Peter Kjær (born 5 November 1965) 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 ...

, current television commentator, and former sporting director of

Silkeborg IF Silkeborg Idrætsforening, (; commonly known as Silkeborg IF or SIF in short) is a professional football club based in Silkeborg, Denmark. The club was founded in 1917, reached the highest level of Danish football in 1987, and afterwards became ...

. During his active career 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 ...

, he played the bulk of his career with Danish clubs

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 ...

and

. He played for Turkish club

Beşiktaş Beşiktaş () is a district and municipality of Istanbul, Turkey, located on the European shore of the Bosphorus strait. It is bordered on the north by Sarıyer and Şişli, on the west by Kağıthane and Şişli, on the south by Beyoğlu, and ...

before ending his career with

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

in Scotland, retiring in 2003. He represented the Denmark national team in four matches.

Biography

Born in

Fredericia Fredericia () is a town located in Fredericia Municipality in the southeastern part of the Jutland peninsula in Denmark. The city is part of the Triangle Region, which includes the neighbouring cities of Kolding and Vejle. It was founded in 16 ...

, he started his senior career at

Vejle BK 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 1983. He played a total 225 games and scored two goals for the club. He only played one game in the

1991–92 Danish Superliga The 1991–92 Danish Superliga season was the 2nd season of the Danish Superliga league championship, governed by the Danish Football Association. The tournament was held in two rounds. First round was in the autumn 1991, and the second in the sp ...

season, serving as back-up for

Boye Habekost Boye Habekost (born 22 September 1968) is a Danish football coach and a former player who is manager at

, as Vejle were relegated to the

Danish 1st Division The 1st Division (''1. Division'') is the second-highest football league in Denmark, also known as NordicBet Liga for sponsorship reasons. From 1945 to 1991 the 1. Division was the name of the highest level of football in Denmark. With the forma ...

. He played his last Vejle game in November 1992, before he joined Superliga club

, making his debut for the team in March 1993. He played a total 291 games and scored two goals for Silkeborg,16. december: Peter Kjær
at

won the

1993–94 Danish Superliga The 1993–94 Danish Superliga season was the 4th season of the Danish Superliga league championship, governed by the Danish Football Association. The tournament was held in two rounds. First round was in the autumn 1993, and the second in the s ...

championship and the 2001

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 ...

with the team, and was named 1999 Danish ''Goalkeeper of the Year''. He had a brief stint in Turkey with

in 2001, under manager

Christoph Daum Christoph Paul Daum (born 24 October 1953) is a German professional football manager and former player. Daum played as a midfielder and was a junior for several clubs from the region of Duisburg. He began his senior career with Hamborn 07 and E ...

. After two months at the club, Kjær was told by Daum that he contemplated leaving the club, and Kjær asked for his contract to be annulled. In October 2001, he was picked up by Danish manager

Ebbe Skovdahl Ebbe Skovdahl Hansen (5 July 1945 – 23 October 2020) was a Danish football manager. He most prominently was a successful manager at Brøndby IF, for whom he had also played in his active years. He helped turn the side into the most dominant D ...

to join Scottish club

. He stayed with the club until June 2003, after which he retired. Kjær was included in the Denmark squads for the

1995 Intercontinental Cup The 1995 Intercontinental Cup was an association football match played on 28 November 1995 between Ajax, winners of the 1994–95 UEFA Champions League, and Grêmio, winners of the 1995 Copa Libertadores. The match was played at the National Sta ...

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 ...

Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament was ...

but he spent all three tournaments on the bench. He made his Denmark debut on 25 April 2001 in the farewell match of

Peter Schmeichel Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

. He was 35 years and 171 days old at the time, breaking the old record for oldest Danish debutant by 17 days, a record set by Johannes Gandil in 1908. He went on to play four international games until March 2002. He was included in the Danish squad for the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

, serving as a back-up to

Thomas Sørensen Thomas Løvendahl Sørensen (born 12 June 1976) is a retired Danish footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Sørensen started his career with his local side Odense BK. After impressing on loan at Vejle Boldklub and Svendborg he was signed by E ...

. After his retirement, Kjær was hired as a commentator and pundit for Danish TV 3 in August 2004.
/ref> He was named sporting director of his former club

in October 2008, and was in the job for nearly six months. He then went back to doing TV work.

References

External links

Danish national team profileVejle Boldklub profileSoccerbase – Scottish statisticsDanish Superliga statistics

Peter Kjaer Interview

Fredericianske Peter Kjær: It hurt to stop the career
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kjaer, Peter 1965 births Living people People from Fredericia Danish men's footballers Association football goalkeepers Denmark international footballers Denmark under-21 international footballers Danish Superliga players Süper Lig players Scottish Premier League players Vejle Boldklub players Silkeborg IF players Aberdeen F.C. players Beşiktaş J.K. footballers 1995 King Fahd Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2000 players 2002 FIFA World Cup players FIFA Confederations Cup-winning players Danish television presenters Danish expatriate men's footballers Danish expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Expatriate footballers in Scotland Danish expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate footballers in Turkey Sportspeople from the Region of Southern Denmark