Peter Kjær (born 5 November 1965) 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, rugby lea ...

, current television commentator, and former sporting director of

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 became ...

. During his active career as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

, he played the bulk of his career with Danish clubs

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 ...

and

. He played for Turkish club

Beşiktaş Beşiktaş () is a district and municipality of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 18 km2 and its population is 175,190 (2022). It is located on the European shore of the Bosphorus strait. It is bordered on the north by Sarıyer and ...

before ending his career with

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

in Scotland, retiring in 2003. He played for the Denmark national team in four matches.

Career

Born in

Fredericia Fredericia () is a town located in Fredericia Municipality in the southeastern part of the Jutland peninsula in Denmark. The city is part of the Triangle Region Denmark, Triangle Region, which includes the neighbouring cities of Kolding and Vej ...

, he started his senior career at

Vejle BK 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 ...

in 1983. He played a total 225 games and scored two goals for the club. He only played one game in the

1991–92 Danish Superliga The 1991–92 Danish Superliga season was the 2nd season of the Danish Superliga league championship, governed by the Danish Football Association. The tournament was held in two rounds. First round was in the autumn 1991, and the second in the s ...

season, serving as back-up for Boye Habekost, as Vejle were relegated to the

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 ...

. He played his last Vejle game in November 1992, before he joined Superliga club

, making his debut for the team in March 1993. He played a total 291 games and scored two goals for Silkeborg,16. december: Peter Kjær
at

won the 1993–94 Danish Superliga championship and the 2001

Danish Cup The Danish Cup (; often referred to as Pokalen) is the official "single-elimination tournament, knockout" cup competition in Danish football, run by the Danish Football Association. The cup has been contested annually since 1955. The winner will ...

with the team, and was named 1999 Danish ''Goalkeeper of the Year''. He had a brief stint in Turkey with

in 2001, under manager

Christoph Daum Christoph Paul Daum (24 October 1953 – 24 August 2024) was a German professional Association football, football manager and player. As a manager, he won eight trophies with clubs from Germany, Turkey and Austria. In 1992, he won the Bundesliga ...

. After two months at the club, Kjær was told by Daum that he contemplated leaving the club, and Kjær asked for his contract to be annulled. In October 2001, he was picked up by Danish manager

Ebbe Skovdahl Ebbe Skovdahl Hansen (5 July 1945 – 23 October 2020) was a Danish football manager. He most prominently was a successful manager at Brøndby, for whom he had also played in his active years. He helped turn the side into the most dominant Danis ...

to join Scottish club

. He stayed with the club until June 2003, after which he retired. Kjær was included in the Denmark squads for the

1995 Intercontinental Cup The 1995 Intercontinental Cup was an association football match played on 28 November 1995 between Ajax, winners of the 1994–95 UEFA Champions League, and Grêmio, winners of the 1995 Copa Libertadores. The match was played at the National S ...

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 1 ...

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 ...

but he spent all three tournaments on the bench. He made his Denmark debut on 25 April 2001 in the farewell match of Peter Schmeichel. He was 35 years and 171 days old at the time, breaking the old record for oldest Danish debutant by 17 days, a record set by Johannes Gandil in 1908. He went on to play four international games until March 2002. He was included in the Danish squad for the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea/Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

, serving as a back-up to Thomas Sørensen. After his retirement, Kjær was hired as a commentator and pundit for Danish TV 3 in August 2004. He was named sporting director of his former club

in October 2008, and was in the job for nearly six months. He then went back to doing TV work.

Honours

Silkeborg *

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga (, ) is a professional association football league in Denmark and the highest level of the Danish football league system. The league is currently contested by 12 teams each year, with 2 teams relegated. It is the current ...

: 1993–94 *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

: 2000–01

References

External links

*
Peter Kjær
official

statistics at danskfodbold.com
Vejle Boldklub profile

Peter Kjaer Interview

Fredericianske Peter Kjær: It hurt to stop the career
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kjaer, Peter 1965 births Living people Footballers from Fredericia Danish men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Denmark men's international footballers Denmark men's under-21 international footballers Danish Superliga players Süper Lig players Scottish Premier League players Vejle Boldklub players Silkeborg IF players Aberdeen F.C. players Beşiktaş J.K. footballers 1995 King Fahd Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2000 players 2002 FIFA World Cup players FIFA Confederations Cup–winning players Danish television presenters Danish expatriate men's footballers Danish expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Danish expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey 20th-century Danish sportsmen