Marc Jensen Rieper (born 5 June 1968) 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 as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for AGF and Brøndby in Denmark,

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

in England and

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 ...

in Scotland. He was also a regular player in the Denmark national team, appearing in the

Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

and

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

tournaments. He is the older brother of footballer Mads Rieper.

Club career

Born in

Rødovre Rødovre is a town in eastern Denmark, seat of the Rødovre Municipality, in the Region Hovedstaden. The town's population 1 January 2019 was 39,907, and in addition 145 persons had no fixed address, which made up a total of 40,052 in the municip ...

, Rieper started his career at Danish club AGF in 1988. While at AGF, he debuted for the Danish national team in the 1–0

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

win 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 ...

on 5 September 1990. He played a further three national team matches before moving on to

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga ( da, Superligaen, ) is the current Danish football championship tournament, and administered by the Danish Football Association. It is the highest football league in Denmark and is currently contested by 12 teams each yea ...

rivals

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 ...

in 1992. While at Brøndby, he secured a place in the national team starting line-up and played 38 matches in a row from October 1992 to August 1996. Rieper won the 1994

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 ...

trophy with Brøndby before moving abroad in December that year to play for English Premiership club

, signing initially on loan before a £1 million fee at the end of the season made the transfer permanent. In 1997, he moved to Scotland to play for

, with whom he won the

Scottish league championship The Scottish League Championship (currently the Tennents League Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic rugby union league system within Scotland. Operated by the Scottish Rugby Union, the championship was founded in 1973 as the fi ...

in 1997–98. Rieper suffered a toe injury in October 1998 which he never fully recovered from. He did not make another professional appearance and announced his retirement in July 2000.

International career

Rieper played 61 matches and scored two goals for the Denmark national team, first as the defensive partner of

Lars Olsen Lars Christian Olsen (born 2 February 1961) is a Danish former footballer and current manager, who was most recently the manager of Esbjerg fB in the Danish Superliga. He started his coaching career with Randers in 2003, guiding them to promotio ...

and most prominently as part of a defending duo with

Jes Høgh Jes Høgh (; born 7 May 1966) is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. He played 57 matches and scored 1 goal for the Denmark national team, and Høgh represented Denmark at the 1998 FIFA World Cup, as well as th ...

in the

UEFA Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

and

tournaments. He was ever-present for the Danish team which won the

1995 King Fahd Cup The 1995 King Fahd Cup ( ar, كأس الملك فهد) was the second and last tournament held under the King Fahd Cup name before the competition was retroactively sanctioned by FIFA and recognized as FIFA Confederations Cup. Disputed as the King ...

and played in all of Denmark's three matches at UEFA Euro 1996. At the 1998 FIFA World Cup, Rieper played full-time for the Danish national team, and scored against

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

. Denmark's World Cup campaign ended in a quarter-final defeat to eventual runners-up

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Post-playing career

Following his retirement Rieper spent some time in 2001 as an assistant coach at AGF. Through his connections to Celtic, he brought over many reserve team players to AGF, including future

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

international

Liam Miller Liam William Peter Miller (13 February 1981 – 9 February 2018) was an Irish professional footballer. Miller began his career with Celtic and was later loaned to Aarhus in 2001. He returned to Celtic Park and broke into the first-team squa ...

. After head coach

John Stampe John Stampe Møller (16 February 1957 – 29 July 2012) was a Danish football player and coach. He played 444 games (and scored 12 goals) for AGF Aarhus and 1 game for the Danish national football team The Denmark men's national football te ...

was fired in 2002, Rieper resigned from the club. He now owns and runs a hotel in the town of

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwest ...

, is a member of the board of directors at AGF and is the owner of women's online fashion store BA10.dk.

Honours

1994 *

King Fahd Cup 1995 The 1995 King Fahd Cup ( ar, كأس الملك فهد) was the second and last tournament held under the King Fahd Cup name before the competition was retroactively sanctioned by FIFA and recognized as FIFA Confederations Cup. Disputed as the King ...

Scottish Premier Division The Scottish Football League Premier Division was, from 1975 until 1998, the top division of the Scottish Football League and the entire Scottish football league system. It lay above the Scottish Football League First, Second and (from 1994) Th ...

1998 *

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existen ...

1997

References

External links

Danish national team profileSporting-Heroes career statistics
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rieper, Marc 1968 births Living people People from Rødovre People named in the Panama Papers Sportspeople from the Capital Region of Denmark Danish men's footballers Association football central defenders Denmark international footballers Denmark under-21 international footballers Danish Superliga players Premier League players Scottish Premier League players Aarhus Gymnastikforening players Brøndby IF players West Ham United F.C. players Celtic F.C. players 1995 King Fahd Cup players UEFA Euro 1996 players 1998 FIFA World Cup players FIFA Confederations Cup-winning players Scottish Football League players Danish expatriate men's footballers Danish expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in England Danish expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Expatriate footballers in Scotland