Martin Meldgaard Pedersen (born 9 October 1983) 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 as a

left-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 ...

. He has played 28 games for the Danish under-21 national team, and was selected for the 2006 European Under-21 Championship.

Club career

Pedersen made his senior debut for Aalborg BK (AaB) in the 2002–03 Superliga season. At age 21, he had played 39 Superliga matches for AaB. Struggling to capture a first team spot in competition with

Danish international Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

defender

Allan K. Jepsen Allan Kierstein Jepsen (born 4 July 1977 in Kolding) is a Danish former professional football player and current U17 manager at FC Midtjylland. He played as a left back for a number of clubs, spending most of his career with Aalborg Boldspil ...

, Pedersen was put on loan with Superliga

relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

battlers

SønderjyskE SønderjyskE is a Danish sport corporation. They have a football team (SønderjyskE Fodbold, based in Haderslev), two handball teams (SønderjyskE Håndbold, one male based in Sønderborg, one female based in Aabenraa) and an ice hockey team (S ...

for the 2005–06 Superliga season. He played 25 games for SønderjyskE, but could not prevent them from being relegated at the end of the season. Back at AaB, Pedersen was initially competing with Danish under-21 national team defender Michael Jakobsen for the left back. With Jakobsen eventually settling in the central defense, Pedersen played a number of games at left back, as AaB won bronze medals in the 2006–07 Superliga season. Following

Aalborg BK Aalborg Boldspilklub is a Danish sports club based in the city of Aalborg. The club is also known as AaB for short (cf. logo) or Aalborg BK. Through time the club has had branches in cricket, tennis, ice hockey, handball, and basketball, but cur ...

's bronze medals they qualified for the

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, where a dream came true for Martin Pedersen as he played against his favourite foreign team,

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

White Hart Lane White Hart Lane was a football stadium in Tottenham, North London and the home of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club from 1899 to 2017. Its capacity varied over the years; when changed to all-seater it had a capacity of 36,284 before demolition. ...

. Pedersen had his best AaB season the following year, when he played 28 of 33 games as the team won the 2007–08 Superliga championship. After the championship, AaB qualified for the 2008–09 Champions League group stage, where Pedersen had a lot of stable performances against

Celtic F.C. The Celtic Football Club, commonly known as Celtic (), is a Scottish professional football club based in Glasgow, which plays in the Scottish Premiership. The club was founded in 1887 with the purpose of alleviating poverty in the immigran ...

Villarreal CF Villarreal Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. ( ca-valencia, Vila-real Club de Futbol, S.A.D.), usually abbreviated to Villarreal CF or simply Villarreal, is a professional football club based in Villarreal, in the Castellón province of eastern Spain, ...

and Manchester United.

Sir Alex Ferguson Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson (born 31 December 1941) is a Scottish former football manager and player, best known for managing Manchester United from 1986 to 2013. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest football managers of all tim ...

even mentioned Pedersen of one of the Aalborg BK profiles in an interview, a few days before AaB entered the Old Trafford to play against Manchester United. AaB however, did not want to extend his contract, which resulted in a transfer to Superliga relegation battlers

Vejle Boldklub Vejle Boldklub is a Danish professional football club based in Vejle in Jutland. Formed in 1891, the club is one of the most successful clubs in Danish football history, having won the Danish championship five times and the Danish cup title six t ...

in January 2009, six months before his contract ended. Injuries ruined his first time at the club, and he only played five games as Vejle were relegated at the end of the season. In his second season with Vejle, Pedersen fell out with the club. He was loaned out to

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

ic team Valur in March 2010. After returning to Denmark he settled his contract with

and joined

FC Hjørring Vendsyssel Forenede Fodboldklubber is a professional football club based in Hjørring, Denmark. The team competes in the Danish 1st Division, the second tier of Danish football. The club plays home matches at Nord Energi Arena, which has a capaci ...

in the same division until the end of 2010/2011 season. In summer of 2011 Pedersen signed a 1,5 years contract for promotion hopeful

FC Fredericia Fodbold Club Fredericia af 1991 (, simply known as FC Fredericia), is a professional association football club based in the town of Fredericia, Denmark, that competes in the Danish 1st Division, the second tier of the Danish football league syst ...

and after a great start he unfortunately tore his

cruciate ligament Cruciate ligaments (also cruciform ligaments) are pairs of ligaments arranged like a letter X. They occur in several joints of the body, such as the knee joint and the atlanto-axial joint. In a fashion similar to the cords in a toy Jacob's la ...

against

Randers FC Randers FC () is a professional football club based in Randers, East Jutland, Denmark, that plays in the Danish Superliga, the top flight of the Danish football league system. Founded on 1 January 2003, the club builds upon the license of Rande ...

in September 2011. The operation went well and Pedersen returned to full training in April 2012. He finished his active career at Vejgaard BK.Martin Pedersen gør comeback på grønsværen
�� bold.dk, 9 December 2016

International career

He has earned 35

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s for various Danish youth team selections, starting with the Under-16s in 1999. He made his debut for the Danish under-21 national team in August 2002, 18 years old. He played a total 28 games for the Under-21s, and was selected for the 2006 European Under-21 Championship in May 2006.

References

External links

*
Martin Pedersen
official

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 ye ...

statistics at danskfodbold.com
Martin Pedersen at Jammerbugt FC
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pedersen, Martin 1983 births Living people Danish men's footballers Footballers from Aalborg Denmark men's youth international footballers Denmark men's under-21 international footballers AaB Fodbold players Danish expatriate sportspeople in Iceland Vendsyssel FF players Sønderjyske Fodbold players Vejle Boldklub players Danish Superliga players Men's association football fullbacks Danish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Iceland Expatriate men's footballers in the Faroe Islands B36 Tórshavn players Jammerbugt FC managers Danish football managers