Oliver Christensen (born 22 March 1999) is a Danish 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 plays 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 Italian club

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fo ...

and the Denmark national team.

Club career

OB

Born in

Kerteminde Kerteminde (nickname: ''Min Amandas by'', i.e. ''My Amanda's town''), is a town in central Denmark, located in Kerteminde Municipality on the island of Funen. The town has a population of 6,042 (1 January 2022).

on the island of

Funen Funen ( da, Fyn, ), with an area of , is the third-largest island of Denmark, after Zealand and Vendsyssel-Thy. It is the 165th-largest island in the world. It is located in the central part of the country and has a population of 469,947 as of ...

, Christensen played in the youth department of his local club, Kerteminde Boldklub, before moving to

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) at under-12 level. There, he progressed through the academy, and completed a trial with

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

in October 2016. In May 2017, Christensen signed a three-year professional contract with OB, and was promoted to the first team. Thus, he became a part of the club until 2020. In the first year of his contract, he still attended classes, after which he would become a full-time professional from the summer of 2018. He made his professional debut on 22 October 2018 in a

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 ...

match against

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 impressed during the match, fending off a number of shots on goal from opposing players. He since became established as the starting goalkeeper for OB, gaining the nickname ''Gribben fra Kerteminde'', meaning "the vulture from

" due to his large

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

Hertha BSC

On 26 August 2021, Christensen was sold to

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

club

Hertha BSC Hertha, Berliner Sport-Club e. V., commonly known as Hertha BSC (), and sometimes referred to as Hertha Berlin, Hertha BSC Berlin, or simply Hertha, is a German professional football club based in the locality of Westend of the borough of Charl ...

, where he signed a deal until June 2026. On 5 November, he made his debut for the reserve team

Hertha BSC II Hertha BSC II is the reserve team of Hertha BSC that is based in Berlin, Germany. Historically, during the time the senior team played in professional football the team has played as Hertha BSC Amateure. Since 2005 it permanently plays under its ...

in the

Regionalliga Nordost The Regionalliga Nordost is the fourth tier of German football in the states of Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Thuringia. These comprise the states of former East Germany as well as West Berlin. It i ...

game against

1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig 1. Fußballclub Lokomotive Leipzig e.V. is a German football club based in the locality of Probstheida in the Südost borough of Leipzig, Saxony. The club may be more familiar to many of the country's football fans as the historic side VfB Lei ...

. During the 2021–22 season he did not make any Bundesliga appearance, as

Alexander Schwolow Alexander Schwolow (born 2 June 1992) is a German professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper. Club career Youth years Schwolow began his youth career at 3. Liga side SV Wehen Wiesbaden. He left in 2008 for SC Freiburg's U17 team from ...

and Marcel Lotka were given preference. Hertha finished the season in 16th place in the table and would thus meet

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of three ...

in playoffs for relegation and promotion. Since Lotka and Schwolow were injured, Christensen played both games and was able to keep Hertha in the Bundesliga.

Fiorentina

On 10 August 2023, Christensen moved to

in Italy.

International career

Christensen played two games each for the Denmark under-18 team in 2017 and for the under-19 team in 2017 and 2018, respectively. After gaining a cap for the under-20 side in 2019, Christensen made his debut for the under-21 team on 10 September 2019 in a 2–1 victory in the

2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification The 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying competition was a men's under-21 footballtournament that determined the 14 teams that would be joining the automatically qualified co-hosts Hungary and Slovenia in the 2021 UEFA European Unde ...

match against

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

Aalborg Aalborg (, , ) is Denmark's fourth largest town (behind Copenhagen, Aarhus, and Odense) with a population of 119,862 (1 July 2022) in the town proper and an urban population of 143,598 (1 July 2022). As of 1 July 2022, the Municipality of Aalb ...

. On 9 November 2020, Christensen was called up to

Kasper Hjulmand Kasper Hjulmand (born 9 April 1972) is a Danish football manager and a former player. He is the head coach for the Denmark national team. Playing career A defender, Hjulmand began his career with Randers Freja in 1987 where he played four ye ...

's senior squad for the friendly 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 ...

due to several cancellations from, among others, the Danish national team players playing in England, due to the COVID-19 restrictions, as well as a case of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

in the squad, which had put several national team players in quarantine. He started the match against Sweden at

Brøndby Stadium Brøndby Stadium ( da, Brøndby Stadion, ) is a football stadium in Brøndbyvester, Denmark and the home ground of Danish Superliga club Brøndby IF. It is the second-largest stadium in Denmark. Built in 1965 and inaugurated on 31 July 1966 where i ...

in his debut match, on 11 November 2020.

Career statistics

References

External links

Profile
at the Hertha BSC website {{DEFAULTSORT:Christensen, Oliver 1999 births Living people People from Kerteminde Danish men's footballers Danish expatriate men's footballers Denmark men's youth international footballers Denmark men's under-21 international footballers Denmark men's international footballers Men's association football defenders Footballers from Odense Danish Superliga players Regionalliga players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Serie A players Odense Boldklub players Hertha BSC players Hertha BSC II players ACF Fiorentina players Danish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Danish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Italy 2022 FIFA World Cup players