Lars Christian Olsen (born 2 February 1961) is a Danish former

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 ...

and current manager, who was most recently the manager of Esbjerg fB 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 ...

. He started his coaching career with

Randers Randers () is a city in Randers Municipality, Central Denmark Region on the Jutland peninsula. It is Denmark's sixth-largest city, with a population of 62,802 (as of 1 January 2022).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 ...

. He led the team to the 2006

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, and Olsen was named 2006 Danish Manager of the Year. He then coached Odense BK from 2007 to 2010. In his active career, Olsen played in the central defense position. He won six Danish championships with Brøndby IF and the 1992

Turkish Cup The Turkish Cup ( Turkish: ''Türkiye Kupası'') is a football cup competition in Turkish football, run by the Turkish Football Federation since 1962. During a brief sponsorship period with Fortis, its sponsored name was ''Fortis Türkiye Kupas� ...

with

Trabzonspor Trabzonspor Kulübü is a Turkish sports club located in the city of Trabzon. Formed in 1967 through a merger of several local clubs, the men's football team has won seven Süper Lig championships. Trabzonspor also have a women's football team, ...

. Olsen played 84 matches and scored four goals for the

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 = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

from 1986 to 1996, and was named 1988 Danish ''Player of the Year''. He was

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 ...

of the Danish national team in a record 69 matches, and captained the Denmark team that won the 1992 European Championship.

Club career

Born in Glostrup, Olsen started his career at local Danish 3rd Division team Glostrup IF 32 in 1980. He was selected for various national youth teams, and moved to top-flight Danish 1st Division team

Køge BK Køge (, older spelling ''Kjøge'') is a seaport on the coast of Køge Bugt (''Bay of Køge'') 39 km southwest of Copenhagen. It is the principal town and seat of Køge Municipality, Region Sjælland, Denmark. In 2022, the urban area had a ...

before the 1981 season. He stayed four years at the club, playing 105 games and scoring 11 goals for Køge in the 1st Division. Before the 1985 season, he moved to league rivals Brøndby IF. In his first year at the club, he helped secure Brøndby's first Danish championship. He won both the 1987 and 1988 Danish championships, and following several games as captain of the national team he received the 1988 Danish ''Player of the Year'' award. Having won the 1989

trophy as well as a further two Danish championships, he left Brøndby in 1991. Olsen moved abroad to play for

in Turkey, with whom he won the 1992

. He moved on to Belgian club R.F.C. Seraing in the summer of 1992. Olsen joined

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

's first team for their 1994–95 season under head coach Claude Andrey. After playing in six test games, Olsen played his domestic league debut for his new club in the home game in the St. Jakob Stadium on 27 July 1994 as Basel were defeated 1–0 by

Lugano Lugano (, , ; lmo, label=Ticinese dialect, Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Luga ...

. He scored his first goal for the club on 20 November in the away game in the Stadion Allmend against Luzern as Basel won 1–0. During the winter break of the following season Olsen left the club. During his one and a half seasons with Basel, Olsen played a total of 54 games for them scoring just that one goal. 40 of these games were in the Nationalliga A, 2 in the Swiss Cup, 1 was in the

1995 UEFA Intertoto Cup The 1995 UEFA Intertoto Cup was the first edition of the tournament administered by the UEFA. It saw Strasbourg and Bordeaux win their semi-finals to advance to the UEFA Cup, the latter eventually finishing runners-up. It also saw English repres ...

and 11 were friendly games. Olsen moved back to Brøndby in 1996, where he finished his career winning the 1996 Danish championship, now called the

. He played his last Brøndby game in November 1996.Lars Christian Olsen
at DanskFodbold.com

International career

Olsen was called up by Denmark national team head coach

Sepp Piontek Josef Emanuel Hubertus "Sepp" Piontek (born 5 March 1940) is a German former Association football, footballer and manager. Playing career Born in Breslau, now Wrocław. Piontek started his playing career with VfL Germania Leer. Between 1963 and ...

in April 1986, and made his national team debut in the 3–0 defeat to

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

.Lars Olsen – Alle hold (Alle kampe)
at DBU.dk He played his second national team game in May 1987, and went on to become a constant player in the starting line-up. He was selected to represent Denmark at the 1988 European Championship,Slutrundetrupper 1908–2004
at DBU.dk where he started the tournament on the bench as

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 ...

was selected team captain and defensive organizer. Lars Olsen came on as a substitute in Denmark's first game, and went on to play the remaining two games, though Denmark were eliminated from the tournament. In June 1992, he captained the national team of 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 ...

in Denmark's first trophy win at the 1992 European Championship. While at Basel, he lost his place in the Danish national team in November 1994. He re-entered the Danish national team in April 1996 and Olsen was chosen to help Denmark defend the trophy at the 1996 European Championship. He did not play any games at the tournament, and he ended his international career in 1996.

