Jørgen Leschly Sørensen (24 September 1922 – 21 February 1999) was a Danish

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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. He started as an amateur player in

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 ...

, and won the 1945 Danish championship with B.93. He played 14 games and scored eight goals 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 ...

, and won a

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

at the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ca ...

. After the Olympics, Sørensen played professionally in

Italian football Football ( it, calcio ) is the most popular sport in Italy. The Italy national football team is considered to be one of the best national teams in the world. They have won the FIFA World Cup four times (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006), trailing only Bra ...

for

Atalanta B.C. Atalanta Bergamasca Calcio, commonly referred to as Atalanta, is a professional football club based in Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy. The club plays in Serie A, having gained promotion from Serie B in 2010–11. Atalanta was founded in 1907 by Lic ...

and

A.C. Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional Association football, football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 ...

, winning the 1955

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

championship with Milan.

Career

Danish career

Born in Lumby near

Odense Odense ( , , ) is the third largest city in Denmark (behind Copenhagen and Aarhus) and the largest city on the island of Funen. As of 1 January 2022, the city proper had a population of 180,863 while Odense Municipality had a population of 20 ...

,Jørgen Leschley Sørensen
at Gravsted.dk Sørensen started playing football at a lower-league club in his hometown. at Odense Municipality He moved to local club

Odense BK Odense Boldklub (; also known as Odense BK or the more commonly used OB) is a Danish professional football club based in the city Odense. The club has won three Danish championships and five Danish Cup trophies. OB play in the Danish Superliga ...

in 1939, and made his senior debut for the club. He played with Odense in the amateur-only Danish championship. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the Danish football leagues were rearranged, and Odense was demoted to the third-tier league of Danish football. Sørensen spent a year in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

finishing his education, and approached AB to play for the club while in Copenhagen. AB coach

Arne Kleven Arne Kleven (8 January 1900 – 19 February 1991) was a Danish association football, footballer. He played in two matches for the Denmark national football team from 1927 to 1931. References External links

* 1900 births 1991 deat ...

said he could only use him as a reserve, and Sørensen went on to play for Copenhagen club B 93 instead. Sørensen went on to become league top goalscorer with 16 goals,Roberto Di Maggio
Denmark - List of Topscorers
,

RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) is an international organization dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around the ...

, 12 June 2009 as B 93 team won the top-flight

1945–46 Danish 1st Division Statistics of Danish 1st Division in the 1945/1946 season. Overview It was contested by 10 teams, and Boldklubben af 1893 won the championship. League standings Results ReferencesDenmark - List of final tables (RSSSF) {{DEFAULTSORT:19 ...

championship. While at B 93,JØRGEN LESCHLEY SØRENSEN
at Haslund.info Sørensen made his debut for the

in June 1946, as he scored a goal in Denmark's 1–2 defeat to the Norwegian football team.Jørgen Leschly Sørensen - A-Landshold (Alle kampe)
at

Danish Football Association The Danish Football Union ( da, Dansk Boldspil-Union; DBU) is the governing body of football in Denmark. It is the organization of the Danish football clubs and runs the professional Danish football leagues and the men's and women's national t ...

Upon his return to Odense in 1946, Sørensen found the team in the secondary

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 ...

league. He helped the club win

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

into the top-flight

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 his first year back with the club. He continued to play for the Danish national team while at Odense, and was selected for the Danish squad at the

. He played one game at the tournament, and scored a goal as Denmark defeated the Great Britain football team 5–3 to win the

s of the tournament. He was top goalscorer with 16 goals in the 1948–49 1st Division season, before moving abroad to play professionally. As a professional he was barred from the amateur-only Danish national team, and Sørensen tallied his total eight goals in 14 national team games from June 1946 to June 1949.

Professional career

Alongside fellow bronze medalist

Karl Aage Hansen Karl Aage Hansen (4 July 1921 – 23 November 1990) was a Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmar ...

, Sørensen joined

Atalanta Atalanta (; grc-gre, Ἀταλάντη, Atalantē) meaning "equal in weight", is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene and who is primarily known ...

