Per Frandsen (born 6 February 1970) is a Danish football manager and former professional football player. He is currently the manager of

Hvidovre IF Hvidovre Idrætsforening, more commonly known as Hvidovre IF () is a Denmark, Danish professional association football, football club based in Hvidovre. The club competes in the Danish 1st Division, the second tier of Danish football league syste ...

. He won the

1994–95 Danish Cup The 1994–95 Danish Cup was the 41st installment of the Danish Cup, the highest football competition in Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark. ...

with F.C. Copenhagen, and played 265 league games 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 ...

for Bolton Wanderers in England. Frandsen played 23 matches for the Denmark national team between 1990 and 2003, and he represented his country 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 ...

and 1998 FIFA World Cup tournaments.

Biography

Born in

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 ...

, Frandsen started playing football with local clubs BK Skjold and B 93. He made his senior debut with top-flight club

B 1903 Boldklubben 1903 or B 1903 is a football club founded on 2 June 1903, located in Copenhagen, Denmark. Seven times winner of the Danish championship (introduced 1913) in 1920, 1924, 1926, 1938, 1969, 1970 and 1976 and twice winner of the Dan ...

, debuted for the Danish under-21 national team in April 1989. He was the third best goalscorer of the 1990 Danish 1st Division, and made his national team debut in May 1990. He played three national team games under national 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 ...

, until his national team career went on a hiatus in September 1991. In November 1990, he was sold to French club Lille OSC, in a Lille club record

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 ...

. Frandsen joined fellow Danish international Jakob Friis-Hansen at Lille, and played four years at the club. While at Lille, he represented Denmark at the

, where he played full-time in Denmark's three games before elimination. When Lille faced economical difficulties in the summer 1994, Frandsen returned home to Denmark to play for F.C. Copenhagen (FCK). Frandsen stated his intention to only play in Denmark temporarily, and having won the 1995

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 ...

with FCK, he moved abroad once again in August 1996. He was sold to English club Bolton Wanderers for £1.25 million. Playing in the second tier of

English football Association football is the most popular sport in England, where the first modern set of rules for the code were established in 1863, which were a major influence on the development of the modern Laws of the Game. With over 40,000 association f ...

, he made his debut for the club in a 1–1 draw at

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...

before scoring his first goal for Bolton in the following game against Manchester City. He soon earned a reputation as one of the best players in English football playing outside the top-flight FA Premier League championship, and it was assumed that it would only be a matter of time before one of the bigger clubs came in for him. Instead, he helped Bolton win

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 ...

back to the Premier League in the 1996–97 season. Frandsen's national team career was revived in November 1996, when he was recalled by new national manager

Bo Johansson Bo "Bosse" Johansson (born 28 November 1942) is a Swedish former football player and current football coach. Biography Johansson was a player for fourteen years with Kalmar FF and Lindsdals IF, though he did not win any trophies as a player. In ...

, after more than five years of absence from the Danish national team. He was one of the few bright spots of Bolton's second Premier League campaign, which ended in swift

relegation 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. ...

back into the Football League. He was included in the Danish squad for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, where he was used as a substitute in two games. In September 1999, Frandsen joined Bolton's league rivals

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

for £1.75 million. The decision was against the wishes of Bolton manager

Colin Todd Colin Todd (born 12 December 1948) is an English football manager and former player. He was most recently the manager of Esbjerg fB. As a player, he made more than 600 appearances in the Football League, playing for Sunderland, Derby County, ...

, who subsequently resigned. Frandsen's stay at Ewood Park for Blackburn was far from happy. He failed to settle at the club, and at the end of the season he returned to Bolton for £1.6 million. In his final year at Bolton, the club reached the 2004 League Cup final, though they were beaten 2–1 by

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

. He played 304 first team games for the club in all competitions, scoring 38 goals in the process. Frandsen left Bolton Wanderers to join

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

on a free transfer in June 2004, helping them get promoted to the Premiership, scoring once in the process against Brighton. After playing well in his first time at the club, he received a severe

cruciate ligament Cruciate ligaments (also cruciform ligaments) are pairs of ligaments arranged like a letter X. They occur in several joints of the body, such as the knee joint and the atlanto-axial joint. In a fashion similar to the cords in a toy Jacob's la ...

injury and he decided to retire in January 2005. After his retirement Frandsen worked as a football agent in Denmark, until he was named new assistant manager at

HB Køge HB Køge () is a professional Danish football club based primarily in the town of Herfølge, and secondly in the town of Køge, both in the Køge Municipality, part of 'Region of Zealand', in the eastern part of Zealand, south of Copenhagen. It ...

in June 2009. Following the sacking of Tommy Møller Nielsen in the autumn of 2012, he was promoted to manager of the club. He managed the club until June 2014, when he was hired as youth coach of Brøndby IF. On 22 June 2015, Frandsen was appointed as the new manager of AB. In his first season, he led the club to promotion to the Danish 1st Division. His second season, however, saw the club struggling, and in December 2016 he was sacked, with the club in bottom place in the league. On 18 June 2017, he was named new manager of

in the Danish 2nd Divisions.

Honours

: 1995 * Football League First Division: 1997 Individual * PFA Team of the Year: 1998–99 First Division

References

External links

*
FCK statistics

BBC Sport profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Frandsen, Per 1998 FIFA World Cup players BK Skjold players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Boldklubben af 1893 players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Danish expatriate men's footballers Danish football managers Danish men's footballers Danish Superliga players Denmark international footballers Denmark under-21 international footballers Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in France F.C. Copenhagen players Footballers at the 1992 Summer Olympics HB Køge managers Ligue 1 players Lille OSC players Living people Olympic footballers of Denmark Premier League players English Football League players Wigan Athletic F.C. players 1970 births Association football midfielders Hvidovre IF managers Danish 1st Division managers Footballers from Copenhagen