Henning Munk Jensen (born 12 January 1947) is a Danish former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a defender. He most prominently played professionally for Dutch team

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; en, Philips Sports Association ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional football department, whi ...

, as well as 392 games for AaB in Denmark during the 1960s. He was named 1968 and 1975

Danish Football Player of the Year The Danish Player of the Year award is an annual prize, which has been given to the best male Danish football player by the Danish Football Association since 1963. The winner is decided in a vote among the professional Danish footballers. Since 2000 ...

, and played a record-setting 62 matches for the Denmark national team from 1966 to 1978, 24 of these as

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

. He is the brother-in-law of Danish international

Allan Michaelsen Allan Richard Michaelsen (2 November 1947 – 2 March 2016) was a Danish football player and manager. He was voted Danish Football Player of the Year The Danish Player of the Year award is an annual prize, which has been given to the best male D ...

, and thus the uncle of Danish international

Jan Michaelsen Jan Munk Michaelsen (born 28 November 1970) is a former Danish footballer and currently is the head of coaching at Nykøbing FC. He made 20 international appearances, scored one goal for the Danish national team. He is the son of former Danish ...

Club career

Munk Jensen started his career in the youth teams of

Aalborg Aalborg (, , ) is Denmark's fourth largest town (behind Copenhagen, Aarhus, and Odense) with a population of 119,862 (1 July 2022) in the town proper and an urban population of 143,598 (1 July 2022). As of 1 July 2022, the Municipality of Aalb ...

clubs

Aalborg Chang Aalborg Chang is a Danish association football club based in the city of Aalborg, that competes in the Jutland Series, one of the sixth tiers of the Danish football league system, and the top tier of the regional DBU Jutland football association ...

and Aalborg FC, before moving to

Aalborg BK Aalborg Boldspilklub is a Danish sports club based in the city of Aalborg. The club is also known as AaB for short (cf. logo) or Aalborg BK. Through time the club has had branches in cricket, tennis, ice hockey, handball, and basketball, but cur ...

(AaB). He started his footballing career as a

right winger A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, but eventually settled as a tall, strong, and fast

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. He made his senior debut in 1965, and got his national breakthrough in AaB's games against English team Everton in the

1966–67 European Cup Winners' Cup The 1966–67 season of the European Cup Winners' Cup club football competition was won by Bayern Munich with a 1–0 final victory over Rangers, who had eliminated holders Borussia Dortmund. It was the fourth time in six years that the final req ...

. He was injured when AaB won the 1966

Danish Cup The Danish Cup ( da, Landspokalturneringen; often referred to as Pokalen) is the official "knockout" cup competition in Danish football, run by the Danish Football Association. The cup has been contested annually since 1955. The winner will quali ...

, but was on the losing end when AaB lost the 1967 final. He missed AaB's victorious 1970 Danish Cup final through suspension. In 1970, he moved abroad to play professionally with Dutch club

, having been recommended to the club by Danish international and PSV player Bent Schmidt-Hansen. He stayed with PSV for three seasons, before moving back to rejoin AaB in 1973. When AaB introduced professional wages, the management planned to pay all players the same amount, which prompted Munk Jensen and goalkeeper Karsten Simensen to leave the club. In early 1978, he moved from AaB to nearby team

Frederikshavn fI Frederikshavn forenede Idrætsklubber (also known as FfI or Frederikshavn fI) is a Danish sports club based in Frederikshavn. The club has branches in football, handball, swimming, gymnastics and wrestling. The football team spent a total five ...

in the

Danish 2nd Division The 2nd Division ( da, Danmarksturneringens 2. division or Herre-DM 2. division) is a semi-professional association football league for men and the third division in Denmark. It is organised by the Divisionsforeningen on behalf of the Danish Footb ...

. He moved abroad once more to play for North American clubs Edmonton Drillers and

San Jose Earthquakes The San Jose Earthquakes are an American professional soccer team based in San Jose, California. The Earthquakes compete as a member club of the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). Originally as the San Jose Clash, the franchise ...

in 1979. He returned to AaB in 1979, played a single year with Aalborg Freja in the 3rd Division, before he ended his career with AaB in the 2nd Division in 1981.Jeppe Facius, "Den brutale munk",

Ekstra Bladet ''Ekstra Bladet'' is a Danish tabloid newspaper, published by JP/Politikens Hus in Copenhagen.About
(in Danish) ''E ...

, 9 December 2000, p.14. He set an AaB club record with a total 392 games, a record which was eventually broken by

Torben Boye Torben Boye (born 2 May 1966) is a Denmark, Danish former professional football (soccer) player, who played his List of one-club men in association football, entire career for Danish Superliga club AaB Fodbold, Aalborg Boldspilklub (AaB). Boye ha ...

International career

Munk Jensen made his international debut with the Denmark U19 national team in June 1964, and played eight under-19 games until July 1965. He also played two games for the Denmark U21 in 1966. In November 1966, he made his debut with the senior national team under manager Poul Petersen. He did not play his second international match until June 1968, but then established himself in the starting line-up, and was named 1968

. He played a further 22 games for Denmark until June 1970. When he signed a professional contract with PSV, he was prohibited from representing the amateur-only national team. After the rule of amateurism was abolished in 1971, Munk Jensen re-entered the Danish team in June 1972, and played a further four games that year. Not until he returned for his second stint with AaB, did he re-capture his place in the Danish starting line-up. He played his 28th game for Denmark in September 1974, and was appointed national team captain in September 1975. He was named 1975 Danish Football Player of the Year, the first player to win the award twice, and captained Denmark in 24 of his last 28 national team games. He played full-time in all but one of his national team games, as he was substituted off the pitch in his 50th game, having played awfully in a 2–1 defeat to

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

.Rasmus Bech, "60 år i dag: Kun elsket på hjemmebane",

Politiken ''Politiken'' is a leading Danish daily broadsheet newspaper, published by JP/Politikens Hus in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was founded in 1884 and played a role in the formation of the Danish Social Liberal Party. Since 1970 it has been independe ...

, 12 January 2007, p.10. In May 1978, he broke Bent Hansen's record of 58 games for Denmark.Tommy Poulsen, "Tidl. rekordholder flytter til udlandet", Horsens Folkeblad, 5 February 2007, p.8. He ended his international career in September 1978, having played a Danish record 62 international games. The record was broken by

Per Røntved Per Christian Røntved (born 27 January 1949) is a Danish former professional footballer who played for German club Werder Bremen from 1972 to 1979. He also played for Danish clubs Brønshøj BK, Randers Freja, and Hvidovre IF. He was named ...

in August 1981.

Honours

Individual *

: 1968, 1975

References

External links

*
AaB profile

Haslund.info profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jensen, Henning Munk 1947 births Living people Sportspeople from Aalborg People from Tønder Municipality Danish footballers Association football defenders Denmark international footballers Denmark under-21 international footballers Eredivisie players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players AaB Fodbold players PSV Eindhoven players Frederikshavn fI players San Jose Earthquakes (1974–1988) players Edmonton Drillers (1979–1982) players Danish expatriate footballers Danish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Danish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate soccer players in the United States Danish expatriate sportspeople in Canada Expatriate soccer players in Canada