Bergamo Bergamo (; lmo, Bèrghem ; from the proto- Germanic elements *''berg +*heim'', the "mountain home") is a city in the alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from Switzerland, the alpine lakes Como ...

in the

championship of

.Roberto Di Maggio
Danish Players in Italy
,

, 2 January 2005 It was through Hansen's recommendation, that Bergamo hired Sørensen. In his first time at the club, Bergamo played a

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

against Sørensen's old club Odense on

Odense Stadion Odense Stadium (Danish: Odense Stadion) is an association football stadium in the Bolbro district of Odense, Denmark. Nicknamed ''Folkets Teater'' ( en: "The People's Theater") by Jack Johnson, it has been the home ground of Odense Boldklub sinc ...

. Sørensen was leading the Bergamo players onto the pitch, but as Karl Aage Hansen held back the other Bergamo players, Sørensen entered the pitch on his own to waves of applause from the Odense fans. Sørensen spent four seasons at Atalanta, scoring 51 goals in 134 games, and played alongside fellow Danish international players Svend Jørgen Hansen and Poul Rasmussen at the club. He moved to league rivals

in 1953, and played two seasons with the club, scoring 28 goals in 64 games. He won the

1954–55 Serie A The 1954–55 Serie A season was won by Milan. Teams Catania and Pro Patria had been promoted from Serie B. In February 13, 1955 Inter, Juventus, Roma and Milan all lost in the same matchday the last time until September 18, 2022. Final class ...

championship in his last season with Milan, before leaving the club in 1955. Milan offered him a contract extension, but Sørensen decided to return to Denmark. He was selected for a European Representative team to play against a Great Britain team to mark the 75th anniversary of the

Irish Football Association The Irish Football Association (IFA) is the governing body for association football in Northern Ireland. It organised the Ireland national football team from 1880 to 1950, which after 1954, became the Northern Ireland national football team. ...

in August 1955. Sørensen worked defensively to neutralize English player

Sir Stanley Matthews Sir Stanley Matthews, CBE (1 February 1915 – 23 February 2000) was an English footballer who played as an outside right. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of the British game, he is the only player to have been knighted while stil ...

, and the European team won 4–1.England Player Honours - International Representative Teams
at EnglandFootballOnline.com When Sørensen returned to Denmark in 1955, he and other ex-professionals were banned from entering the Danish amateur leagues by the

(DBU). The ex-professionals took to playing a series of unofficial, but popular, exhibition matches, centered around

Karl Aage Præst Karl Aage Præst, also spelled Carl Aage Præst, (26 February 1922 – 19 November 2011) was a Danish football player. Playing in the left winger position, Præst won two Serie A championships with Italian club Juventus FC. He played 24 games a ...

's vacation home in

Liseleje Liseleje is a former fishing village and popular tourist resort in Halsnæs Municipality, North Zealand, some 60 kilometres northwest of Copenhagen, Denmark. The original village is surrounded by extensive areas of summerhouses. It has merged wi ...

. In 1958, DBU decided to allow ex-professionals back into Danish football following a two-year quarantine, and as Leschly had already sat out for even longer, he re-entered the amateur-only Danish leagues that year. While banned from playing, he had coached his former club Odense Boldklub. He returned as a player for Odense in 1958, and played for the club until his retirement in 1962. Leschly served as Odense manager again in 1963.OB's placering i Danmarksturneringen siden 1946 - OB-trænere siden 1962
at

Odense Boldklub Odense Boldklub (; also known as Odense BK or the more commonly used OB) is a Danish professional football club based in the city Odense. The club has won three Danish championships and five Danish Cup trophies. OB play in the Danish Superliga ...

Sørensen became a part of the committee which selected the players for the Danish national team in 1970.Jimmie Thomsen
DBUs landstrænere i perioden 1967-69

, 26 November 2001, published by

He was a member of the committee until it was disbanded in 1979, with its responsibilities transferred solely to the Danish national team manager.

Honours

Club

B93 * Danish championship: 1945–46 Milan *

: 1954–55

International

Denmark * Olympic Bronze Medal:

1948 Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect. ** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British ...

References

External links

Danish national team profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sorensen, Jorgen Leschly 1922 births 1999 deaths Association football forwards Danish footballers Danish expatriate footballers Odense Boldklub players Boldklubben af 1893 players Atalanta B.C. players A.C. Milan players Denmark international footballers Footballers at the 1948 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Denmark Olympic bronze medalists for Denmark Expatriate footballers in Italy Danish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Serie A players Olympic medalists in football Danish football managers Odense Boldklub managers Medalists at the 1948 Summer Olympics Footballers from Odense