David Nielsen facts for kids
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Nielsen in 2008
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | David Jean Nielsen | ||
| Date of birth | 1 December 1976 | ||
| Place of birth | Skagen, Denmark | ||
| Height | 1.83 m | ||
| Playing position | Forward | ||
| Club information | |||
| Current club | Lyngby (Manager) | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1982–1992 | Skagen | ||
| 1992–1993 | Frederikshavn | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 1993–1996 | OB | 9 | (2) |
| 1996 | → Lyngby (loan) | 13 | (10) |
| 1996–1997 | Fortuna Düsseldorf | 13 | (1) |
| 1997–2001 | Copenhagen | 108 | (36) |
| 2000–2001 | → Grimsby Town (loan) | 16 | (5) |
| 2001–2002 | Wimbledon | 23 | (4) |
| 2001–2002 | → Norwich City (loan) | 5 | (5) |
| 2002–2003 | Norwich City | 21 | (3) |
| 2003–2005 | AaB | 40 | (17) |
| 2005–2006 | Midtjylland | 30 | (8) |
| 2006–2007 | Start | 13 | (5) |
| 2007 | OB | 14 | (3) |
| 2008 | → Strømsgodset (loan) | 23 | (9) |
| 2009–2010 | Brann | 33 | (4) |
| 2011 | Fyllingen | 0 | (0) |
| Total | 361 | (112) | |
| National team | |||
| 1992 | Denmark U16 | 3 | (3) |
| 1991–1992 | Denmark U17 | 21 | (14) |
| 1993–1995 | Denmark U19 | 18 | (13) |
| 1996–1997 | Denmark U21 | 8 | (3) |
| Teams managed | |||
| 2011 | Løv-Ham (assistant) | ||
| 2011–2013 | Nest-Sotra | ||
| 2014 | Strømsgodset (assistant) | ||
| 2014–2015 | Strømsgodset | ||
| 2015–2017 | Lyngby | ||
| 2017–2022 | AGF | ||
| 2023–2024 | Kifisia | ||
| 2024– | Lyngby | ||
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David Jean Nielsen (born 1 December 1976) is a Danish professional football manager, currently in charge of Lyngby, and former player.
He played for a number of Danish clubs, as well as Fortuna Düsseldorf in Germany and English clubs Grimsby Town, Wimbledon and Norwich City. His greatest triumph was the 1997 Danish Cup victory, which he won with Danish club Copenhagen. He played 46 matches and scored 33 goals for various Danish youth national teams between 1992 and 1997, including eight games and three goals for the Denmark U21 national team.
Nielsen has attracted controversy at various times in his career for falling into serious gambling debt, assaulting a teammate and then, in November 2008, admitting matchfixing in a Danish game played in 2004.
Contents
Playing career
Born in Sønderborg but raised in Skagen, Nielsen started playing youth football in Skagen and Frederikshavn. He scored 17 goals in 24 matches for the Danish under-16 and under-17 national teams. He received offers from English club Tottenham Hotspur and Bayern Munich in Germany, but decided to stay in Denmark, as he was brought to OB in the top-flight Danish Superliga in May 1993, 16 years old. Here he became known for his elaborate goal celebration, a round off stretch jump with a backtuck.
He was loaned out to Lyngby in January 1996, where he got his national breakthrough with 10 goals in 13 league games. When his Odense contract ran out in the Summer 1996, he moved abroad to play for Fortuna Düsseldorf in the Bundesliga championship. He did not find playing success with the club, and after half a year in Germany, Nielsen moved back to Denmark to play for Copenhagen in a DEM 600,000 transfer deal in February 1997. He played three and a half years at Copenhagen, with whom he won the 1997 Danish Cup. He was club top goalscorer in 1998, 1999 and 2000, and was elected 1999 Copenhagen Player of the Year.
He was loaned out to English club Grimsby Town in the second tier of English football, the English First Division in October 2000, as Grimsby had a hard time scoring goals. When his loan deal ended in March 2001, Nielsen moved on to English club Wimbledon on a free transfer. He joined Norwich City on loan in December 2001, and scored five goals in five games during his loan spell, including one against his parent club, prompting Norwich manager Nigel Worthington to pay £210,000 to Wimbledon to secure his services on a permanent basis. Whilst playing for Norwich City he was a member of the team that reached the final of the First Division play-offs in May 2002. However, he was unable to maintain his initial impressive scoring rate and left the club at his own request to return to Denmark in August 2003.
He signed with Superliga club AaB, where he rediscovered his goalscoring ability. Following a training ground bust-up with teammate Allan Gaarde in February 2005, Nielsen was fired by the club. Within days, he was hired by league rivals Midtjylland, to replace Egyptian striker Mohamed Zidan. He was let go by FCM in May 2006, and he moved abroad to play for Norwegian club Start. He became an immediate hit scoring seven goals in 21 matches, but left the club during the reign of manager Stig Inge Bjørnebye. On 20 July 2007, he signed a three-year contract with the Danish Superliga side OB. On 26 March, he went on a loan deal with the Norwegian club Strømsgodset for the rest of 2008.
