Michael Schjønberg Christensen (born 19 January 1967) is a Danish football manager, club official, and former player. He is currently in charge of Faroese club 07 Vestur. During his active career, he played more than 100 games for both German clubs Hannover 96 and

1. FC Kaiserslautern 1. Fußball-Club Kaiserslautern e. V., also known as 1. FCK, FCK (), FC Kaiserslautern () or colloquially Lautern (), is a German sports club based in Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate. In addition to football, the club also operates in sev ...

, winning the

1991–92 DFB-Pokal The 1991–92 DFB-Pokal was the 49th season of the annual German football cup competition. After the German reunification in 1990 the football association of eastern Germany, Nordostdeutscher Fußballverband, joined the German Football Association ...

with Hannover and the

1997–98 Bundesliga The 1997–98 Bundesliga was the 35th season of the Bundesliga, Germany's premier football league. It began on 1 August 1997 and ended on 9 May 1998. FC Bayern Munich were the defending champions. FC Kaiserslautern won the Bundesliga on 1 May 1 ...

championship with Kaiserslautern. He also represented Danish clubs

Esbjerg fB Esbjerg forenede Boldklubber (; commonly known as Esbjerg fB or EfB in short) is a Danish professional football club based in Esbjerg, West Jutland, that plays in the 2nd division, the third-tier of the Danish football league system. Found ...

and OB. He played 44 games and scored three goals for the Denmark national team, and was a participant at the international 1995 King Fahd Cup,

Euro 1996 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 ...

, 1998 FIFA World Cup, and

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 was ...

tournaments. After suffering a career-ending injury in 2001, he became a football coach in 2003. He first became manager of Danish club

Herfølge BK Herfølge is a suburb of the town of Køge, Denmark, located about 5 kilometers south of Køge, and is a part of Køge Municipality. The suburb is connected to Køge and Næstved by the Lille Syd railway line. Residential areas Holmebækhus ...

in 2004, alongside

Allan Nielsen Allan Nielsen (born 13 March 1971) is a Danish former professional footballer whose most notable period of football was four years at English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur with whom he won the 1999 League Cup, scoring the winning goa ...

. He has held a number of coaching and club official positions in his former German clubs, and was caretaker manager of Hannover 96 in 2006.

Club career

Born in

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)

, Schjønberg started his career as an

attacking 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 ...

for hometown club

, playing in 103 first team matches in total. He and Esbjerg teammate Jesper Kristensen went to a training session with Esbjerg native

at Nielsen's German club FC Bayern Munich in the winter of 1989.

Hannover 96

When Bayern's amateur team coach

Hans-Dieter Schmidt Hans-Dieter Schmidt (born 9 January 1948) is a former German football player turned manager. Playing career Schmidt's playing career – part of which he spent with Hannover 96 – ended early after a severe injury at the age of 23. Coaching ...

later became manager of German club Hannover 96, he remembered Schjønberg and offered him a contract. In 1990, Schjønberg moved abroad to play for the

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 ...

side. At Hannover, he was converted to a defensive player, and eventually settled in as

left wingback 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 won his first trophy as a senior player, when the club surprisingly beat top flight Borussia Mönchengladbach, to win the

. The game ended in a

penalty shoot-out 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 ...

, where Schjønberg scored the deciding kick to secure the triumph for Hannover 96. Unhappy with the new contractual offer from Hannover 96, Schjønberg looked ready to move back to Denmark to play for OB in summer 1992. After the DFB-Pokal win, he received an improved contract, and became

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 ...

. However, he had a hard time getting into the Danish national team. After 123 league games and 12 goals for Hannover 96, he looked around for a new club in the summer of 1994.

OB

Schjønberg moved to OB in 1994, in a transfer deal worth DKK 700,000. The transfer came, as Schjønberg felt more likely to secure a place in the Danish national team when playing for a Danish club. He was called up for the national team in January 1995. With OB, he reached the quarter-final of the

1994–95 UEFA Cup The 1994–95 UEFA Cup was won by Parma on aggregate over Juventus. Internazionale were the defending champions with a wild card, but were knocked out in the first round by Aston Villa. New format Twenty-two national champions were demoted to ...

. It was OB's greatest European result, as the club eliminated Spanish giants Real Madrid (against whom Schjønberg scored in the first leg) before being narrowly defeated by Italian side AC Parma in the quarter-finals.

1. FC Kaiserslautern

After

UEFA Euro 1996 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 ...

, he moved back to Germany, to play for

team

in a transfer deal worth

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 ...

1.35 million. In his first year at the club, 1. FC Kaiserslautern won promotion to the

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 ...