Managerial career

Following his retirement from his active career, Olsen managed various teams at Brøndby. He coached the reserve team, he was assistant manager of the first team, and he was youth team manager.ShowStars profile
In January 2003, Olsen was signed as manager of

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 ...

for the 2004–05 Superliga season, but the team was

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. ...

after only one year in the Danish top-flight football. He stayed at the club and managed Randers to the 2006

victory, while the club secured promotion for the 2006–07 Superliga season. He was named 2006 Danish Manager of the Year.Årets Træner 2009
at DBU.dk In January 2007, Olsen announced he was moving to become manager of league rivals Odense BK (OB), effective from July 2007. He managed OB into second place of the 2008–09 Superliga season, and was nominated for the 2009 Danish Manager of the Year award. In September 2010 he and OB sports director Kim Brink were fired due to lacking results. In November 2011, Olsen moved into international football management by taking over the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

becoming the third Dane to do so after

Allan Simonsen Allan Rodenkam Simonsen (born 15 December 1952) is a Danish former footballer and manager. He most prominently played as a striker for German Bundesliga club Borussia Mönchengladbach, winning the 1975 and 1979 UEFA Cups, as well as for Barc ...

and

Henrik Larsen Henrik Larsen (born 17 May 1966), nicknamed ''Store Larsen'' (''Big Larsen''), is a Danish football manager and former professional player, who played as a midfielder. He was last the manager of Lyngby Boldklub. He was the joint top scorer at t ...

. During his tenure he has led the small nation to a number of notable victories. His first victory was against

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

in a friendly match before two

UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from September 2014 to November 2015 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams joining the automatically qualified host team France in the UEFA Euro 2 ...

wins against

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

. On 28 October 2019, Olsen was named new manager of

side Esbjerg fB. It was announced that he would remain manager of the Faroe Islands until the end of the

UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from March 2019 to November 2020 to determine the 24 UEFA member men's national teams that advanced to the UEFA Euro 2020 final tournament, played across Europ ...

in November 2019. Following a poor stint that saw Esbjerg placed in the relegation round, Olsen was sacked on 9 June 2020.Esbjerg og Lars Olsen stopper samarbejdet
at bold.dk

Personal life

His son,

Ricki Olsen Ricki Olsen (born 21 October 1988) is a Danish professional footballer. He is the son of the former Denmark national team player Lars Olsen. Career Olsen started his career with Brøndby IF, but did not play any senior games for the team. Rand ...

, is a professional footballer.

Honours

Player

Brøndby IF * Danish 1st Division / Danish Superliga (6):

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

, 1995–96 *

: 1988–89 Trabzonspor *

: 1991–92 Denmark *

UEFA European Football Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition is contes ...

: 1992 Individual *

Danish Football Player of the Year The Danish Player of the Year award is an annual prize, which has been given to the best male Danish football player by the Danish Football Association since 1963. The winner is decided in a vote among the professional Danish footballers. Since 20 ...

Manager

Randers *

: 2005–06

Managerial statistics

References

External links

*
Brøndby IF partial statistics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Olsen, Lars 1961 births Living people People from Glostrup Municipality Danish footballers Association football defenders Denmark international footballers Denmark under-21 international footballers Danish football managers Danish Superliga players Køge Boldklub players Brøndby IF players FC Basel players R.F.C. Seraing (1904) players Trabzonspor footballers Süper Lig players UEFA Euro 1988 players UEFA Euro 1992 players UEFA Euro 1996 players UEFA European Championship-winning captains UEFA European Championship-winning players Randers FC managers Odense Boldklub managers Faroe Islands national football team managers Danish Superliga managers Esbjerg fB managers Brøndby IF non-playing staff Danish expatriate footballers Danish expatriate football managers Danish expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Danish expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate footballers in Turkey Expatriate football managers in the Faroe Islands Denmark youth international footballers Sportspeople from the Capital Region of Denmark