Henrik Nielsen (born 10 October 1958) is a former Danish professional

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 striker.

Career

Nielsen started his football career 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 ...

, playing for B93. There he was scouted by the coach of

AEK Athens A.E.K ( el, AEK , formally Αθλητική Ένωσις Κωνσταντινουπόλεως; Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos, ''Athletic Union of Constantinople''), known as A.E.K, is a major Greek multi-sport club based in Nea Filadel ...

at the time,

Todor Veselinović Todor "Toza" Veselinović (, ; 22 October 1930 – 17 May 2017) was a Serbian footballer and coach. He was one of the most renowned goalscorers in Yugoslavian history. Veselinović was the last surviving member of Yugoslavia's 1954 World Cup sq ...

, and convinced the club's president Andreas Zafeiropoulos to brought him to AEK in the summer of 1987. The "Copenhagen doll", as he was nicknamed in Greece, initially resembled his predecessor in the position at AEK, Håkan Sandberg, in terms of appearance. He immediately made impressive appearances with the team and showed excellent scoring ability, scoring goals in every way. As a result of his amazing performance that season, he was the top scorer of the Greek league, with 21 goals, while he was much loved by AEK fans. His best match was a 7–1 win at home against

Veria Veria ( el, Βέροια or Βέρροια), officially transliterated Veroia, historically also spelled Berea or Berœa, is a city in Central Macedonia, in the geographic region of Macedonia, northern Greece, capital of the regional unit of I ...

, where he scored 4 times. But the following season everything changed. The new coach of AEK

Dušan Bajević Dušan "Duško" Bajević ( sr-Cyrl, Душан Бајевић, ; gr, Ντούσαν Μπάγεβιτς, ''Doúsan Báyevits''; born 10 December 1948) is a Bosnian professional Manager (association football), football manager and former player. H ...

showed that he did not trust him that much, as a result of which he sometimes used him as the main option and sometimes left him on the bench. Finally, in December 1988, Bajevic and the president Gidopoulos decided to let him leave the club as they were full at the foregners' positions. It was a decision that certainly caused surprise, however AEK finally won the championship at the end of the season, generally justifying the choices of the team managers. In the rest of the season he played in the colors of Iraklis and in the summer of 1989 he left Greece. He then played in Fenerbahçe, where he won the President Cup in 1990. He played for

B 1903 Boldklubben 1903 or B 1903 is a football club founded on 2 June 1903, located in Copenhagen, Denmark. Seven times winner of the Danish championship (introduced 1913) in 1920, 1924, 1926, 1938, 1969, 1970 and 1976 and twice winner of the Dan ...

for a few months. Afterwards he spent 2 seasons with

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Pref ...

and ended his career in the Danish 2nd Division with the colors of Brøndby in 1992, due to an injury.

Personal life

Henrik Nielsen now lives in Copenhagen with his 5 daughters and wife. They have a successful wine production business.

Honours

AEK Athens *

Alpha Ethniki The Super League Greece 1 ( el, Ελληνική Σούπερ Λιγκ 1), or Super League 1, is the highest professional association football league in Greece. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and replaced ''Alpha Ethniki'' at the top of ...

: 1988–89 Fenerbahçe * President Cup: 1990 Individual *Alpha Ethniki top scorer: 1987–88

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nielsen, Henrik 1965 births Living people Danish men's footballers Boldklubben af 1893 players AEK Athens F.C. players Iraklis Thessaloniki F.C. players Fenerbahçe S.K. footballers Lille OSC players Brøndby IF players Danish Superliga players Super League Greece players Süper Lig players Ligue 1 players Danish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate footballers in Greece Expatriate footballers in Turkey Expatriate footballers in France Danish expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Association football forwards