Jesper Christiansen

Jesper Ringsborg Christiansen (born 24 April 1978) is a Danish professional footballer, who plays as a goalkeeper. He is currently the goalkeeper coach of Fremad Amager.

For the footballer in the striker position, see Jesper Christiansen (footballer, born 1980).
Not to be confused with Jesper Christensen or Jesper Christjansen.

Jesper Christiansen
Personal information
Full name Jesper Ringsborg Christiansen
Date of birth (1978-04-24) 24 April 1978
Place of birth Roskilde, Denmark
Height 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)
Playing position(s) Goalkeeper
Club information
Current team
 Fremad Amager (goalkeeper coach)
Youth career
Borup IF
Ringsted IF
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1997–1998 Roskilde 0 (0)
1998 Ølstykke 4 (0)
1999–2000 OB 12 (0)
2000–2003 Rangers 3 (0)
2002 → Vejle (loan) 14 (0)
2002–2003 → Wolfsburg (loan) 0 (0)
2004–2005 Viborg 46 (0)
2005–2010 Copenhagen 210 (0)
2010–2012 Elfsborg 26 (0)
2012–2014 OB 16 (0)
2014–2016 Vendsyssel FF 60 (0)
2016–2017 Vendsyssel FF 26 (0)
2017–2018 AB 1 (0)
2019 Viborg FF 0 (0)
Total 348 (0)
National team
1998–1999 Denmark U21 5 (0)
2002–2010 Denmark 11 (0)
Teams managed
2017–2018 AB (player-assistant)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

He has previously played for Danish Superliga clubs Odense BK, Vejle BK, Viborg FF, and F.C. Copenhagen, winning four Superliga championships and two Danish Cup trophies with F.C. Copenhagen. He has also played for Scottish Premier League club Rangers.

Christiansen was named the 2005, 2006 and 2007 Danish Goalkeeper of the Year. He has played 11 games for the Denmark national football team, and represented Denmark at the 2002 and 2010 FIFA World Cup tournaments as an unused understudy of Thomas Sørensen.

Club career

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.

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. His league debut was a 3–0 home defeat to Kilmarnock.[2] When first choice goalkeeper Stefan Klos returned from his injury, he once again took control of the goalkeeper spot. Christiansen could not force his way into 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. After the period in Vejle, Christiansen was loaned out to VfL Wolfsburg.[3] This period was one of the worst in his career, the result being that he was dropped from the national team. He did not play a single first team game for Wolfsburg, and did not make many friends in Germany. Christiansen later said he would rather warm the bench at Rangers, than in Wolfsburg.[1]

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.

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 20 July 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 teammate Michael Silberbauer were both rumoured on their way to English club Everton in the 2006 winter transfer window.[4] 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,[5] but a new 5 year long contract cancelled every rumour.[6]

In the opening match of the 2007–08 season, 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.[7] In May 2008 he was linked with a £1 million move to West Bromwich Albion. For the 2009–10 season, FCK bought Johan Wiland as a backup. When Christiansen was injured against Brøndby IF in the seventh Superliga game of the season, Wiland replaced him with such success that Christiansen was permanently demoted to the bench.[8] Media reports suggested he wanted a transfer,[9] and when FCK bought Kim Christensen as a new backup keeper in the Summer 2010, Christiansen was expected to leave the club.[8]

He signed for IF Elfsborg of the Swedish Allsvenskan championship in June 2010.[10]

International career

During his time with Vejle, Christiansen was called up for the senior 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 starting national team goalkeeper Thomas Sørensen, and was an unused substitute throughout the tournament.

In his time at Viborg, Christiansen was recalled to the Danish national team, and made his national team debut on 2 June 2005, in a 1–0 friendly match win against Finland. He played his second game in October 2005, when he came on as a substitute in a 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification 2–1 win against Kazakhstan. He quickly established himself as an understudy for Thomas Sørensen, and made a number of appearances at times when Sørensen was injured.

