Søren Colding (; born 2 September 1972) is a Danish former professional football player, who most prominently captained Danish club Brøndby IF and

VfL Bochum Verein für Leibesübungen Bochum 1848 Fußballgemeinschaft, commonly referred to as simply VfL Bochum (), is a German association football club based in the city of Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club has spent 35 seasons in the Bundeslig ...

in Germany from his position of

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. He represented the Denmark national football team in 27 matches, and he was a participant at the 1998 FIFA World Cup and 2000 European Championship tournaments.

Biography

Born on

Frederiksberg Frederiksberg () is a part of the Capital Region of Denmark. It is formally an independent municipality, Frederiksberg Municipality, separate from Copenhagen Municipality, but both are a part of the City of Copenhagen. It occupies an area of ...

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 ...

, Colding played his youth team football for Ejby 68 and BK Frem. He made his Denmark under-21 national team debut on 25 August 1992. Colding first made himself noticed on the senior level, when he scored in Frem's 1–5 defeat to

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system. Zaragoza holds its home games at L ...

in the

1992–93 UEFA Cup The 1992–93 UEFA Cup was won by Juventus, who beat Borussia Dortmund 6–1 on aggregate in the final, a record score for a UEFA Cup final. It was the third victory in the competition for the Italian team (first club to reach this record). Thr ...

tournament. When Frem went

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

in fall 1993, Colding moved to rivals Brøndby IF 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 ...

championship. He debuted for the club in June 1994, and Colding made his debut for the Danish national team under national team coach

Bo Johansson Bo "Bosse" Johansson (born 28 November 1942) is a Swedish former football player and current football coach. Biography Johansson was a player for fourteen years with Kalmar FF and Lindsdals IF, though he did not win any trophies as a player. In ...

in November 1996. He was subsequently voted 1996 ''Brøndby IF Player of the Year''. Following Brøndby's three Danish Superliga triumphs in a row from 1996 to 1998, and the club's qualification for the 1998–99 UEFA Champions League tournament, Colding became a mainstay in the Danish national team. He played in the majority of the Danish national team matches from 1998 to 2000, and he took part in all Denmark's matches at both the 1998 FIFA World Cup and

UEFA 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 wa ...

. With the arrival of new national team coach

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 ...

in June 2000, Colding's career for Denmark went on hiatus. With Brøndby, Colding won two

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 ...

trophies and three

Danish football champions The Danish football champions are the winners of the highest league of football in Denmark. The title has been contested since 1913, in a varying form of competitions. Since 1991, the winners have been found through the Danish Superliga championsh ...

hips, and since March 1999 he captained the side when he took over the captain's armband from

John Jensen John Jensen (born 3 May 1965), nicknamed Faxe (), is a Danish football manager and former player. A former midfielder, his playing career lasted almost two entire decades, including a stint with Arsenal in England and three stints with Brøndb ...

. Colding moved abroad in winter 2000 to play for

relegation 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. ...

battlers VfL Bochum in the German

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 ...

, in a

transfer deal In professional football, a transfer is the action taken whenever a player under contract moves between clubs. It refers to the transferring of a player's registration from one association football club to another. In general, the players can on ...

worth 1.5 million

DEM DEM was the ISO 4217 currency code for the Deutsche Mark, former currency of Germany Computing * Digital elevation model, a digital representation of ground-surface topography or terrain ** .dem, a common extension for USGS DEM files * Discret ...

. He debuted in January 2001 and played the last 16 games of the 2000–01 Bundesliga season, as Bochum ended dead last in the league and were relegated to the German

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

. The club won

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 ...

the following year, with Colding the deputy team captain, a position he kept through his Bochum career as he captained the Bochum side in several games. The club finished in a meriting fifth place in the 2003–04 Bundesliga season, and Colding received his final call-up to the Danish national team, when Morten Olsen included him in the team that lost 0–2 to

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

in March 2004. Bochum were relegated again following the 2004–05 season, and Colding ended his career in the club following eight games played during the 2005–06 2. Bundesliga season, which once more ended in promotion for Bochum to the top-flight Bundesliga. Colding has been the general director for handball club AG København but left the club on 30 July 2012, just one day before the club filed for bankruptcy.

Honours

Brøndby IF *

: 1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98 *

: 1997–98

References

External links

*
Boldklubben Frem profile

Brøndby IF profile
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Colding, Soren 1972 births Living people Footballers from Frederiksberg Men's association football defenders Danish men's footballers Denmark men's international footballers Denmark men's under-21 international footballers Denmark men's youth international footballers Boldklubben Frem players Brøndby IF players VfL Bochum players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 1998 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2000 players Expatriate men's footballers in Germany