Michael Bro Johansen (born July 22, 1972) is a

Danish 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 a ...

former professional football player who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

in the

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 ...

for

FC Copenhagen Football Club Copenhagen ( da, Football Club København, ), commonly known as FC København, FC Copenhagen, Copenhagen or simply FCK, is a professional Danish football club in Copenhagen, Denmark. FCK was founded in 1992 as a superstructure on ...

and for

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

club Bolton Wanderers. He played two games for the Danish national team in 2000 and 2002, and was an unused substitute at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

. He is the older

twin brother Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two e ...

of former footballer Martin Johansen, and played alongside him in several clubs.

Biography

Born in Glostrup, both Michael and Martin Johansen started playing for local

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

club Rosenhøj IF at the age of four. They both went on to play for

Kjøbenhavns Boldklub Kjøbenhavns Boldklub or KB is a Danish sports club based in Copenhagen. The club was founded 26 April 1876 on the grassy fields in outer Copenhagen which later became Fælledparken. Tennis has been played since 1883. The club hosted, in 1921, on ...

where they made their senior debut in the second-best Danish division in 1990. They moved to

club

B 1903 Boldklubben 1903 or B 1903 is a football club founded on 2 June 1903, located in Copenhagen, Denmark. Seven times winner of the Danish championship (introduced 1913) in 1920, 1924, 1926, 1938, 1969, 1970 and 1976 and twice winner of the Dan ...

in 1991 before they signed for

upon the founding of that club in 1992. They helped the club win the Danish Superliga title in its first year of existence, and in 1996 the twins parted ways as Michael Johansen moved to the English First Division to join Bolton Wanderers. Signed for £1.250.000, he became a star at Bolton, earning the nickname "Smurf", and helped the club earn

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 ...

to the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

for the 1997–98 season. Bolton's stint in the Premiership only lasted a year, before the club was once again

relegated 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. ...

to the First Division. He also helped Bolton to the FA Cup semi final in 2000, but he was one of two Bolton players to have their penalty saved by Aston Villa goalkeeper David James as they crashed out in a penalty shootout. In all, Johansen played 137 matches and scored 16 goals for Bolton. In June 2000, he returned to Denmark to play for Superliga bronze winners AB Copenhagen. As

Morten Olsen Morten Per Olsen (born 14 August 1949) is a Danish football manager and former player. He was the head coach of the Denmark national team for 15 years from 2000 until 2015, guiding Denmark to the 2002 FIFA World Cup, 2004 European Championshi ...

became Danish national team coach in 2000, he called Johansen up for his national team debut in August 2000, in a 2–0 win against the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

. In November 2002, Johansen won his second and last cap for Denmark, in a 2–0 win against

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

. As AB was relegated following the Danish Superliga 2003-04 season, Michael moved to amateur club

Greve IF Greve Fodbold is a Danish football club currently playing in the Denmark Series, the fifth tier of Danish football. The club have played the entirety of their existence in the lower divisions and spent one season in the second tier in 1980. They ...

where he was reunited with Martin Johansen. Michael Johansen is now a FIFA-licensed player agent.Martin Kloster, "Agenter kender spillet indefra", ''

Fyens Stiftstidende ''Fyens Stiftstidende'' is a daily newspaper in Denmark and has its headquarters in Odense. The paper serves for Funen. History and profile The newspaper was first published on 3 January 1772. It was part of the Stiftstidende dailies. The other ...

article'', April 3, 2006

Honours

;Bolton Wanderers: * First Division: 1996–97

Footnotes

External links

* *
Danish national team profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johansen, Michael 1972 births Danish men's footballers Danish expatriate men's footballers Olympic footballers for Denmark Footballers at the 1992 Summer Olympics Kjøbenhavns Boldklub players F.C. Copenhagen players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Living people Premier League players Danish Superliga players Expatriate men's footballers in England Danish expatriate sportspeople in England Denmark men's international footballers Denmark men's under-21 international footballers Danish twins Twin sportspeople Men's association football midfielders People from Glostrup Municipality Footballers from the Capital Region of Denmark