Nielsen was sold to the Norwegian club Brann as a part of a deal where Njougu Demba Nyren went in the opposite direction in January 2009. During his stay in Brann, Nielsen has spent most of his time as a substitute, and when he had been playing, he had the role as a facilitator for the other striker Erik Huseklepp. After his contract with Brann expired in June 2010, Nielsen planned to stay in Bergen and, together with Per Ove Ludvigsen and Kjetil Knutsen, to offer organized soccer practice for kids through a company called Max Fotball.
Managerial career
Nielsen was appointed assistant manager of Løv-Ham on 27 May 2011. Later that summer, he was appointed manager of Nest-Sotra. After saving the club from relegation from the 2. Divisjon in 2011, he led them to a fourth place in 2012 and promotion to the 1. division in 2013.
On 11 November 2013, he was appointed assistant manager of Strømsgodset. After just seven months, he was appointed manager, when Ronny Deila left for the vacant managing position at Celtic. On 26 May 2015, Strømsgodset announced that Nielsen would step down as manager in mutual agreement with the club.
On 17 June 2015, he signed a three-year-contract as manager for Danish 1st Division club Lyngby.
On 30 September 2017, he signed a three-year contract as coach for Danish Superliga team AGF. In May 2022 Nielsen left AGF by mutual consent.
On 8 December 2023, Nielsen signed a contract with Kifisia in the Greek Super League for the remaining six months of the season. He was dismissed on 29 January 2024, only six weeks after being appointed.
Nielsen returned as manager of Lyngby on 5 March 2024 on a contract running until the end of the season following the sacking of Magne Hoseth.
Personal life
Nielsen was born in Denmark to a DR Congolese father and a Danish mother.
Career statistics
| Club | Season | League | Cup | Total | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| OB | 1994–95 | Danish Superliga | 8 | 2 | 8 | 2 | ||
| 1995–96 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||||
| Total | 9 | 2 | 9 | 2 | ||||
| Lyngby (loan) | 1995–96 | Danish Superliga | 13 | 10 | 13 | 10 | ||
| Fortuna Düsseldorf | 1996–97 | Bundesliga | 13 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 15 | 2 |
| Copenhagen | 1996–97 | Danish Superliga | 14 | 1 | 14 | 1 | ||
| 1997–98 | 31 | 11 | 31 | 11 | ||||
| 1998–99 | 30 | 15 | 30 | 15 | ||||
| 1999–00 | 26 | 8 | 26 | 8 | ||||
| 2000–01 | 7 | 1 | 7 | 1 | ||||
| Total | 108 | 36 | 108 | 36 | ||||
| Grimsby Town (loan) | 2000–01 | First Division | 17 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 19 | 6 |
| Wimbledon | 2000–01 | First Division | 11 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 2 |
| 2001–02 | 12 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 2 | ||
| Total | 23 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 24 | 4 | ||
| Norwich City | 2001–02 | First Division | 23 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 26 | 8 |
| 2002–03 | 33 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 37 | 6 | ||
| 2003–04 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | ||
| Total | 58 | 14 | 8 | 0 | 66 | 14 | ||
| AaB | 2003–04 | Danish Superliga | 24 | 11 | 24 | 11 | ||
| 2004–05 | 16 | 6 | 16 | 6 | ||||
| Total | 40 | 17 | 40 | 17 | ||||
| Midtjylland | 2004–05 | Danish Superliga | 10 | 2 | 10 | 2 | ||
| 2005–06 | 20 | 6 | 20 | 6 | ||||
| Total | 30 | 8 | 30 | 8 | ||||
| Start | 2006 | Tippeligaen | 13 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 15 | 8 |
| 2007 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 3 | ||
| Total | 21 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 24 | 11 | ||
| OB | 2007–08 | Danish Superliga | 14 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 3 |
| Strømsgodset (loan) | 2008 | Tippeligaen | 23 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 26 | 11 |
| Brann | 2009 | Tippeligaen | 23 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 25 | 6 |
| 2010 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | ||
| Total | 33 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 35 | 6 | ||
| Fyllingen | 2011 | Third Division | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Career total | 402 | 120 | 22 | 10 | 424 | 130 | ||
Managerial statistics
| Team | Nat | From | To | Record | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M | W | D | L | Win% | Ref. | ||||||
| Nest-Sotra |  |
13 July 2011 | 11 November 2013 | 72 | 41 | 10 | 21 | 56.94 | |||
| Strømsgodset | |
7 June 2014 | 26 May 2015 | 33 | 14 | 5 | 14 | 42.42 | |||
| Lyngby |  |
17 June 2015 | 30 September 2017 | 92 | 47 | 17 | 28 | 51.09 | |||
| AGF | |
30 September 2017 | 22 May 2022 | 184 | 73 | 51 | 60 | 39.67 | |||
| Kifisia |  |
8 December 2023 | 29 January 2024 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 14.29 | |||
| Lyngby | |
5 March 2024 | Present | 13 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 38.46 | |||
| Total | 401 | 181 | 89 | 131 | 45.14 | — | |||||
Honours
Player
Copenhagen
- Danish Cup: 1997
Individual
- Copenhagen Player of the Year: 1999
Manager
Lyngby
- Danish 1st Division: 2015–16
