The is controlled by the
Danish Football Association and has represented the country of
Denmark in international
Football competitions since 1908. The team has been a solidly competitive side in international football since the mid-
1980s , with the triumph in the
1992 European Championships (Euro 1992) tournament as its most prominent victory.
As of April 2006, Denmark is ranked 11th in the
FIFA World Rankings , and is thereby the strongest country not present at the . In the qualification to Denmark are placed in
Group F with , , , , and the archrivals from .
Apart from the men's senior team, Denmark competes with a
Women's National Team , and has teams at various youth levels for both men and women, most prominently the
Under-21 National Team . Additionally, there is a league national team, or B-team, of the best players from the domestic
Danish Superliga , playing official games in the winter break of the national league, as well as an old-boys national team. Historically, the team competed in the
Summer Olympics until and including the 1988 tournament, whereafter olympic games count as under-21 games.
Denmark won an unofficial victory in the n countries.
In the 1960s, Denmark had a revival with a third set of olympic silver at the
1960 Olympics , though the most notable performance was fourth place in the . Denmark took advantage of a comparatively easy draw, as they beat , and before losing to the in the semi-final and in the bronze match. The national team rule of amateurism was abolished in 1971, which led to a vast improvement in the Danish team's performances. In 1978, professional football was introduced to the Danish leagues, which prompted the first sponsorship of the national team by Danish brewery
Carlsberg , enabling the team to hire full-time coach
Sepp Piontek from
Germany in 1979.
In the qualifiers, Denmark finished with 8 points from as many games, including a 3-1 win against eventual World Cup champions , but Denmark failed to qualify for the final tournament despite the impressive result. Qualification for the saw the team beat at
Wembley Stadium when
Allan Simonsen converted a
Penalty Kick for a 1-0 win. Denmark qualified for their first international tournament since 1964, and the team was dubbed "Danish Dynamite" in a competition for the official Danish Euro 1984 song. Denmark's participation ended in the semi-final when the team lost on
Penalties to , most remembered for
Preben Elkjær 's penalty miss, his shorts torn apart. Following the strong performance at the finals, the name of "Danish Dynamite" became a mainstay for the following decade of Danish national team football under coach Piontek.
Denmark made their first World Cup appearance in the , and with the attacking duo of
Michael Laudrup and Preben Elkjær the team surprised the world, sweeping the group, including a 6-1 trashing of . In the second round Denmark once again faced Spain, and once more Denmark lost out. The team received a trashing of their own, losing 5-1, including four goals by
Emilio Butragueño . The first Spanish goal was caused by a miss-timed backpass by
Jesper Olsen to Butragueño, an unfortunate action subsequently coined as "a real Jesper Olsen" (''en rigtig Jesper Olsen''). The phrase would live on for 13 years when an identical backpass was carried out by
Jesper Grønkjær to
Filippo Inzaghi in Grønkjær's 1999 debut game. Rasmus Bech, "Den aften, da Jesper Olsen blev glemt", ''
Politiken article'', March 28, 1999
After the glory days of 1986 came a period of transition with faltering results. The tournament ended in early defeat as Denmark lost the group games to Spain, , and . When Denmark failed to qualify for the Sepp Piontek was replaced by his assistant coach
Richard Møller Nielsen .
Denmark's finest hour in the international competitions came in the . The Danes initially failed to qualify, as they finished second behind in their qualifying group, and the star of the team Michael Laudrup subsequently decided to quit the national team over tactical differences with coach Richard Møller Nielsen. However, due to international sanctions resulting from the
Yugoslav Wars , Yugoslavia was barred from the tournament, and Denmark entered as the second-placed team in its group. Contrary to popular belief the team did not rally home from seaside vacations to compete, as the majority of players were already assembled to play a friendly match with the
CIS when Denmark officially got the spot at the tournament.Peter Schmeichel with Egon Balsby, "''Schmeichel: The Autobiography''", Virgin, 1999, ISBN 0753504448, pp. 97-98 of Danish version (ISBN 87-7901-122-5)
Relying heavily on goalkeeper
Peter Schmeichel and his defense, as well as creative spark
Brian Laudrup , the Danish team created one of the biggest surprises in the event's history, as they went on to win the European Championship trophy under coach Møller Nielsen's defensive playing style. Advancing from the group stage ahead of England and , Denmark beat the
Dutch defending champions on penalties in the semi-final, and with the 2-0 win against reigning champions Germany in the final, Denmark had won its first trophy.
Following the Euro 1992 win, Michael Laudrup revived his national team career in 1993, but Denmark saw mixed results as they failed to qualify for the , before securing a deserved
King Fahd Cup win, beating
Maradona 's
Copa América champions in 1995. As defending champions at the , Denmark disappointed with a lacklustre performance and the team was eliminated in the group stage. As controversy had occurred over the prolonging of Richard Møller Nielsen's contract in fall 1995, including a strained relationship with the press, he was let go. The new coach was the sympathetic
Swede Bo "Bosse" Johansson , who gave the team a more offensive strategy, and the saw the revival of the Danish team, starring both Laudrup brothers in their last international campaign. The Danes went out with a beautiful 2-3 quarter-final defeat to later silver medalists . Following yet another disappointing European Championship in the , with many players selected for the squad despite injuries and lacking form, "Bosse" decided not to prolong his contract.
