Kristen Nygaard Kristensen (born 9 September 1949) is a Danish former 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 for Dutch team

AZ Alkmaar Alkmaar Zaanstreek (), better known as AZ Alkmaar or simply AZ (), is a Dutch professional football club from Alkmaar and the Zaan district. The club plays in the Eredivisie, the highest professional football league in the Netherlands, and host ...

and several French clubs. He scored 11 goals in 36 games for the Denmark national team, and represented Denmark at the

1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. ...

Career

Born in Sunds near Herning, Nygaard started playing football with

Holstebro BK Holstebro Boldklub (; also known as ''HB'') is a football club based in the town of Holstebro, West Jutland, Denmark, that competes in the Denmark Series, the fifth tier of the Danish football league system. Founded in 1921, it is affiliated to t ...

. He moved to IHF Aarhus, whom he helped 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 ...

from the Danish 3rd Division in 1969, by scoring 25 goals in 22 league games. He scored 15 goals in the 1970

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 Foo ...

season,Danmarksturneringen 1970
at ''Peders Fodboldstatistik'' and was called up for the Danish national team in July 1970. He played on for IHF Aarhus, but could not win promotion for the top-flight Danish 1st Division with the team. Nygaard was included in the Danish 1972 Olympic squad, and played six games and scored one goal at the 1972 Olympic football tournament. He played a further national team game in October 1972, before moving abroad to play professionally for

in the Dutch

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

championship. He played his last Danish national team game in November 1979. With Alkmaar, he reached the finals of the international

1980–81 UEFA Cup The 1980–81 UEFA Cup was won by Ipswich Town on aggregate over AZ Alkmaar. According to the 1979 UEFA decision, Fairs Cup entry criteria were finally abolished, and UEFA ranking In European football, the UEFA coefficients are statistics ...

tournament, which the team lost to English club

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

on aggregate. He left Alkmaar to play his career out in France, first playing at

Nîmes Olympique Nîmes Olympique (commonly referred to as simply Nîmes) is a French association football club based in Nîmes. The club was founded on 10 April 1937 and currently plays in Ligue 2, the second level of French football. Until November 2022, ...

, before ending his career at smaller French clubs. After retiring from the active game, he went on to coach Nîmes Olympique from 1986 to 1987. In 1994, he was seriously injured in a traffic accident. He spent eight weeks in a coma afterwards and still has grave health problems. Two years later his old club AZ held a benefit match for him. The merchandise shop in the

AFAS Stadion AFAS Stadion is a stadium in Alkmaar, Netherlands. It is used for football matches and is the home stadium of AZ Alkmaar. The stadium is able to hold 19.478 people and bears the name of a Dutch software company. Due to UEFA's sponsorship regulatio ...

is named after Nygaard.

Honours

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

* KNVB Cup: 1978,

, 1982

References

External links

*
Haslund profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nygaard, Kristen 1949 births Living people People from Herning Municipality Association football forwards Danish men's footballers Danish football managers Denmark international footballers Ligue 1 players Eredivisie players Footballers at the 1972 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Denmark Fuglebakken KFUM players AZ Alkmaar players Nîmes Olympique players Nîmes Olympique managers Danish expatriate men's footballers Danish expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate footballers in France Danish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Sportspeople from the Central Denmark Region