Before the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Christiansen lacked playing time at FCK, and found himself in contention with Kim Christensen for the spot as third goalkeeper in the squad for the finals. Eventually Morten Olsen chose Christiansen for his team,[11] and he spent his time at the tournament as an unused substitute.

Coaching career

After Christiansen left Vendsyssel FF in the summer 2017, he was officially announced as the new assistant manager of Danish 1st Division club AB.[12] In January 2018, he left AB to become goalkeeper coach at Fremad Amager.[13] In 2019, he also functioned as assistant manager for a short period.[14]

On 15 July 2019 it was announced, that Christiansen had left Fremad Amager because he wanted to stay closer to his family and then became the new goalkeeper coach of Viborg FF.[15] In November 2019, Christiansen was on the bench for Viborg in three games, after first keeper, Ellery Balcombe, was banned with a red card and the third and fourth choices was out with injuries, which left Viborg with only Ingvar Jónsson who was able to play.[16] On 13 July 2020 Fremad Amager announced that Christiansen had returned to the club.[17]

Career statistics
Club performance League Cup League Cup Continental Total
SeasonClubLeague AppsGoals AppsGoals AppsGoals AppsGoals AppsGoals
Denmark League Danish Cup League Cup Europe Total
1997–98RB 1906Danish 1st Division0000
1998–99Ølstykke FCDanish 2nd Division4000
1998–99OBDanish 1st Division0000
1999–00Danish Superliga0000
2000–0112000
Scotland League Scottish Cup League Cup Europe Total
2000–01RangersScottish Premier League3000102060
2001–020000000000
2003–040000000000
Denmark League Danish Cup League Cup Europe Total
2001–02Vejle BDanish Superliga140000000140
Germany League DFB-Pokal Other Europe Total
2002–03VfL WolfsburgGerman Bundesliga0000000000
Denmark League Danish Cup League Cup Europe Total
2003–04Viborg FFDanish Superliga130100000140
2004–05330100000340
2005–06Copenhagen3301010140490
2006–073305000180560
2007–083203000100450
2008–093103000110440
2009–10110000050160
Total Denmark 212010
Scotland 3000102060
Germany 0000000000
Career total 215020

Honours

Club

OB

F.C. Copenhagen

Individual
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References
  1. FCK Balls #3, Advice A/S, Jesper Traunberg, 23 May 2006, pp. 100–108
  2. "Three-goal Killie deepen Ibrox crisis". BBC. 28 October 2000. Retrieved 2 May 2017.
  3. "Dane leaves Ibrox on loan" BBC Sport website (23 July 2002)
  4. (in Danish) Everton på jagt efter FCK-profiler, Bold.dk, 6 November 2006
  5. (in Danish) Jesper Christiansen vil videre – fra FCK Archived 30 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine, B.T., 16 January 2007
  6. "Jesper Christiansen forlænger med F.C. København" (in Danish). F.C. Copenhagen. 24 May 2007.
  7. Rasmussen, Anders B. (18 July 2007). "FCN fik drømmestart på sæsonen" (in Danish). TV 2 Sporten. Retrieved 18 July 2007.
  8. http://tipsbladet.dk/nyhed/vm-2010/jesper-c-til-elfsborg
  9. http://tipsbladet.dk/nyhed/sas-liga/avis-jesper-c-paa-vej-vaek-fra-fck
  10. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 31 July 2012. Retrieved 30 April 2011.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. http://tipsbladet.dk/nyhed/vm-2010/chok-silberbauer-udeladt-af-vm-truppen
  12. Jesper Christiansen ny assistent i AB‚ bold.dk, 8 July 2017
  13. Jesper C. ny målmandstræner i Fremad A., bold.dk, 4 January 2018
  14. ”NY” ASSISTENTTRÆNER TIL FREMAD, fremadamagerelite.dk, 4 July 2019
  15. Christiansen erstatter Lowe som målmandstræner, vff.dk, 15 July 2019
  16. Jesper Christiansen kan få comeback i Viborg, bold.dk, 5 November 2019
  17. FREMAD OG JESPER C GENFORENES, fremadamagerelite.dk, 13 July 2020
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