Kai Johansen (23 July 1940 – 13 May 2007) was a 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 ...
who played as a full-back. He spent a large proportion of his career playing in Scotland with Rangers.
Career
Born in
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 ...
, Johansen began his football career in the small club of Korsløkke before moving to
Boldklubben 1909
Boldklubben 1909, known as B1909, is a Danish association football club currently playing in the Denmark Series. They play at Gillested Park in Odense on Funen, which has a capacity of 6,000. Founded in 1909, the club spent a total 38 seasons i ...
in Odense as a striker. However, he was not successful, and moved to another of the major clubs in the city,
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 ...
. Here he found his natural place as a right full back and soon attracted attention from the Denmark national team manager. Johansen made his debut as a member of the national team on 11 June 1962 against
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...
. The following year and a half he played 20 national matches.
After attracting international interest, Johansen was the first of a number of Scandinavian players signed by
Morton Morton may refer to:
People
* Morton (surname)
* Morton (given name)
Fictional
* Morton Koopa, Jr., a character and boss in ''Super Mario Bros. 3''
* A character in the ''Charlie and Lola'' franchise
* A character in the 2008 film '' Horton H ...
in 1964.
The following year, Johansen signed for Rangers on 24 June 1965 for £20,000 after impressing manager
Scot Symon
James Scotland Symon (9 May 1911 – 30 April 1985) was a Scottish football player and manager. He also played cricket for Scotland in an age when it was possible to play and excel in several sports.
Footballer
Symon started his professional c ...
with his performance for a European Select side against a UK Select in
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 sti ...
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
* Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Fo ...
, sealing a 1–0 win for Rangers and becoming the first foreign player to score in the final. This cup victory earned Rangers qualification to the following season's UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. Johansen featured throughout the run to the
1967 European Cup Winners' Cup Final
The 1967 European Cup Winners' Cup Final was a football match contested between Bayern Munich of West Germany and Rangers of Scotland. The match took place at the Städtisches Stadion in Nuremberg, West Germany on 31 May 1967 in front of a crowd ...
– Rangers' second in their history – including scoring a goal in the 2–1 first leg win against
Borussia Dortmund
Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional fo ...
, the holders, who Rangers knocked out of the tournament. He played in the final which Rangers lost 1–0 in extra-time to Bayern Munich.
Becoming a professional footballer excluded Johansen from the national team, which at the time entirely consisted of amateurs. He undoubtedly would have had many more caps without this rule.
He retired in 1970 and returned to a career as a store owner. Before his career in Scotland, he had established a men's wear store in Odense. He also ran pubs in
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
and on the Costa del Sol, before becoming a player's agent.
In 1970 Johansen moved to South Africa with joining
Cape Town City
A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck.
History
Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. Th ...
. At another South African side Arcadia Shepherds he managed the club's treble-winning side of 1974.
He was diagnosed with
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
in 2006 and died on 13 May 2007. His death was marked with a minute's silence before Rangers' match against Kilmarnock that day.
Honours
Player
Rangers
*
European Cup Winners Cup
The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tourna ...
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1965–66; runner-up 1968–69
Manager
Arcadia Shepherds
*
National Football League (South Africa)
The National Football League (NFL) was the first professional association football league in South Africa, established in 1959. At first the NFL received stiff opposition from the SAFA, the amateur governing body which controlled the major foot ...