Karl Aage Præst, also spelled Carl Aage Præst, (26 February 1922 – 19 November 2011) was a Danish
football player. Playing in the
left 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 ...
position, Præst won two
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 Cop ...
championships with
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
club
Juventus FC
)''I Bianconeri'' (The White and Blacks)''Le Zebre'' (The Zebras)''La Signora Omicidi'' (The Killer Lady)''La Gheuba'' (: The Hunchback)
, founded = as Sport-Club Juventus
, ground = Juventus Stadium
, capacity = 41,507
, owner = Agnell ...
. He played 24 games and scored 17 goals for the
Danish national team from 1945 to 1949, and won a
bronze medal 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 ...
. He is a
Danish Football Hall of Fame inductee.
Career
Born in Copenhagen, Karl Aage Præst attended the Royal Orphanage.
[Osterbro Data](_blank)
p. 20 The orphanage became the youth team of football club
Østerbros Boldklub
Østerbros Boldklub (also known as ØB) was a Danish sports club based in the Østerbro area of Copenhagen, active from 1894 to 1998. The club is best known for its amateur football team. It was one of the oldest Danish football clubs, and playe ...
(ØB) in 1936, and Præst was among the first boys to join ØB. In his second year in the ØB youth team, Præst scored 57 goals in 16 games.
He made his senior debut in 1940.
At ØB, he played alongside later Danish international
Helge Broneé. Præst was acknowledged as a world-class talent, with great balance and
dribbling
In sports, dribbling is maneuvering a ball by one player while moving in a given direction, avoiding defenders' attempts to intercept the ball. A successful dribble will bring the ball past defenders legally and create opportunities to score.
A ...
, and a great end-product of either precise
crossing or a good
shot on goal.
Præst played around 250 games while at ØB.
He became internationally known through international exhibition games for Danish representative teams
Stævnet
Stævnet ( da, the event or ''the meeting'') or Copenhagen XI were a Danish association football representative team which had its prime before 1970, however it was active until 1994. Stævnet participated in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, the precu ...
and
Alliancen,
and made his debut for the
Denmark national football team in June 1945.
In May 1947, he was selected for the
Europe XI
The Europe XI is an association football scratch team mainly consisting of players from the UEFA region but, on occasion, players hailing from other continents playing for European teams are invited to play. The European XI play one-off games agai ...
representative team, which lost 1–6 to the
Great Britain national football team
The Great Britain men's Olympic football team is the men's football team that represents the United Kingdom at the Summer Olympic Games (where it competes as Great Britain, currently branded Team GB). The team is organised by the English Footb ...
.
Præst was a part of the Danish team 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 ...
in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, where Præst played four games and scored two goals as Denmark won a
bronze medal. After the Olympics, Præst signed a professional contract with
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
club
Juventus F.C.
)''I Bianconeri'' (The White and Blacks)''Le Zebre'' (The Zebras)''La Signora Omicidi'' (The Killer Lady)''La Gheuba'' (: The Hunchback)
, founded = as Sport-Club Juventus
, ground = Juventus Stadium
, capacity = 41,507
, owner = Agnell ...
, and was thus banned from the amateur-only Danish national team.
With Juventus, Præst won the
1949–50 and
1951–52 Serie A
The 1951–52 Serie A season was won by Juventus.
Teams
SPAL and Legnano had been promoted from Serie B.
Six out of the twenty clubs came from Lombardy, a record for a single region of Italy.
Events
FIGC decided to restore the original 18-c ...
championships. Though considered fast in Denmark, Præst was not as fast as most Italian defenders, but succeeded through his dribbling skills.
Præst played alongside Danes
John Hansen and
Karl Aage Hansen at Juventus, and his dribbling and crossing ability was a key in making John Hansen
top goal-scorer of the 1951–52 season.
Præst played 232 games and scored 51 goals for Juventus in the Serie A championship from 1949 to 1956.
In 1956, Præst moved on to league rivals
S.S. Lazio. He played seven games for the club, before ending his career in 1957.
Upon his return to Denmark, Præst's status as ex-professional meant the
Danish Football Association (DBU) kept him banned from playing in the Danish leagues. Præst and John Hansen had both bought vacation homes 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 ...
, and Præst's summer residence "Juve" was soon the gathering place of the 1948 Olympics team. The team was reformed, amateurs and ex-professionals alike, and played a string of unofficial high-profile exhibition matches that drew many spectators. This provoked DBU to move on the issue of ex-professionals, and it was decided that following a quarantine of two years, ex-professionals were allowed to re-enter the Danish football league.
At ØB's 75th anniversary in 1969, Præst and
Flemming Nielsen
Flemming Gert Nielsen, known simply as Flemming Nielsen, (24 February 1934 – 16 November 2018) was a Danish football player in the midfielder position, who won a silver medal with the Denmark national football team at the 1960 Summer O ...
arranged an
old boys
The terms Old Boys and Old Girls are the usual expressions in use in the United Kingdom for former pupils of primary and secondary schools.''Oxford English Dictionary'' While these are traditionally associated with independent schools, they are ...
exhibition match between the 1948 Olympic team and Juventus FC, with the proceeds going to ØB. In November 2008, Præst was voted into the
Danish Football Hall of Fame, for his achievements with Juventus FC and the Danish national team.
[Dansk Fodbold Award 2008](_blank)
Danish Football Association, 17 November 2008.
Præst died on 19 November 2011 at age 89.
Honours
Club
;Østerbros Boldklub
*
KBUs Pokalturnering:
1947
;Juventus FC
*
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 Cop ...
:
1949–50,
1951–52
Individual
*
Danish Football Hall of Fame
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Praest, Carl Aage
1922 births
2011 deaths
Danish men's footballers
Denmark international footballers
Danish expatriate men's footballers
Juventus F.C. players
S.S. Lazio players
Serie A players
Expatriate footballers in Italy
Olympic footballers of Denmark
Olympic bronze medalists for Denmark
Footballers at the 1948 Summer Olympics
Footballers from Copenhagen
Olympic medalists in football
Medalists at the 1948 Summer Olympics
Association football midfielders