Stephan Maigaard Andersen (born 26 November 1981) is a Danish professional football player, who plays as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring 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 intercepting ...

for VB 1968. He was a full international for the Denmark national team and was chosen to represent his country at

UEFA Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. Th ...

, the

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

and

UEFA Euro 2012 The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th European Championship for men's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament, held between 8 June and 1 ...

Club career

Early years

Starting his career at the youth teams of

Hvidovre IF Hvidovre Idrætsforening, more commonly known as Hvidovre IF () is a Danish professional football club based in Hvidovre. The club competes in the Danish 1st Division, the second tier of Danish football, and plays its home matches at the Hvidovre ...

, he moved youth setup of multiple Danish champions

Brøndby IF Brøndbyernes Idrætsforening (, usually abbreviated to Brøndby IF (), is a professional association football club based in Brøndbyvester, Capital Region of Denmark. The club was founded in 1964 as a merger between two local clubs and was pr ...

. When he was no longer seen as a long-term prospect for the Brøndby goalkeeping position, he left Brøndby in the winter 1999, to rejoin Hvidovre. Andersen made his senior debut for

in the lower league

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 forma ...

, and was recognized as a big talent.

AB

In March 2002, Hvidovre owner, and professional goalkeeper,

Peter Schmeichel Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a s ...

chose to end his engagement in the club. Hvidovre actively sought to off-load Andersen, one of two professional players in the squad. He was initially wanted by a number of clubs in

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 (association football), Laws of ...

, including Schmeichel's club

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa P ...

and

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

, the club of Danish international goalkeeper

Thomas Sørensen Thomas Løvendahl Sørensen (born 12 June 1976) is a retired Danish footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Sørensen started his career with his local side Odense BK. After impressing on loan at Vejle Boldklub and Svendborg he was signed by En ...

. Sunderland opted to buy

Norwegian international The Norwegian International in badminton is an international open held in Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost po ...

goalkeeper

Thomas Myhre Thomas Harald Myhre (born 16 October 1973) is a Norwegian football manager and former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is currently the manager of Moss. The last club he played for before his retirement was Kongsvinger, ...

instead, and no other foreign offers materialized. Andersen moved to

Akademisk Boldklub Akademisk Boldklub Gladsaxe (or AB) is a Danish professional football club from Gladsaxe north of Copenhagen, currently playing at the 3rd highest level of Danish domestic football in the Danish 2nd Division group 1. The club was established on ...

(AB) in the top-flight

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 y ...

championship in August 2002.

Charlton Athletic

He moved abroad to join English club

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...

in a DKK 8 million

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 onl ...

in June 2004.Charlton Athletic (29 November 2006)
"Andersen set for Brondby switch"
cafc.co.uk (accessed 29 November 2006) In his first season with the London club, he only made two first team appearances. Due to an injury sustained by first choice goalkeeper

Dean Kiely Dean Laurence Kiely (born 10 October 1970) is a former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is the goalkeeping coach at Premier League club Crystal Palace and the Republic of Ireland national team. Born in England, he won ele ...

, Andersen started the 2005–06 season in the team. Charlton's poor mid-season form saw him dropped in favour of Kiely at first, then Thomas Myhre, who established himself as first choice as Charlton turned their season around. Andersen was reinstated into the lineup for the last two games of the season, when Myhre suffered an injury. In the 2006 summer

transfer window A transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players from other playing staff into their playing staff. Such a transfer is completed by registering the player into the new club through FIFA. "Transfer ...

, Andersen looked ready to join

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

on a season-long loan deal,BBC.co.uk (31 August 2006)
"Andersen makes Leeds loan switch"
bbc.co.uk (accessed 1 September 2006) but as Charlton insisted on a clause to allow the club to recall Andersen at any time during the season, the transfer fell through at the last moment.Sky Sports (1 September 2006)
"Leeds loan collapses"
SkySports.com (accessed 1 September 2006) In the first half of the 2006–07 season, he saw the loaned-in

Scott Carson Scott Paul Carson (born 3 September 1985) is an English professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League club Manchester City. Carson joined the Leeds United academy in 2002, making his full first-team debut for Leeds aga ...

become Charlton's starting goalkeeper.