. His success continued, as the club remarkably went on to win the title upon their return to the top flight. Schjønberg was an important part of this achievement. He scored the club's very first goal of the 1997–98 season, in the opening game against defending champions Bayern Munich. Ten minutes before the final whistle, Schjønberg headed the ball in after a cross from Swiss midfielder Ciriaco Sforza and secured a 1–0 win. This victory was the beginning of Kaiserslautern's fairytale, and Schjønberg went on to play 32 of 34 league games and to score four goals, as the club became the first ever 2. Bundesliga promotees to immediately win the Bundesliga title. Returning to Kaiserslautern after the 1998 FIFA World Cup, Schjønberg was heavily injured early in the 1998–99 season. In September 1998, Schjønberg collided with

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 ...

goalkeeper Thomas Ernst, and broke his shinbone. He underwent a seven-month period of rehabilitation and returned in April 1999. Schjønberg made a memorable appearance in the penultimate match of the 1999–2000 season. In the game against

SC Freiburg Sport-Club Freiburg e.V., commonly known as SC Freiburg () or just Freiburg, is a German football club, based in the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg. It plays in the Bundesliga, having been promoted as champions from the 2. Bund ...

, first-choice goalkeeper Georg Koch was injured and the substitute goalkeeper Uwe Gospodarek replaced him. By the half-time break, Gospodarek had suffered an injury of his own, and with no more goalkeepers selected for the match squad, Schjønberg took over the keeper's gloves. In the 59th minute,

Levan Kobiashvili Levan Kobiashvili ( ka, ლევან კობიაშვილი, born 10 July 1977) is a Georgian former professional footballer and the current president of the Georgian Football Federation and a member of Parliament of Georgia. He pla ...

scored against Schjønberg to give

a 2–1 lead, but Schjønberg otherwise kept his sheet clean. He crowned his achievement with a saved penalty kick, when he held the shot from

Alexander Iashvili Alexandr Iashvili ( ka, ალექსანდრე მამულის ძე იაშვილი; born 23 October 1977) is a Georgian former professional footballer who played as a striker. Club career Early years Born in Tbilisi, Ia ...

in the 84th minute. In Kaiserslautern's 2000–01 season, he suffered another injury in just the second game, against

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg () or Wolfsburg, is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of W ...

. He returned in December that year, and eventually regained his place back in the starting line-up. Such injuries caught up with him though, and due to old injuries and acute knee problems, he had to promptly terminate his football career after the 2000–01 season. He played 117 league games and scored 13 goals in his time for 1. FC Kaiserslautern.

International career

Schjønberg made his debut for the Denmark national team in the 1995 King Fahd Cup in January 1995. He played all three of Denmark's matches at the tournament, which they eventually won. He was also selected for the 1996 European Championship, where he played in Denmark's last two group games before elimination. After this memorable domestic season, Schjønberg was selected to play for Denmark at the 1998 World Cup in France, where he played four of Denmark's five matches before elimination. He began the tournament as Denmark's starting left wingback, but eventually lost the place to

Jan Heintze Jan Heintze (born 17 August 1963) is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a left-sided defensive midfielder and defender. He ended his career in the Netherlands with PSV Eindhoven, where he was a part of the PSV team which won ...

as the tournament progressed. He was called up to represent Denmark at

, and started in Denmark's three matches before elimination. The last group match against the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

on 21 June 2000, would be Schjønberg's last game for the national team.

Managerial career

After ending his active football career, Schjønberg changed into the coaching business when he became youth coach at 1. FC Kaiserslautern in July 2003. He moved to Denmark in July 2004, to coach

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 ...

club

, alongside his good friend

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 Danish 1st Division, but Schjønberg kept his job. In November 2005, he became assistant coach of Hannover 96 to manager

Peter Neururer Peter Neururer (born 26 April 1955) is a German professional football manager, notable for coaching a number of Bundesliga clubs. Managerial career Neururer had a minor playing career in the lower leagues before moving into coaching at TuS Hal ...

. When Neururer was fired in September 2006, Schjønberg deputised as head coach for a single

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considered ...

match, where Hannover 96 eliminated

Dynamo Dresden Sportgemeinschaft Dynamo Dresden e.V., commonly known as SG Dynamo Dresden or Dynamo Dresden, are a German association football club based in Dresden, Saxony.Grüne, Hardy (2001). Enzyklopädie des deutschen Ligafußballs 7. Vereinslexikon. Ka ...

