Lars Dahl Elstrup (born 24 March 1963) 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 le ...

, who played for a number of Danish clubs, as well as Dutch club

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after its ...

and

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...

in England. He played 34 matches and scored 13 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 was part of the Denmark team which won the 1992 European Championship.

Club career

Born in the village of Råby, 20 km NE of

Randers Randers () is a city in Randers Municipality, Central Denmark Region on the Jutland peninsula. It is Denmark's sixth-largest city, with a population of 62,802 (as of 1 January 2022).Randers Sportsklub Freja Randers Sportsklub Freja (often abbreviated Randers Freja) is a Danish sport club with teams in athletics, handball, table tennis and football. History Randers Freja was founded in 1898, and was accepted into the JBU in 1907. The football d ...

in 1982. Over the next four seasons, he became a proven goalscorer 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 ...

's mostly 2nd highest divisions, and before the 1986 season Elstrup moved to the defending champions

Brøndby IF Brøndbyernes Idrætsforening (, usually abbreviated to Brøndby IF (), is a professional association football club based in Brøndbyvester, Capital Region of Denmark. The club was founded in 1964 as a merger between two local clubs and was p ...

. He played just seven league games for Brøndby, scoring twice, before he moved abroad to play for Dutch club

. He played there for two years, but only scored nine goals for the

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

outfit. In 1988, Elstrup moved back to Denmark to play for

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 ...

. He scored 14 goals in 16 games in his first season at Odense, and was called up for the Danish national team by national manager

Sepp Piontek Josef Emanuel Hubertus "Sepp" Piontek (born 5 March 1940) is a German former footballer and manager. Playing career Born in Breslau, now Wrocław. Piontek started his playing career with VfL Germania Leer. Between 1963 and 1972, the full-back ...

. The

1989 Danish 1st Division The 1989 Danish 1st Division season was the 44th season of the Danish 1st Division league championship, governed by the Danish Football Association. The Danish champions qualified for the European Cup 1990-91 qualification, while the second and ...

saw Elstrup score three times in 12 league games, before he left to try his hand at

English football Association football is the most popular sport in England, where the first modern set of rules for the code were established in 1863, which were a major influence on the development of the modern Laws of the Game. With over 40,000 association f ...

. Elstrup signed for English First Division club

on 21 August 1989 in a £850,000

transfer deal In professional football, a transfer is the action taken whenever a player under contract moves between clubs. It refers to the transferring of a player's registration from one association football club to another. In general, the players can onl ...

, setting a club transfer record. Playing at

Kenilworth Road Kenilworth Road is an association football stadium in Luton, Bedfordshire, England. It has been the home ground of Luton Town F.C., Luton Town Football Club since 1905. The stadium has also hosted women's and youth international matches, includ ...

for two seasons, he soon settled and scored a total of 18 goals to keep Luton up in 1990–91. After only two years in England, Elstrup moved back to Denmark to rejoin Odense. Odense only paid £200,000, despite having sold him to Luton only two years before for more than four times that amount, and having attained an impressive goalscoring record at the English club, as well as still being in his twenties. Sure enough, after selling Elstrup, Luton were relegated. He played two more seasons for Odense, scoring 24 goals, before retiring in strange circumstances. These strange circumstances were due to damage to body and mind, quote Lars Elstrup himself.

International career

Elstrup made his national team debut in August 1988 against

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, and scored both goals in a 2–1 victory. Elstrup was part of the Denmark squad for the 1992 European Championship. He played in two matches at the tournament, and scored the winning goal in the 2–1 win against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

in the group stages. He also scored one of Denmark's five penalties in the semi-final

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pen ...

against

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, though he was an unused substitute, as Denmark beat

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

2–0 in the final.

Private life

In 1993, Elstrup had doubts about his footballing future, as he felt he was living under the expectations of others.Pierre Collignon, "Hvor blev de af: Lars Elstrup: Frigørelsen", ''

Jyllands-Posten ''Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten'' (; English: ''The Morning Newspaper "The Jutland Post"''), commonly shortened to ''Jyllands-Posten'' or ''JP'', is a Danish daily broadsheet newspaper. It is based in Aarhus C, Jutland, and with a weekday circulat ...

'' article, 5 December 1999 He joined a spiritual

sect A sect is a subgroup of a religious, political, or philosophical belief system, usually an offshoot of a larger group. Although the term was originally a classification for religious separated groups, it can now refer to any organization that b ...

, and took the spiritual name "Darando", meaning "The River that Flows". He moved away from the sect in December 1999 after being arrested for punching a school child. In January 2000, Odense gave Elstrup a chance to re-enter professional football by giving him a trial, but he left the club soon after when the club refused to pay him during the trial.Kim Mikkelsen, "Storm står fast: Elstrup færdig i OB", '' B.T. article'', 26 January 2000 He now lives in

Vissenbjerg Vissenbjerg is a town in central Denmark with a population of 3,297 (1 January 2023),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 ...

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 ...

(1):

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

Danish Cup 1993

International

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

UEFA European Football Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition is contes ...

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

References

External links

Danish national team profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Elstrup, Lars 1963 births Living people Danish men's footballers Randers FC players Brøndby IF players Feyenoord players Odense Boldklub players Luton Town F.C. players Eredivisie players English Football League players Danish Superliga players Denmark men's international footballers UEFA Euro 1992 players UEFA European Championship-winning players Danish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Danish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in England Danish expatriate sportspeople in England Men's association football forwards People from Randers Municipality Footballers from the Central Denmark Region