Jacob Thaysen-Laursen (born 6 October 1971) 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, rugb ...

who played as a defender. Laursen most notably played for English club

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group. Founded in 188 ...

and won 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 yea ...

championship with

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 becam ...

and

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 a ...

. He gained 25

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

for the Denmark national team, with whom he won the

1995 King Fahd Cup The 1995 King Fahd Cup ( ar, كأس الملك فهد) was the second and last tournament held under the King Fahd Cup name before the competition was retroactively sanctioned by FIFA and recognized as FIFA Confederations Cup. Disputed as the King ...

and participated in the 1996 European Championship and

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 t ...

tournaments.

Club career

Born in

Vejle Vejle () is a city in Denmark, in the southeast of the Jutland Peninsula at the head of Vejle Fjord, where the Vejle River and Grejs River and their valleys converge. It is the site of the councils of Vejle Municipality ('' kommune'') and the ...

, Laursen spent his childhood years playing for Vejle Kammeraterne and

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 ...

. He made his senior debut for VB in July 1989, and was named 1989 Danish U19 Player of the Year''. He played at VB until the club was suffered relegation to the secondary

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 format ...

in the summer 1992. Laursen then moved to

, where he was part of the team that won the 1994

championship. In July 1996, Laursen moved abroad to play for English club

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 £500,000. He spent four seasons at Derby, where he played more than 100 games for the club. While he did not win over the Danish public while playing for the national team, Laursen was selected as

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

for Derby in a number of games, and was named "Player of the Year" in the 1998–99 season. One of his more memorable moments for the club was goal from a free-kick on 4 September 1996, he, from the edge of the penalty area, lashed the ball into the top corner, with great power and accuracy, to give Derby the lead against Sir Alex Ferguson's

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

team. In August 2000, Laursen moved back to Denmark to be closer to his children. He signed a contract with

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 o ...

(FCK), moving to the club on a free transfer. In his first year at FCK, the club won the

2000–01 Danish Superliga The 2000–01 Danish Superliga season was the 11th season of the Danish Superliga league championship, governed by the Danish Football Association. It took place from the first match on July 22, 2000 to final match on June 13, 2001. The Danish ch ...

under manager

Roy Hodgson Roy Hodgson (born 9 August 1947) is a former English football manager and player. He managed 22 different teams in eight countries, beginning in Sweden with Halmstads BK in the 1976 season. He later guided the Switzerland national team to ...

. Before the new season, Laursen criticized his FCK teammates for a lack of professionalism, and he left the club in January 2002. He moved back to England to play for

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

in January 2002, in a £400,000 transfer deal. He played ten games for Leicester before his relationship with the club turned sour. After two months at Leicester, he spent a month on loan with the English club

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunians ...

, before being loaned out to AGF in Denmark for the remainder of the 2001-02 season. He was loaned out to Greek club PAOK for the entire 2002–03 season, but eventually refused to play for the club. In November 2002, Laursen was given a free transfer by Leicester, which was struggling financially, and he left the club. On 30 November 2002, he signed a contract with Austrian team

Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid Wien (), commonly known as Rapid Vienna, is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the first title in the season 1911–12, ...

, but he was dropped from the team in April 2003. He moved back to Denmark to play on an amateur basis in September 2003, and enlisted at childhood club Vejle Boldklub in the second-tier

. Laursen signed a contract with division rivals

FC Fredericia Fodbold Club Fredericia af 1991 (, simply known as FC Fredericia), is a professional association football club based in the town of Fredericia, Denmark, that competes in the Danish 1st Division, the second tier of the Danish football league syste ...

in July 2004, and played with the club until he ended his career in September 2005.

International career

Laursen represented Denmark at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

, where he played full-time in Denmark's three matches, before elimination. After the Olympics, he went on to captain the Denmark under-21 national team. After winning the Danish championship with Silkeborg, he made his Denmark senior national team debut in January 1995. He was selected for the

by Denmark national team manager

Richard Møller Nielsen Richard Møller Nielsen (19 August 1937 – 13 February 2014) was a Danish football player and manager. He coached the Denmark national football team that won the UEFA Euro 1992 tournament. In 1995, he was awarded a gold version of the Medal of ...

, and went on to play in every game of the tournament, which Denmark won. He also played a single game for the Denmark national team at the 1996 European Championship. He was a part of the Denmark national team at the 1998 FIFA World Cup, but was unimpressive in his single match participation at the tournament. In March 2000, he decided to end his national team career under national team manager Bo Johansson. Laursen cited personal reasons, as well as the booing he received by Danish spectators when he came on as a substitute for his 25th national team game in November 1999.

Honours

Silkeborg *

: 1993–94 Copenhagen *Danish Superliga: 2000–01 Denmark *

King Fahd Cup The FIFA Confederations Cup was an international association football tournament for men's national teams, held every four years by FIFA. It was contested by the holders of each of the six continental championships ( AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEB ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

* : In 1997,

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

took over the organization of the tournament and named it the

FIFA Confederations Cup The FIFA Confederations Cup was an international association football tournament for men's national teams, held every four years by FIFA. It was contested by the holders of each of the six continental championships (AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, ...

. Individual * Danish U19 Player of the Year: 1989 * Derby County F.C. Player of the Year:

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

References

External links

Danish national team profileF.C. Copenhagen statistics

Vejle BK profile
* *
tv2.no
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laursen, Jacob 1971 births Living people Danish men's footballers Denmark international footballers Denmark under-21 international footballers Danish expatriate men's footballers Danish Superliga players Vejle Boldklub players Silkeborg IF players Derby County F.C. players F.C. Copenhagen players Leicester City F.C. players Aarhus Gymnastikforening players SK Rapid Wien players Premier League players Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Austria Austrian Football Bundesliga players Olympic footballers of Denmark Footballers at the 1992 Summer Olympics 1995 King Fahd Cup players UEFA Euro 1996 players 1998 FIFA World Cup players FIFA Confederations Cup-winning players Association football defenders People from Vejle Municipality Denmark youth international footballers Sportspeople from the Region of Southern Denmark