Henning Jensen (17 August 1949 – 4 December 2017) was a Danish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player who played professionally for German club

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e. V. Mönchengladbach, commonly known as Borussia Mönchengladbach (), Mönchengladbach () or Gladbach (; abbreviated as Borussia MG, BMG), is a professional Association football, football club based in ...

, Spanish club

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

and Dutch club

Ajax Amsterdam Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax (), also known as AFC Ajax, Ajax Amsterdam, or simply Ajax, is a Dutch professional football club based in Amsterdam, that plays in the , the top tier in Dutch football. Historically, Ajax (named after the l ...

where he won the domestic league championship in each country. He scored nine goals in 21 gamesNot including the January 1973 exhibition match "Old Europe" vs. "New Europe", which marked the 1973 European Community expansion. Jensen started the game, scored a goal, and was substituted after an hour, as "New Europe" won 2–0. 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 1972 to 1980.

Biography

Born in Nørresundby, Jensen started playing football for local team

Nørresundby BK Nørresundby () is a city in Aalborg Municipality, north of Limfjorden, in Vendsyssel, in Denmark. The urban area has a population of 23,718 (1 January 2021). It is located just north of Aalborg, which lies south of Limfjorden. Statistically its o ...

in the

Denmark Series The Denmark Series ( da, Danmarksserien) is the fifth tier in the Danish football league system. Teams are divided into four groups of ten. The top team in each group is promoted to the Danish 3rd Division. The bottom three teams in each group are ...

, the then fourth best division of

Danish football Association football is the most popular sport in Denmark, with 331,693 players and 1,647 clubs registered () under the Danish FA. The game was introduced into Denmark by British sailors. Kjøbenhavns Boldklub is the oldest club outside of the U ...

. Playing as a Right sided Attacker, he made his debut for the Danish national team in May 1972, and scored a goal in the

1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. ...

qualification match against

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

. Before having ever played a Danish league game, he moved abroad in 1972 as he signed a professional contract with German club Borussia Mönchengladbach. At Mönchengladbach, he played alongside fellow Danish national team player Allan Simonsen in attack. He won the

1972–73 DFB-Pokal The 1972–73 DFB-Pokal was the 30th season of the annual German football cup competition. It began on 10 December 1972 and ended on 23 June 1973. 32 teams competed in the tournament of five rounds. As in the year before, the knock-out rounds were ...

1974–75 UEFA Cup The 1974–75 UEFA Cup was won by Borussia Mönchengladbach over Twente Twente ( nl, Twente , Tweants dialect: ''Tweante'') is a region in the eastern Netherlands. It encompasses the most urbanised and easternmost part of the province of Over ...

, and two

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

championships in his four years at the club. After 44 goals in 125 league games, he earned a lucrative move to defending Spanish

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

champions Real Madrid in 1976. He played three successful years at Real Madrid, winning the 1977–78 and

1978–79 La Liga The 1978–79 La Liga was the 48th season since its establishment. It started on September 2, 1978, and finished on June 3, 1979. Team locations League table Results table Pichichi Trophy References La Liga 1978/1979Primera ...

championships. While in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, he scored the 300th goal in the European competition for the club. He moved to the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

in 1979, to play for defending Dutch

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

champions Ajax Amsterdam of the coaches Cor Brom and

Leo Beenhakker Leo Beenhakker CM (; born 2 August 1942) is a Dutch international football coach. He has had an extensive and successful career both at club and international level. He led both Ajax and Feyenoord to Dutch championships and also had domestic s ...

. He met in Amsterdam other Danish players like

Frank Arnesen Frank Arnesen (born 30 September 1956) is a former Danish footballer and sporting director at Dutch football club Feyenoord. Arnesen was the Director of Football at English football clubs Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea, and was Sporting Director a ...

and Søren Lerby (and two years later also for a very short period Jesper Olsen). The routined player had to work hard for his position in the team for the first time at the age of 30 years. The midfielder had much rivalry from

Dick Schoenaker Dirk "Dick" Hendrikus Schoenaker (born 30 November 1952) is a retired Dutch football midfielder, who represented the Netherlands at the 1978 FIFA World Cup in Argentina, wearing the number three jersey. Career His football-career started at Wa ...

and Søren Lerby, which trio formed one of the strongest (attacking) midfields of Europe those years. Jensen started as centre forward, when central attacker

Ray Clarke Ray Clarke (born 25 September 1952) is an English retired professional footballer who played in England for Tottenham Hotspur, Swindon Town, Mansfield Town, Brighton and Newcastle United, in the Netherlands for Sparta Rotterdam and Ajax Amst ...

was sold. Thereafter he played at the wings, as wing attacker for a period. When

had been injured a part of the 1979–80 season Jensen moved to the midfield, there playing his best matches for Ajax Amsterdam. In the season 1979–80 he won with Ajax the Dutch Eredivisie league championship and also the semi-finals of the European Cup tournament for champions were reached that season. He returned to Denmark in July 1981, to play for

AGF Aarhus Aarhus Gymnastikforening (; commonly known as AGF ), is a professional sports club based in Aarhus, Jutland, Denmark. Founded in 1880, it is one of the oldest clubs in the country and gymnastics and fencing are featured as its main sports. Howev ...

, before he moved back to Nørresundby and played his last games for Nørresundby BK. In 2006, Henning Jensen was named among the nominees for

DBU The decibel (symbol: dB) is a relative unit of measurement equal to one tenth of a bel (B). It expresses the ratio of two values of a Power, root-power, and field quantities, power or root-power quantity on a logarithmic scale. Two signals whose ...

's "Denmark's All-Time Best Footballer" award, alongside Preben Elkjær, Brian Laudrup,

Michael Laudrup Michael Laudrup (, born 15 June 1964) is a Danish professional football coach and former player. He is considered to be one of the greatest players of all time. He is the older brother of fellow retired footballer Brian Laudrup. During his pl ...

, Morten Olsen, Peter Schmeichel, Allan Simonsen and

Jon Dahl Tomasson Jon Dahl Tomasson (; born 29 August 1976) is a Danish football manager and former player who is the current head coach of EFL Championship club Blackburn Rovers. A forward, his most notable run of football came in his first stint at Feyenoord, w ...

. He died after a short illness from cancer.

Honours

* DFB-Pokal: 1972–73 *

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

: 1974–75 *

: 1974–75 and 1975–76 *

Spanish La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

: 1977–78 and 1978–79 *

Dutch Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

: 1979–80

References

External links

Danish national team profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jensen, Henning 1949 births 2017 deaths Danish men's footballers Denmark men's international footballers Nørresundby FB players Borussia Mönchengladbach players Real Madrid CF players AFC Ajax players Aarhus Gymnastikforening players Danish Superliga players Bundesliga players La Liga players Eredivisie players Danish expatriate men's footballers Danish expatriate sportspeople in West Germany Expatriate footballers in West Germany Danish expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate footballers in Spain Danish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands People from Nørresundby Men's association football forwards UEFA Cup winning players Deaths from cancer in Denmark Denmark Series players Sportspeople from the North Jutland Region