Henrik Nielsen (footballer, born 1965)

Last updated

Henrik Nielsen
Personal information
Full name Henrik Hegelund Nielsen [1]
Date of birth (1965-03-29) 29 March 1965 (age 60)
Place of birth Virum, Denmark [1]
Height 1.89 m (6 ft 2 in) [1]
Position(s) Striker
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
1984–1987 B93 (34)
1987–1988 AEK Athens 40 (26)
1988–1989 Iraklis 14 (1)
1989–1990 Fenerbahçe 19 (5)
1990 B 1903 2 (0)
1990–1992 Lille 30 (9)
1992 Brøndby 8 (2)
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Henrik Nielsen (born 29 March 1965) is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a striker.

Contents

Career

Nielsen started his football career in the Danish 2nd Division, playing for B93. In the summer of 1987, he was scouted by the manager of AEK Athens, Todor Veselinović, who convinced the club's president Andreas Zafiropoulos, to sign him. [2]

The "Copenhagen doll", as he was nicknamed in Greece, initially resembled his predecessor in the position at AEK, Håkan Sandberg, in terms of appearance. He immediately adjusted to the team and showed his scoring ability, scoring goals in every way. As a result of his performance, at the end of the season he emerged as the top scorer of the Alpha Ethniki with 21 goals, [3] while he was much loved by the fans of AEK. [4] On 6 December 1987 he scored four goals in a 7–1 win at home against Veria. [5] The following season everything changed, as the new coach of the club, Dušan Bajević showed that he did not trust him that much. As a result, Nielsen was sometimes played as a starter, but he was also left as a back-up choice at the bench. Eventually, in December 1988, Bajevic and the club's president, Gidopoulos decided to let him leave the club as they were full at the foreigners' positions. It was a decision that certainly caused surprise; however, AEK won the championship at the end of the season, generally justifying the choices of the team's manager. [6]

Since his career at AEK was over, Nielsen was transferred to Iraklis, where he played for the rest of the season. [7] In the summer of 1989 he left Greece and signed for Fenerbahçe, where he won the Turkish Cup and the President Cup in 1990. Afterwards, he played for B 1903 for a few months. He later spent two seasons with Lille. Nielsen ended his career in 1992, due to an injury, playing in the Danish 2nd Division with Brøndby. [8]

Personal life

Nielsen lives in Copenhagen with his wife and has five daughters. They successfully run a wine production business. [9]

Honours

AEK Athens

Fenerbahçe

Individual

References

  1. 1 2 3 Henrik Nielsen at WorldFootball.net
  2. ↑ Κούβαρης, Γιώργος. "Χένρικ Νίλσεν: "Με είχαν διώξει κακήν-κακώς από την ΑΕΚ"". gazzetta.gr (in Greek).
  3. ↑ Karasoulos, Spyros (12 June 2009). "Greece – List of Topscorers". RSSSF .
  4. ↑ "Χένρικ Νίλσεν: Τα γενέθλια ενός μεγάλου γκολτζή, η αγάπη του για την ΑΕΚ και η άγνωστη ιστορία". aek365.org.
  5. ↑ Καζαντζόγλου, Σταύρος (5 February 2017). "Απόλυτη κυριαρχία, πολλά γκολ". enwsi.gr (in Greek).
  6. ↑ "Αντίο του Νίλσεν με δύο γκολ και πρωτιά". aek-live.gr (in Greek). 11 December 2019.
  7. ↑ Γιώργος Πάστρας (16 December 1988). "Ο Νίλσεν στον Ηρακλή". Athletic Echo (in Greek). pp. 1, 3.
  8. ↑ "danskfodbold.com – DBU's Officielle Statistikere". danskfodbold.com.
  9. ↑ "Χένρικ Νίλσεν". aekpedia.com.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.