erik Hamrén (2003–2008)
• Bruce Rioch (2008)
• Allan Kuhn (2008)
• Magnus Pehrsson (2009–)

Honours

• Danish Superliga
  • Winners: 1994–95, 1998–99, 2007–08
  • 3rd place: 1935–36, 1969, 2006–07
• Danish Cup
  • Winners: 1966, 1970
  • Runners-up (8): 1967, 1987, 1991, 1993, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2009
• UEFA Champions League
  • 3rd qualification round: 1999–2000
  • Group stage: 1995–96, 2008–09
• UEFA Cup
  • Round of 16: 2008–09
  • Group stage: 2007–08
  • 1st round: 1993–94, 1999–2000, 2004–05
• UEFA Cup Winners' Cup
  • 1st round: 1966–67, 1970–71, 1987–88
• UEFA Intertoto Cup
  • Group winners: 1993, 2007

• 49 seasons in the Highest Danish League
• 19 seasons in the Second Highest Danish League
• 5 seasons in the Third Highest Danish League

Recent history

AaB's final ranking in the Danish Superliga standings since 1991.

Season		Pos.	Pl.	W	D	L	GS	GA	P	Cup
1996–97	SL	5	33	12	11	10	46	40	47	quarter-final
1997–98	SL	7	33	12	8	13	54	48	44	quarter-final
1998–99	SL	1	33	17	13	3	65	37	64	final
1999–00	SL	5	33	12	13	8	57	40	49	final
2000–01	SL	5	33	13	10	10	51	49	49	5th round
2001–02	SL	4	33	16	6	11	52	45	54	quarter-final
2002–03	SL	6	33	14	4	15	42	45	46	semi-final
2003–04	SL	5	33	16	9	8	55	41	57	final
2004–05	SL	4	33	15	8	10	59	45	53	5th round
2005–06	SL	5	33	11	12	10	48	44	45	semi-final
2006–07	SL	3	33	18	7	8	55	34	61	2nd round
2007–08	SL	1	33	22	5	6	60	38	71	4th round
2008–09	SL	7	33	9	12	12	40	49	39	final
2009–10	SL	5	33	13	9	11	36	30	48	4th round

References

External links

• (Danish) Official website
• UEFA profile
• (Danish) Aalborg Boldspilklub af 1885 (amateur foundation)
• (Danish) Aalborg Support Club (Official fanclub of AaB)