Henrik Larsen (born 17 May 1966), nicknamed ''Store Larsen'' (''Big Larsen''), is a Danish

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 ...

manager and former professional player, who played as a

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 ...

. He was last the manager of

Lyngby Boldklub 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 ...

. He was the joint top scorer at the

UEFA Euro 1992 The 1992 UEFA European Football Championship was hosted by Sweden between 10 and 26 June 1992. It was the ninth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and supported by UEFA. Denmark won the 1992 championship, having qualifi ...

which he won with the Denmark national team. He was also part of the Danish squad at

Euro 96 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

where he played his last national team game. In all, he played 39 national team matches and scored five goals.

Club career

Larsen was born in

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 ...

. He started his career in Denmark for Taarbæk IF and then later

. He won the 1985

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 ...

trophy with Lyngby, and made his Danish national team debut in February 1989. In April 1990, he agreed a move abroad to play for Italian club Pisa Calcio, who were leading the

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 ...

battle in the secondary

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie Balkrishna Industries, BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 ...

division. Larsen was named

Man of the Match In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...

, as he won the 1990 Danish Cup with Lyngby, before moving to Italy in June 1990. He joined Pisa 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, but in his first year at the club, Pisa were

relegated 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. ...

to the Serie B again. As Serie B regulations only allowed two foreign players in the team, Larsen had to look for playing time elsewhere, when the club preferred

Argentinians Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish language, Spanish (Grammatical gender, masculine) or (Grammatical gender, feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be resident ...

Diego Simeone Diego Pablo Simeone González (; ; born 28 April 1970, nicknamed El Cholo (), is an Argentine professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder; he has been the manager of Atlético Madrid since December 2011. In his cl ...

and Jose Chamot. After the Euro 92 tournament, Larsen moved back to Pisa in the Serie B. Simeone had been sold, but following the first few league games for the club, Larsen was put on sale. A number of European clubs were interested in him, but Pisa's pricetag of DKK 50 million kept all interest at bay. Larsen eventually moved to Aston Villa FC in England on a loan deal in January 1993. His stay in Aston Villa was short, as he had trouble forcing his way into the team under manager

Ron Atkinson Ronald Frederick Atkinson (born 18 March 1939), commonly known as "Big Ron" or "Mr. Bojangles", is an English former football player and manager. In the 1990s and early 2000s, he was regarded as one of Britain's best-known football pundits. Nick ...

. In March 1993, he was told by Atkinson he wasn't needed, but as Pisa didn't want him back, he stayed at Villa's reserve team until May 1993. He was loaned out to German club

Waldhof Mannheim SV Waldhof Mannheim is a multi-sports club, located in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg. It is most known for its association football team; however, there are also professional handball and table-tennis sides. The club today has a membership of over ...

in the 2. Bundesliga in 1993, where he played well. He returned to Denmark in 1994, to play for Lyngby on a season-long loan deal. Larsen was set free from his Pisa contract in February 1995, when his transfer rights were given to Lyngby. He was called up for the Danish squad for Euro 96, by national manager Møller Nielsen. He took part in all Denmark's three matches, before ending his national team career when Denmark were eliminated. After Euro 96, he moved to league rivals

FC 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 ...

, with whom he won the 1997 Danish Cup. He ended his career in 1999.

International career

Larsen went on a season-long loan deal back in Lyngby, where he helped the club win the 1992

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 was selected for the Danish team to compete at the Euro 92 tournament. He started the tournament as a substitute, but Larsen went on to score three goals at Euro 92, including both goals in the 2–2 semi-final draw against the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. He scored at his attempt in the ensuing

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

, and played full-time when he and the Danish national team won the final against

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Coaching career

Following his retirement, he became assistant coach at FC Copenhagen, before managing

Ølstykke FC Ølstykke Fodbold Club ; also known as Ølstykke FC or ØFC) is an association football club based in the town of Ølstykke on Zealand, Denmark. The men's team competes in the Series 1, the sixth tier of the Danish football league system and the ...

. He was head coach of the Faroe Islands national team until 2005, as well as associated coach of the talent team in Lyngby Boldklub, for whose old boys team he is also playing. In 2006, he was

caretaker manager In association footballing terms, a caretaker manager or interim manager is somebody who takes temporary charge of the management of a football team, usually when the regular Manager (association football), manager is dismissed or leaves for a ...

Holbæk B&I Holbæk Bold- & Idrætsforening is a Danish football club currently playing in 2. Division East. They play at Holbæk Stadion in Holbæk on Zealand, which has a capacity of 10,500. From 2008 to 2014 their first team played under the name Nordv ...

, before signing on with

Køge Boldklub Køge Boldklub is a Danish football club from Køge, Zealand. History In 1954, the club became the first outside Copenhagen to win the Danish Championship. The club declared bankruptcy in February 2009, but continued as an amateur side in the ...

in June 2006 and was here coach until June 2008. Larsen was named as the new head coach from

on 15 July 2008 and was then fired after eight months on 30 March 2009. He was the new assistant manager at the Danish football club

Randers FC Randers FC () is a professional football club based in Randers, East Jutland, Denmark, that plays in the Danish Superliga, the top flight of the Danish football league system. Founded on 1 January 2003, the club builds upon the license of Rand ...

, when the season 2009–10 started, together with another Danish football legend

Flemming Povlsen Flemming Søgaard Povlsen (born 3 December 1966) is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a striker for Borussia Dortmund in Germany, among other teams. He works as football expert on TV. Club career Povlsen started playing foot ...

. They were both assistant managers for the

manager John Faxe Jensen but the trio was fired on 6 October 2009.

Personal life

In 1998, he announced he was marrying an English sports reporter, Sacha Crowther, whom he had met at the UEFA European Championship two years earlier.

Honours

Player

Lyngby Boldklub *

: 1984–85, 1989–90 *

: 1991–92 Copenhagen *

: 1996–97 Denmark * European Championship:

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

Managerial statistics

References

External links

* *
Henrik Larsen Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Larsen, Henrik 1966 births Living people People from Kongens Lyngby Danish men's footballers Denmark international footballers Association football midfielders Denmark under-21 international footballers UEFA Euro 1992 players UEFA Euro 1996 players UEFA European Championship-winning players Serie A players Serie B players Hellerup IK players Lyngby Boldklub players Pisa S.C. players Aston Villa F.C. players SV Waldhof Mannheim players 2. Bundesliga players F.C. Copenhagen players Danish Superliga players Danish football managers Ølstykke FC managers Faroe Islands national football team managers Holbæk B&I managers Køge Boldklub managers Lyngby Boldklub managers Danish expatriate men's footballers Danish expatriate football managers Danish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate footballers in Italy Danish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Germany Danish expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate football managers in the Faroe Islands Danish 1st Division managers Sportspeople from the Capital Region of Denmark