Brøndby IF

In November 2006, Andersen signed a transfer deal to move back to Denmark to play for Superliga side

at the start of the January 2007

. He made some errors in his first time at the club, dropping against

Odense Boldklub Odense Boldklub (; also known as Odense BK or the more commonly used OB) is a Danish professional football club based in the city Odense. The club has won three Danish championships and five Danish Cup trophies. OB play in the Danish Superlig ...

and

Viborg FF Viborg Fodsports Forening ("Viborg Footsport Association"), or Viborg F.F. and VFF for short, is a Danish professional football club based in Viborg. The club was founded in 1896 and waited more than a century before winning its only national ...

, but was kept in the starting line-up and eventually upped his game. He helped Brøndby win the 2008

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 qu ...

, and was named 2008 Danish ''Goalkeeper of the Year''.

Later career

In August 2011 he joined former teammate Daniel Wass at Évian in the French

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. ...

for a fee of DKK 2 million. In the summer of 2013 he signed a two-year contract with

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () or just Betis, is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1907, it plays in La Liga. It holds home games at the Estadio Benito Vi ...

of the Spanish

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

. He was sent on loan to Dutch

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is ...

side Go Ahead Eagles on 30 January 2014 for the remainder of the 2013–14 season. On 19 May 2014, it was announced he would return to Denmark on a permanent deal, signing a three-year contract with Superliga side

FC Copenhagen Football Club Copenhagen ( da, Football Club København, ), commonly known as FC København, FC Copenhagen, Copenhagen or simply FCK, is a professional Danish football club in Copenhagen, Denmark. FCK was founded in 1992 as a superstructure on ...

, the main rivals of his previous club Brøndby. On 17 June 2021, Copenhagen confirmed that he had left the club. On 12 September 2021, Andersen joined Danish amateur club VB 1968.VB 1968 snupper 39-årige Stephan Andersen
bold.dk, 10 September 2021

International career

Andersen was called up for the Denmark under-21 national team in June 2001, where he immediately displaced the two-years older Rune Pedersen. While at AB, he reached 21 games for the Danish under-21 national team, and was the first goalkeeper to win a Danish talent award, when he was named 2003 Danish ''under-21 Talent of the Year''. Following strong displays for AB, Andersen made his Danish national team debut against

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ( Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

in a March 2004

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

. It would be four-and-a-half years before he got his second cap. He was selected as a backup goalkeeper for the Denmark national team for the 2004 European Championship, where Thomas Sørensen was preferred as the starting goalkeeper in every game. While playing for Brøndby, Andersen got his second cap in September 2008, and replaced the injured Thomas Sørensen for three games in the

2010 FIFA World Cup qualification Qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA FIFA#Structure, confederations. Each confederation — the Asian Football Confederation, AFC (Asia), Confederation of African Football, CAF (Africa), CONCA ...

. He was included in the Denmark national team for the

tournament. After the injured

was ruled out of

, Andersen replaced him as the first-choice goalkeeper for the Danish national team.

Honours

Brøndby IF *

: 2007–08 *

Royal League The Royal League was an annual Scandinavian football tournament held three times between teams from the three Scandinavian monarchies (Denmark, Sweden, and Norway), starting after the end of the regular domestic seasons of Norway and Sweden. De ...

: 2006-07 Copenhagen *

: 2015–16, 2016–17, 2018–19 *

: 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17 Individual * Danish ''under-21 Talent of the Year'': 2003 * Danish ''Goalkeeper of the Year'': 2008 * Danish Cup Fighter: 2017

References

External links

* * * * *
Stephan Andersen
at ''

Voetbal International ''Voetbal International'' (VI) is a Dutch football magazine. It is the oldest Dutch football magazine that is still running. History and Profile ''Voetbal International'' was established in 1965. VI was one of the founding members of ESM but le ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Andersen, Stephan 1981 births Living people Association football goalkeepers Danish footballers Denmark international footballers Denmark youth international footballers Denmark under-21 international footballers UEFA Euro 2004 players 2010 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2012 players Hvidovre IF players Charlton Athletic F.C. players Brøndby IF players Thonon Evian Grand Genève F.C. players Real Betis players Go Ahead Eagles players F.C. Copenhagen players Danish Superliga players Premier League players Ligue 1 players La Liga players Eredivisie players Danish expatriate footballers Danish expatriate sportspeople in England Danish expatriate sportspeople in France Danish expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in France Expatriate footballers in Spain Footballers from Copenhagen