. When Hannover 96 hired

Dieter Hecking Dieter-Klaus Hecking (; born 12 September 1964) is a German football manager for 1. FC Nürnberg and former professional player. He played for Hannover 96 and Eintracht Braunschweig. He returned to manage Hannover despite the long-standing and bi ...

as new head coach, he brought

Dirk Bremser Dirk Bremser (born 1 October 1965) is a German football coach of Holstein Kiel and a former player. Career Bremser spent two seasons in the Bundesliga with MSV Duisburg and Bayer 05 Uerdingen. Coaching career In the 2006–07 he was a careta ...

with him as assistant coach, and Schjønberg became the coach of the amateur ranks of the club. From 4 April 2007 until 7 November 2007 he was sports director of 1. FC Kaiserslautern. In the summer of 2008, he was appointed new sporting director of Danish club

FC Vestsjælland FC Vestsjælland, also known as FCV Vikings, was a professional Danish association football club that played in the Danish 1st Division until its closure in 2015. They played their home matches at Harboe Arena Slagelse in Slagelse, which has a c ...

and was named as the head coach of the club on 1 April 2009, Schjønberg replaced

Jeppe Tengbjerg Jeppe Tengbjerg (born 28 December 1973) is a Danish football manager and former football player. In his playing career, Tengbjerg represented a number of Danish clubs, as well as Dutch clubs SC Cambuur and Excelsior Rotterdam. In 2005, he start ...

. He was sacked on 29 June 2011 due to a poor finish to the 2010–11 season. In January 2013, he was appointed as first-team coach with the Norwegian side

Vålerenga Fotball Vålerenga Fotball () is a Norwegian association football club from Oslo and a part of the multi-sport club Vålerengens IF. Founded in 1913, the club is named after the neighbourhood of Vålerenga. Vålerenga's home ground is Intility Ar ...

. Vålerengas manager, Kjetil Rekdal, knew Schjønberg from his time at Kaiserslautern where he had worked under him. In November 2014, he was appointed manager of

Nest-Sotra Fotball Nest-Sotra Fotball is a Norwegian association football club from Sotra, Hordaland. In 2020, their elite license was taken over by the new club Øygarden FK, which is a cooperation between Øygarden clubs Nordre Fjell, Sund SK, Skogsvåg IL, Tel ...

in the

Norwegian First Division The Norwegian First Division, also called 1. divisjon and OBOS-ligaen (named sponsor is property developer OBOS), is the second-highest level of the Norwegian football league system. Each year, the top finishing teams in the 1. divisjon are ...

. He was sacked already in May 2015. In the summer of 2016, he became manager of

FC Svendborg SfB-Oure FA (), is an association football club based in the town of Svendborg, Denmark, that competes in the Danish 3rd Division, the fourth tier of the Football in Denmark, Danish football league system. Founded in 2018 as an elite superstructur ...

in the

Danish 2nd Division The 2nd Division ( da, Danmarksturneringens 2. division or Herre-DM 2. division) is a semi-professional association football league for men and the third division in Denmark. It is organised by the Divisionsforeningen on behalf of the Danish Foo ...

. However, due to financial problems the club could not afford his salary, and he left the club in December 2016. In June 2018 he became new manager of lower league club Aarup Boldklub. On 16 December 2020, he was named new manager of

Vendsyssel FF Vendsyssel Forenede Fodboldklubber is a professional football club based in Hjørring, Denmark. The team competes in the Danish 1st Division, the second tier of Danish football. The club plays home matches at Nord Energi Arena, which has a cap ...

in the Danish 1st Division. At the end of the season, where Vendsyssel only barely escaped relegation, Schjønberg decided to reject Vendsyssel's two-year contract extension due to ''personal reasons'' and therefore left the club. On 13 January 2022, Schjønberg was appointed manager of Faroese club 07 Vestur.Michael Schjønberg skal venja 07 Vestur
07vestur.fo, 13 January 2022

Honours

Hannover 96 *

: 1991–92 1. FC Kaiserslautern *

: 1997–98 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, CONMEBO ...

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 ...

References

External links

Danish national team profile
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Schjonberg, Michael 1967 births Living people People from Esbjerg Expatriate footballers in Germany Danish expatriate men's footballers Danish men's footballers Denmark international footballers Esbjerg fB players Hannover 96 players Odense Boldklub players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players Bundesliga players Danish Superliga players 1995 King Fahd Cup players UEFA Euro 1996 players 1998 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2000 players FIFA Confederations Cup-winning players Danish football managers Herfølge Boldklub managers Hannover 96 managers Association football defenders Association football midfielders FC Vestsjælland managers Vendsyssel FF managers SfB-Oure FA managers Sportspeople from the Region of Southern Denmark