Eigil Louis Marius Ferdinand Nielsen, known simply as Eigil Nielsen (15 September 1918 – 7 September 2000) was a

Danish 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 ...

amateur football

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 ...

, who played 28 games for the Denmark national football team and won a bronze medal with Denmark at the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ca ...

. He played his club football with KB.Danish national team profile
/ref> Originally from

Esbjerg Esbjerg (, ) is a seaport town and seat of Esbjerg Municipality on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in southwest Denmark. By road, it is west of Kolding and southwest of Aarhus. With an urban population of 71,698 (1 January 2022)

, Eigil Nielsen was not selected for the Danish national team, until he moved to

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 ...

club

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). At KB, Eigil impressed with his quickness, judgement of ball-flight, and long-range

goal kick A goal kick is a method of restarting the play in a game of association football. Its procedure is dictated by Law 16 of the Laws of the Game. Award A goal kick is awarded to the defending team when the ball goes out of the field of play by cr ...

s. He made his debut for the Danish national team in October 1940, but did enjoy a prolonged run in the team until 1947. He was the starting goalkeeper at the

, where his long-range goal kick served as an in-direct assist for one of John Hansen's goals in the 5-3 defeat of the

Italy national football team The Italy national football team ( it, Nazionale di calcio dell'Italia) has represented Italy in international football since its first match in 1910. The national team is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing bo ...

. Denmark won bronze medals at the tournament, and Eigil Nielsen was considered on par with legendary goalkeeper Svend Jensen; a status not equalled until

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 su ...

in the 1990s. Eigil Nielsen played his 28th and last international game in October 1951.

Father of the Modern Football

While playing, Nielsen worked in the shoe and leather industry for additional financial support. This gave him the opportunity to explore and develop his own football designs. As a result, he founded the

Select Sport Select Sport A.S. is a Danish sports equipment manufacturer based in Glostrup, Denmark. As of 2008, Select Sport provides the Danish Football Association with footballs, and also several clubs in the Danish, Belgian, Portugal and Russian top ...

company in 1947, which continues today as one of the world's largest companies producing footballs. Eigil Nielsen is credited with creating the common 32-panel football design in 1962 using 20 hexagonal and 12 pentagonal patches. It quickly became popular when the

Adidas Telstar Telstar is a football made by Adidas. The iconic 32-panel alternating black-and-white design of the ball, based on the work of Eigil Nielsen, has since become a global standard design used to portray a football in different media. Ball The b ...

in 1970 became the first football in the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

to use the design.

References

1918 births 2000 deaths Danish men's footballers Kjøbenhavns Boldklub players Denmark international footballers Footballers at the 1948 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Denmark Olympic bronze medalists for Denmark Olympic medalists in football Medalists at the 1948 Summer Olympics Association football goalkeepers People from Esbjerg Sportspeople from the Region of Southern Denmark {{Denmark-footy-goalkeeper-stub