Brian Priske Pedersen (born 14 May 1977) is a Danish professional
football manager and former
player, who is the current head coach of
Czech First League club
Sparta Prague. Priske played as a
defender during his playing career.
He played 24 matches for the
Denmark national football team
The Denmark men's national football team ( da, Danmarks herre-fodboldlandshold or ''herrelandsholdet'') represents Denmark in men's international football competitions. It is controlled by the Danish Football Association (DBU), the governing bo ...
from 2003 to 2007, and represented Denmark at the
2004 European Championship (Euro 2004) tournament.
Club career
Born in
Horsens, Priske started his career for Danish club Stensballe IK, a Horsens suburb club. Still a youth, he moved to Horsens Forenede Sportsklubber (HFS), now called AC Horsens. He moved on to
Aarhus Fremad
Aarhus Fremad (, "Aarhus Forward") is an association football club located in Aarhus N, the northern part of Aarhus, Denmark. The team plays in the Danish 2nd Division, the third tier of the Danish football league system. Aarhus Fremad competed i ...
in 1997 before settling at
AaB in 1999. There he won the
Danish Superliga championship in 1999, and captained the club at the end of his tenure. He moved to Belgian club
Genk in the summer of 2003.
When he played the full match in Denmark's 4–1 win over
England on 17 August 17, Priske aroused the interest of several Premiership club and he joined
Portsmouth five days later for an undisclosed fee, signing a three-year deal. Priske was given a good run in the Portsmouth side by
Alain Perrin, but after Perrin was sacked that November Priske was dropped by returning manager
Harry Redknapp
Henry James Redknapp (born 2 March 1947) is an English former football manager and player. He has previously managed AFC Bournemouth, West Ham United, Portsmouth, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur, Queens Park Rangers and Birmingham City. In his ...
. Many Portsmouth supporters assumed that this was because of Redknapp's disdain of using players he himself had not purchased, and speculation was rife in the January transfer window that Priske would be leaving the club.
A move away from
Fratton Park
Fratton Park is a football ground in Portsmouth, England, which is the home of Portsmouth F.C. Fratton Park remains as the only home football ground in Portsmouth FC's entire history.
The early Fratton Park was designed by local architect A ...
never materialized, however, and following Portsmouth's poor run of form and injuries to several defenders, Priske was returned to the side for match against
Manchester City
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...
on 11 March. Priske was from then an ever-present as Portsmouth then went on an excellent run of form for their final 10 matches of the season, earning the club Premiership survival for another year. Since arriving from K.R.C. Genk, Priske has been a popular player amongst Portsmouth supporters. Many were originally unhappy that Priske had been frozen-out of the team with Redknapp's return, and felt justified in their valuation of the player after the impressive role he played in earning the club survival from
relegation.
Priske had become a fan favourite since his arrival at Fratton Park as a result of his impressive form, but in spite of this, rumours of his departure from the south coast resurfaced during the 2006–07 pre-season. Priske revealed to the Danish media that he had been told to find a new club before the start of the next season before returning to Belgium, joining
Club Brugge
(), known simply as Club Brugge (in English also: ''Club Bruges''), is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges, Belgium. It was founded in 1891 and its home ground is the Jan Breydel Stadium, which has a capacity of 29,062. in August 2006. The news was met with confusion and anger among Portsmouth fans. In Bruges, Priske competed with fan favourites
Olivier De Cock
Olivier De Cock (born 9 November 1975) is a Belgian former professional footballer who played as a right-back. He is manager of the reserve team of R. Knokke FC.
Club career
De Cock was born in Eeklo. He joined Club Brugge in 1987. In 1995, h ...
and
Birger Maertens
Birger Maertens (born 28 June 1980) is a Belgian former professional footballer who played as a centre back. He obtained two caps for the Belgium national team.
Club career
Club Brugge
Born in Bruges, Maertens joined Club Brugge KV in 1994. ...
for a place in the starting line-up. Priske became a first team regular, and helped the team win the 2007
Belgian Cup.
In the summer of 2008, Priske returned to the Danish Superliga to play for
Vejle Boldklub. He could not save the club from relegation to the
Danish 1st Division
The 1st Division (''1. Division'') is the second-highest football league in Denmark, also known as NordicBet Liga for sponsorship reasons. From 1945 to 1991 the 1. Division was the name of the highest level of football in Denmark. With the forma ...
in 2009, but stayed with the team. In the summer of 2010, he was loaned out to Superliga club
FC Midtjylland. On 21 January 2011, he signed for
Start
Start can refer to multiple topics:
*Takeoff, the phase of flight where an aircraft transitions from moving along the ground to flying through the air
* Starting lineup in sports
*Standing start, and rolling start, in an auto race
Acronyms
*St ...
.
International career
While at AaB, Priske made his debut for the Danish national team in February 2003. He was a part of the Danish squad at the Euro 2004, and played 14 minutes in the 0–0 group game with
Italy, coming on as a substitute to replace
Christian Poulsen
Christian Bjørnshøj Poulsen (born 28 February 1980) is a Danish former footballer. After starting his career with Holbæk, he played for a number of European clubs as a defensive midfielder, winning the Danish Superliga championship with ...
. Following retirement and injuries in the Danish defense, Priske became a more consistent member of the national team. In the
2006 World Cup qualification
6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number.
In mathematics
Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...
stage he played 10 out of 12 matches, though Denmark did not qualify for the finals. He played one game in the
UEFA Euro 2008 qualification, a 1–2 loss to
Northern Ireland in November 2007, after which he was dropped from the national team.
Managerial career
Priske served as assistant of
FC Midtjylland and
FC København
Football Club Copenhagen ( da, Football Club København, ), commonly known as FC København, FC Copenhagen, Copenhagen or simply FCK, is a professional Danish football club in Copenhagen, Denmark. FCK was founded in 1992 as a superstructure on ...
from 2011 to 2019. When Kenneth Andersen resigned as manager of
FC Midtjylland on 19 August 2019, Priske succeeded him. On 29 may 2021 Priske signed a new contract for two seasons with Royal Antwerp Football Club.
Managerial statistics
Honours
Player
AaB
*
Danish Superliga:
1998–99
Club Brugge
*
Belgian Cup: 2007
Manager
Midtjylland
*
Danish Superliga:
2019–20
References
External links
FC Midtjyllandprofile
Danish national team profileNationalFootballTeams statistics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Priske, Brian
1977 births
Living people
People from Horsens
Association football defenders
Danish footballers
Vejle Boldklub players
AC Horsens players
Aarhus Fremad players
AaB Fodbold players
K.R.C. Genk players
Portsmouth F.C. players
Club Brugge KV players
FC Midtjylland players
IK Start players
Danish Superliga players
Belgian First Division A players
Premier League players
Eliteserien players
Expatriate footballers in England
Expatriate footballers in Belgium
UEFA Euro 2004 players
Denmark international footballers
Denmark under-21 international footballers
Danish expatriate footballers
FC Midtjylland managers
Royal Antwerp F.C. managers
Danish football managers
Danish expatriate sportspeople in England
Danish expatriate sportspeople in Belgium
Danish Superliga managers
Sportspeople from the Central Denmark Region
AC Sparta Prague managers
Czech First League managers
Danish expatriate sportspeople in the Czech Republic
Expatriate football managers in the Czech Republic