Poul Lars Høgh-Pedersen (; 14 January 1959 – 8 December 2021) 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 his entire career as a
goalkeeper
In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...
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 won three
Danish football champions
The Danish football champions are the winners of the highest league of football in Denmark. The title has been contested since 1913, in a varying form of competitions. Since 1991, the winners have been found through the Danish Superliga champions ...
hips and three
Danish Cup
The Danish Cup ( da, Landspokalturneringen; often referred to as Pokalen) is the official "knockout" cup competition in Danish football, run by the Danish Football Association. The cup has been contested annually since 1955.
The winner will quali ...
trophies with OB, and won the
Danish ''Best Goalkeeper of the Year'' award five times. He played eight matches for the
Denmark national team, and was selected for the
1986 World Cup
The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-tea ...
and
1996 European Championship squads. He was a part of the Danish team which won the 1995
King Fahd Cup
The FIFA Confederations Cup was an international association football tournament for men's national teams, held every four years by FIFA. It was contested by the holders of each of the six continental championships ( AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBO ...
.
Høgh owned his own goalkeeping company named Lars Høgh Coaching ApS. He trained countless goalkeepers in the Danish Superliga, both individually but also firmly attached to clubs in the league.
At the time of his death, he worked as a goalkeeping coach for
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 ...
(2016–2021), and the Denmark national team (2007–2021).
From 2000 to 2003, Høgh worked as sports director for
OB.
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 ...
, Høgh started playing football with local club
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 ...
(OB). He made his senior debut in 1977 as an amateur (later to become semi-professional, and eventually full-time-professional), and was an understudy to
Denmark national team goalkeeper
Mogens Therkildsen, as OB won the
1977 Danish championship. The following years he established himself as OB's starting goalkeeper, and debuted for the
Denmark under-21 national team in March 1979. He was a part of the OB team which won the
1982 Danish championship and 1983 Danish Cup, and was called up for the Denmark national team by national team 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 ...
. He made his national team debut in May 1983, and was a part of the Denmark team at the
1986 FIFA World Cup
The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-team format. Colombia ha ...
.
He started the World Cup as a substitute, but played in Denmark's last two matches at the tournament. Høgh replaced
Troels Rasmussen as starting goalkeeper when Denmark beat
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
2–0 and advanced to the knock-off stage. In the round of 16 against
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
, Høgh conceded four goals to Spanish striker
Emilio Butragueño
Emilio Butragueño Santos (; born 22 July 1963) is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a striker.
He was best known for his spell with Real Madrid. Nicknamed ''El Buitre'' (The Vulture), he was a member of the ''La Quinta del Buitre'' a ...
, as Denmark lost 5–1 and was eliminated from the tournament. After the 1986 World Cup, Høgh was named 1986 ''Best Goalkeeper of the Year''. Troels Rasmussen reclaimed his starting position in the national team, and Høgh played what would be his last match in the national team in eight years in September 1987. With the emergence of record-setting goalkeeper
Peter Schmeichel
Peter may refer to:
People
* List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Peter (given name)
** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church
* Peter (surname), a sur ...
, Høgh established himself as one of Schmeichel's most frequent understudies.
With OB, Høgh continued his consistent goalkeeping, and guided the team to another Danish championship in 1989, as well as Danish Cup triumphs in 1991 and 1993. He won the ''Best Goalkeeper of the Year'' award a further four times, setting a record five award wins in 1994. Høgh was a part of the Denmark national team at the 1995 King Fahd Cup, where he was Denmark's starting goalkeeper in the absence of Peter Schmeichel. In the second game of the tournament, Høgh suffered an injury, and was replaced by
Mogens Krogh
Mogens Krogh (; born 31 October 1963) is a Danish former professional football player who was most recently manager of Næstved BK. In his playing career, Krogh was the first choice goalkeeper of Ikast fS between 1981 and 1991 and of Brøndby f ...
, who tended the goal as Denmark won the tournament.
Later life and death
Høgh retired as a footballer in 2000, 41 years old, after an outstanding career with OB. He played his entire career with OB, for whom he played a total 817 matches from his debut in 1977, of which 603 were league matches. Following his retirement, Høgh served three years as sports director for Odense BK. He went on to become a footballing coach, both for individual goalkeepers, as well as clubs. In 2008, he replaced
Jørgen Henriksen
Jørgen Henriksen (born 16 July 1942) is a Danish former footballer who played as a goalkeeper
In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated ...
as coach for the goalkeepers of the national team of Denmark. He maintained this position and the same position for
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 ...
until
pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of t ...
prevented him from doing so. He died from the disease on 8 December 2021, at the age of 62. A week before his death he had been included in the
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 ...
's Hall of Fame.
[Roth, C. (9 December 2021)]
Lars Høgh er død
TV2.
Honours
OB
*
Danish championship:
1977
Events January
* January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group.
* January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic R ...
,
1982
Events January
* January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00).
* January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...
,
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
The Danish Cup ( da, Landspokalturneringen; often referred to as Pokalen) is the official "knockout" cup competition in Danish football, run by the Danish Football Association. The cup has been contested annually since 1955.
The winner will quali ...
:
1982–83,
1990–91,
1992–93
Denmark
*
King Fahd Cup
The FIFA Confederations Cup was an international association football tournament for men's national teams, held every four years by FIFA. It was contested by the holders of each of the six continental championships ( AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBO ...
:
1995
File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...
Individual
*
Danish ''Best Goalkeeper of the Year'': 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1994
References
External links
Danish national team profileOB profile
ShowStars profile
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hogh, Lars
1959 births
2021 deaths
Association football goalkeepers
Danish men's footballers
Denmark international footballers
Denmark under-21 international footballers
Footballers from Odense
Odense Boldklub players
1986 FIFA World Cup players
1995 King Fahd Cup players
FIFA Confederations Cup-winning players
UEFA Euro 1996 players
FC Nordsjælland non-playing staff
AaB Fodbold non-playing staff
Brøndby IF non-playing staff
Odense Boldklub non-playing staff
Association football goalkeeping coaches
Deaths from pancreatic cancer
Deaths from cancer in Denmark