The new coach would be the former national team captain from the successful team of the 1980s,
Morten Olsen , and the team was quickly dubbed the
Olsen Gang , resembling the Danish movies series of a man with a plan, a name which was similarly used of the Danish team when Olsen captained it. With Olsen at the helm, Denmark's tactics shifted to an even more attacking style, with an emphasis on the wingers, and Olsen made the point of only using players on form in the team.
,
Gravgaard ,
Agger , and
Priske celebrate Gravgaard's goal in 2005 England match.]]
Denmark qualified both for the and the , but despite impressive results in the group stage in both tournaments, especially the 2-0 win against reigning World Cup winners France in 2002, Denmark saw defeat in the first knock-out round in both tournaments. The Euro 2004 will be best remembered for an incident in the game with , where Italian
Francesco Totti was caught on camera spitting on Danish player
Christian Poulsen , as well as the joint elimination of Italy by Denmark and in the
Last Group Stage Match when the two teams drew 2-2 following a Swedish goal in the 81st minute.
Olsen's reign of the Danish national team has been the most successful in the time of professional coaches. As of March 2006, Morten Olsen has a winning share of 58,7%, and with three points for a victory and one for a draw, Olsen has an average of 2,03 points per game.
Morten Olsen coach profile at ''DBU.dk'' In comparison, Richard Møller Nielsen had a 54,8% winning share and a 1,89 point average
Richard Møller Nielsen coach profile at ''DBU.dk'', and especially Olsen's attitude of taking every friendly match seriously have led to many good results, one notable example being a friendly 4-1 win over England in 2005, which sent England packing with their worst loss since 1980, and was a repetition of the Danish 3-2 win on English ground at
Old Trafford in 2003.
For the
2006 World Cup Qualification , Denmark was paired with, among others, 2002 World Cup bronze winners and Euro 2004 champions competing for only one guaranteed spot at the final tournament. Following a poor start of the qualification, Denmark only had 9 points for 7 games, and were trailing both Turkey, by 3 points, and surprise leaders , by 6 points. This meant that Denmark needed Turkey to lose points in the final 5 games in order for Denmark to clinch the 2nd place of the group and one last chance to qualify via two play-off games. Indeed, had Turkey lost points to in their last game, Denmark would have gone through, but instead Denmark had to settle for 3rd place in the group and a longer summer break.
See Also: Roligan
Apart from the national team, Denmark is equally famous for its traveling fans, known as ''
Roligans ''. The movement emerged during the 1980s as the declared opposition to
Hooliganism . The goal of the roligan movement is calm, yet cheerful, support during the matches, as ''rolig'' means calm in the
Danish Language . The roligans have since developed an image of easy-going nature and rabid support, and they were collectively given the FIFA FairPlay Award at the 1984 European Championships
Historie at ''RoliganKlubben.dk''. Just before the 1986 World Cup, the roligan movement was organized in order to support the national team at the tournament.
]]
From a 2-1 friendly win over in 1912, to a 0-2 Euro 1992 qualification loss to Yugoslavia in 1990, Denmark played most of their home games at in
Aalborg ,
NRGi Park (then known as Atletion) in
Århus , and
Fionia Park (then known as Odense Stadium) in
Odense , Odense Stadium being the main venue for national games for a year after the abandonment of Idrætsparken.
On , February 24, 2006
in 2005 match.]]
The players are freely chosen by manager Morten Olsen, and are normally assembled, from their respective club teams, at Hotel Marina in
Vedbæk for a week-long training camp preluding the upcoming game, which is typically scheduled for wednesday or saturday evenings.
Each player in the national team receives a set amount of money per game, including bonuses for games won and qualification for the European Championship and World Cup tournaments. Through the years, these money prizes have gone from around €1,340 for a game win in 1987 and around €26,800 for the Euro 1988 participation alone, to around €67,000 for the 1998 World Cup and up to €107,000 for the 2002 World Cup participations, per player.
Jan Heintze , "''Tyve år på toppen''", Cicero, 2002, ISBN 87-7714-459-7 Values are translated from
Danish Kroner . Currently, the win bonus for friendly games are €1,340 per player, with start money for an away game at €670 per player, while a home win before a sellout crowd of 42,000, can possibly wield €7,600 per player, including the win bonus, due to spectator-dependant bonuses. In the qualification matches for the international tournaments, the bonuses are increased for both home and away wins, with a bonus also being paid for away draws.
Players bonus at ''DBU.dk''
See Also: Denmark national football team season 2006
The current squad, according to DBU.
Truppen 2005/06 at ''DBU.dk'' All match statistic are updated after the latest national team match, a
March 1 ,
2006 Friendly Match against .
See Also: Denmark national football team statistics#Managers
Ever since the Danish Football Association started registering official games at the 1908 Summer Olympics, assigned football managers who have coached the team at official tournaments.
- Palle "Banks" Jørgensen, "''Landsholdets 681 profiler fra 1908 til i dag''", TIPS-Bladet, 2002, ISBN 87-91264-01-4
