Rune Pedersen (born 9 October 1979) is a Danish

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 ...

. He 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 ...

. Pedersen has amassed a total 17 youth caps for

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

under four different age groups, he is yet to earn a senior cap. Pedersen has won two Danish Superliga championships with his first club

F.C. 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 has since played for Danish clubs

Aarhus GF Aarhus Gymnastikforening (; commonly known as AGF ), is a professional sports club based in Aarhus, Jutland, Denmark. Founded in 1880, it is one of the oldest clubs in the country and gymnastics and fencing are featured as its main sports. Howeve ...

Lyngby Kongens Lyngby (, Danish for "the King's Heather Town"; short form Lyngby) is the seat and commercial centre of Lyngby-Taarbæk Municipality in the northern suburbs of Copenhagen, Denmark. Lyngby Hovedgade is a busy shopping street and the site of ...

, OB, and F.C. Nordsjælland as well as Italian club

Modena F.C. Modena Football Club 2018, commonly referred to as Modena, is an Football in Italy, Italian football club based in Modena, Emilia-Romagna. The club was founded in 1912, and refounded in 2018, and had spent the majority of its existence playing i ...

and

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

in England.

Club career

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 ...

, Rune Pedersen started his career off at clubs in his hometown. He played youth football with

Hvidovre IF Hvidovre Idrætsforening, more commonly known as Hvidovre IF () is a Denmark, Danish professional association football, football club based in Hvidovre. The club competes in the Danish 1st Division, the second tier of Danish football league syste ...

, before moving to

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 ...

(KB), the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

(FCK) in the top-flight

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 ...

championship. He got his

first team First team may refer to: Sports * First team (association football), the colloquial name given to the most senior team fielded by a football club * The First Team, the first players known to have played the sport of basketball * First Team All-A ...

debut for FCK in August 2000, when he replaced the injured

Michael Stensgaard Michael Stensgaard (born 1 September 1974) is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He represented Danish clubs Hvidovre IF and FC Copenhagen, as well as Liverpool and Southampton in the Premier League. He played e ...

. He went on to win two Superliga championships with FCK, but never fully established himself as FCK's starting goalkeeper. He saw competition from a number of goalkeepers, including Swedish international goalkeeper

Magnus Kihlstedt Tommy Magnus Kihlstedt (born 29 February 1972) is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He played professionally in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, and won two Danish Superliga titles with FC Copenhagen. He won 13 caps ...

and

Norwegian international The Norwegian International in badminton is an international open held in Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost po ...

goalkeeper

Thomas Myhre Thomas Harald Myhre (born 16 October 1973) is a Norwegian football manager and former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is currently the manager of Moss. The last club he played for before his retirement was Kongsvinger, ha ...

. After two and a half years with FCK, he rejected a contract offer from the club in January 2003. He trained with English club

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

, but did not get a contract offer. Instead, he was sold to

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

club

in the

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

championship. Pedersen only spent half a year with the club, before he was released in the summer 2003, after claiming he did not enjoy life in Italy. He trained with an English club again, this time

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

, but finally moved back to Denmark to play for

AGF Aarhus Aarhus Gymnastikforening (; commonly known as AGF ), is a professional sports club based in Aarhus, Jutland, Denmark. Founded in 1880, it is one of the oldest clubs in the country and gymnastics and fencing are featured as its main sports. Howev ...

in August 2003. Initially a substitute for the three years younger

Steffen Rasmussen Steffen Bjørnebo Rasmussen (born 30 September 1982), known as Steffen Rasmussen, is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper, spending most of his career with AGF. He made two appearances for the Denmark U21 nationa ...

, Pedersen made his AGF debut in April 2004, and was subsequently kept as starting goalkeeper. During the 2004-05 season, Rune Pedersen and five other players were fined for partying on a night where the team lost to

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 curre ...

. He denied paying the fine, and even though the club later dropped the claim, Rune Pedersen was finished in AGF. He linked up with English side

during their pre-season tour of Denmark in preparation for the 2005-06 season and whilst on trial won himself a two-year contract at the

City Ground The City Ground is a football stadium in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, on the banks of the River Trent. It has been home to Nottingham Forest Football Club since 1898 and has a capacity of 30,445. The stadium was a venue when E ...

. After starting the season as first choice keeper the return to fitness of

Paul Gerrard Paul William Gerrard (born 22 January 1973) is an English football goalkeeping coach and retired player. He is currently employed by Football League Two side Carlisle United as a goalkeeping coach, having previously been employed as a player-go ...

and the arrival of

Russell Hoult Russell Hoult (born 22 November 1972) is an English football coach and former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He notably spent time playing in the Premier League and played for Leicester City, Derby County and West Bromwich ...

on loan from

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pla ...

relegated Pedersen to third choice goalkeeper. The departure of manager

Gary Megson Gary John Megson (born 2 May 1959) is an English former football player and manager. He has previously managed Norwich City, Blackpool, Stockport County, Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion, Nottingham Forest, Leicester City, Bolton Wanderers ...

, Hoult returning to West Brom and further injury to Paul Gerrard presented Pedersen with another chance. Pedersen performed well in the eyes of many Forest fans and contributed to a resurgence in form which saw Forest climb to within two points of a play-off berth by the end of the season. The appointment of

Colin Calderwood Colin Calderwood (born 20 January 1965) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player. He is the assistant manager at Northampton Town. As a player, he was a centre-back who notably played in the Premier League for Tottenham Hots ...

as the new manager of Nottingham Forest in June 2006 and the arrival of

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

goalkeeper Paul Smith limited Rune to just a handful of appearances during the 2006-07 season. His contract was not renewed by the English club and consequently he became a free agent on 30 June 2007. Rune then signed with Danish Superliga club

Lyngby BK Lyngby Boldklub () is a Danish professional football club founded in 1921. It is based at Lyngby Stadion in Kongens Lyngby, Lyngby-Taarbæk Municipality, a northern suburb of Copenhagen. From 1994 to 2001 the club was known as Lyngby FC. The club ...

. Lyngby were relegated following the

Danish Superliga 2007-08 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 ...

season, but Pedersen stayed with the club in 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 ...

. On 29 August 2009 he was loaned to Superliga club

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 ...

for the rest of the year, but served as a back-up to

Roy Carroll Roy Eric Carroll (born 30 September 1977) is a Northern Irish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is best known for his spells at Wigan Athletic, Manchester United (where he won a Premier League winners medal and the 20 ...

before returning to Lyngby in January 2010. Back at Lyngby, he helped the club finish second in the 2010 1st Division and gain promotion for the Superliga.

International career

While at KB, Pedersen was called up for a number of national youth team matches from April 1995 to September 1996. Having made his breakthrough with FCK, he was called up for the Denmark under-21 national team in November 2000, and played eight games for the team until September 2001.

Honours

Club

: ** Winners: 2000–01, 2002–03, 2011-12

External links

Profile
at DBU.dk
Profile
at Danskfodbold.com
Profile
at Soccerbase.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Pedersen, Rune 1979 births Living people Danish men's footballers Denmark under-21 international footballers Hvidovre IF players F.C. Copenhagen players Aarhus Gymnastikforening players Nottingham Forest F.C. players Lyngby Boldklub players Modena F.C. players Odense Boldklub players FC Nordsjælland players Danish Superliga players Association football goalkeepers Footballers from Copenhagen