Preben Arentoft (born 1 November 1942) is a Danish former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player who played in the

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 ...

position. He played professionally for a number of clubs, most notably

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

and

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. T ...

. He played nine games for the

Denmark national football team The Denmark men's national football team ( da, Danmarks herre-fodboldlandshold or ''herrelandsholdet'') represents Denmark in men's international football competitions. It is controlled by the Danish Football Association (DBU), the governing bo ...

Biography

Born in

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 ...

, Arentoft started playing football with Copenhagen club

Brønshøj Boldklub Brønshøj BK, full name Brønshøj Boldklub, is a Danish football club located in the outskirts of Copenhagen. The club was founded 15 May. 1919. History in brief Early years: Brønshøj BK's first decades was spent in local leagues in the C ...

. He made his Danish national team debut in June 1965, and played four national team games while at Brønshøj. He moved abroad to play professionally for

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

club

Greenock Morton Greenock Morton Football Club is a Scottish professional football club, which plays in the Scottish Championship. The club was founded as Morton Football Club in 1874, making it one of the oldest senior Scottish clubs. Morton was renamed Greeno ...

. Due to the Danish rules of

amateurism An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, self-taught, user-generated, DIY, and hobbyist. History Hist ...

, he was no longer eligible for the Danish national team. In 1969, Arentoft moved to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

to play for

. He played for Newcastle until 1971, earning the nickname ''Benny''. He made a total of 63 appearances for the club, scoring 3 goals. He helped Newcastle win the

Inter-Cities Fairs Cup The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, sometimes referred to as the European Fairs Cup, Fairs Cities' Cup, or simply as the Fairs Cup, was a European Association football, football competition played between 1955 and 1971. It is often considered the predecess ...

in 1969, scoring in the second leg of the final. This made him the first Danish football player to win a European cup title. He is also remembered for having to play in goal during a 5-1 win over

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 1970, coming on for an injured

Willie McFaul William Stewart McFaul (born 1 October 1943), known as Willie or Iam McFaul, is a Northern Irish former football player and now coach. He spent most of his career with Newcastle United. McFaul was born in Coleraine. He joined Newcastle United fr ...

. The rules of

on the Danish national team was abandoned in 1971 before a game against Portugal. Preben Arentoft (representing

) was picked, along with a handful of other players, to be the first professionals ever to participate on the national team. Denmark lost the game 5-0. He had another 4 caps that year to round up his career in the national team. In 1971, he moved on to English club

, before ending his career with

Helsingør IF Helsingør ( , ; sv, Helsingör), classically known in English as Elsinore ( ), is a city in eastern Denmark. Helsingør Municipality had a population of 62,686 on 1 January 2018. Helsingør and Helsingborg in Sweden together form the northern ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Arentoft, Preben 1942 births Living people Danish men's footballers Danish expatriate men's footballers Denmark men's international footballers Newcastle United F.C. players English Football League players Scottish Football League players Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Expatriate men's footballers in England Greenock Morton F.C. players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Men's association football midfielders Brønshøj Boldklub players Brønshøj BK managers Danish football managers Footballers from Copenhagen Danish expatriate sportspeople in England Danish expatriate sportspeople in Scotland