Helge Christian Bronée (28 March 1922 – 3 June 1999) was a Danish

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 lea ...

who played four games for the amateur

Denmark national football team The Denmark national football team ( or ''herrelandsholdet'') represents Denmark and Greenland in men's international Association football, football competitions. It is controlled by the Danish Football Association (DBU), the governing body for ...

. He moved abroad in 1948 to play professionally for French club

FC Nancy Football club de Nancy was a French association football team playing in the city of Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle. The team was founded in 1901 and dissolved in 1968. They won Ligue 2 once. Honours * Coupe de France The Coupe de France (), ...

, as well as Italian clubs

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AS Roma Associazione Sportiva Roma (''Rome Sport Association''; Italian pronunciation: Help:IPA/Italian, ) is a professional Association football, football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier ...

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

, and

Novara Novara (; Novarese Lombard, Novarese: ) is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont (Italy), Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With 101,916 inhabitants (on 1 January 2021), it is the second most populous ...

. Adverse to any form of discipline, he was known as the

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of European football.

Biography

Amateur years

Bronée started playing football with

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

clubs

Boldklubben af 1893 Boldklubben af 1893, commonly referred to as B.93, is a football club based in Østerbro, Copenhagen, Denmark. The team competes in the Danish 1st Division, the second level of the Danish football league system, after achieving promotion in t ...

(B.93) and Handelsstandens Boldklub (HB). He moved to

Østerbros Boldklub Østerbros Boldklub (also known as ØB) was a Danish sports club based in the Østerbro area of Copenhagen, active from 1894 to 1998. The club is best known for its amateur football team. It was one of the oldest Danish football clubs, and play ...

(ØB) in 1939, where he formed a fearsome attacking partnership as a

centre forward In the sport of association football, a forward (attacker or striker) is an outfield position which primarily plays further up the pitch than midfielders and defenders. As with any attacking player, the role of the forward relies heavily on be ...

alongside inside forward Karl Aage Præst. Though rarely in top shape, Bronée was the born athlete and a great gymnast. With 26 goals in the 1945–46

Danish 2nd Division The 2nd Division () is a professional association football league for men and the third division in Denmark. It is organised by the Divisionsforeningen on behalf of the Danish Football Association (Danish FA; DBU) as part of the nation-wide Da ...

season, Bronée helped ØB win

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for the top-flight

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 for ...

. Bronée got his debut for the Danish national team in September 1945, where he scored the first goal in a 5–1 victory against

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. In all, he played four games and scored one goal for Denmark. He was the topscorer of the 1946–47 Danish championship with 21 goals in 18 games, as ØB finished in fourth place in their 1st Division debut season. He moved abroad to play professionally in 1948. Due to the

Danish Football Association The Danish Football Association (; DBU) is the governing body of football in Denmark. It is the organization of Danish football clubs and runs the professional Danish football leagues, alongside the men's and women's national teams. Based ...

's strict rules of amateurism, this spelled the end of his international career after four games and one goal for the national team.

Professional career

Bronée signed a contract with French team

, and played in the club for two seasons. The life of a professional footballer improved his physical condition, as he had been slightly chubby when playing in Denmark. In 1950, he moved on to

Italian football Football ( ) is the most popular sport in Italy. The Italy national football team have won the FIFA World Cup four times (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006), trailing only Brazil (with five), runners-up in two finals both against Brazil, (1970, 1994) and ...

. He played two years at

, in the midtable of the top-flight

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

championship. In 1952, he moved on to

, with whom he finished in sixth place of the Serie A for two consecutive seasons. Bronée was reunited with Karl Aage Præst, when he played a single season for

, with another sixth place the result. He moved to

relegation Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

battlers

in 1955. Despite 10 goals from Bronée, Novara's 1955–56 season resulted in relegation. During his professional career, Helge Bronée never stayed long at the same club. He was a single-minded player, adverse to tactical discipline. Off the field, he liked the high life, and was known as the

of European football. However, his many transfer moves always included large fees, as he had the capability to turn any game in his favor, provided he was in the right mood. Bronée moved back to Denmark in 1956, but the

(DBU) barred him and other ex-professionals from playing in the amateur-only Danish leagues. The ex-professionals began playing a series of unofficial, but popular, exhibition matches, centered around Karl Aage Præst's vacation home in

Liseleje Liseleje is a former fishing village and popular tourist resort in Halsnæs Municipality, North Zealand, some 60 kilometres northwest of Copenhagen, Denmark. The original village is surrounded by extensive areas of summerhouses. It has merged wi ...

. In 1958, DBU decided to allow ex-professionals into Danish football following a two-year quarantine. Bronée played for Rødovre BK, before ending his career with his first senior club, B.93.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bronee, Helge 1922 births 1999 deaths Danish men's footballers Denmark men's international footballers Denmark men's under-21 international footballers Men's association football midfielders Boldklubben af 1893 players FC Nancy players Palermo FC players AS Roma players Juventus FC players Novara FC players Ligue 1 players Serie A players Danish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in France Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Danish expatriate sportspeople in France Danish expatriate sportspeople in Italy 20th-century Danish sportsmen