Claus Illemann Nielsen (born 13 January 1964), known as Claus Nielsen, is a Danish former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player in the

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position. He spent the bulk of his career with Brøndby, but also played for the Greek club

Panathinaikos Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos (, literally in English: "Panathenaic Athletic Club" or Panathinaikos A.C.), also known simply as Panathinaikós , is a major Greek multi-sport club based in the City of Athens. Panathinaikos is one of the mos ...

and the Dutch club

Twente Twente ( , Tweants dialect: ''Tweante'') is a region in the eastern Netherlands. It encompasses the most urbanised and easternmost part of the province of Overijssel. Twente is most likely named after the Tuihanti or Tvihanti, a Germanic people ...

Club career

Brøndby

Nielsen played for Brøndby from July 1984 until July 1988, at the top level 1.Division in Denmark (later renamed

Superliga Superliga (''super league'') may refer to: Sports Superliga can refer to different sports leagues: Association football *Albanian Superliga, the Albanian top-flight men's division * Argentine Superliga, the Argentine top-flight men's division *D ...

in 1991). With a total appearance in 167 games during his first four years in the club, he was counted on as one of the most regular first team players at the pitch. In 1984, he helped Brøndby to win the club's first title, when he scored the winning goal of the Danish League Cup final against AGF. He scored several goals for Brøndby in 1984, but as he only played the last autumn half of the tournament, it was not enough to qualify him as the clubs topscorer of the year (that title went for Jens Kolding with eleven goals). Nielsen however subsequently managed to become the clubs topscorer for the next three years; by scoring 17 goals in 1985, then 16 goals in 1986 and finally 20 goals in 1987. In 1985, Claus Nielsen was honoured with the title "best Brøndby player of the year", and he also managed to qualify as the overall topscorer of the Danish league in 1986 and 1987. The long string of goals from Nielsen, also helped Brøndby to win the Danish championship in 1985 and 1987. He continued to play well in spring 1988, but as he transferred to

already after the first half of the season, he was not in contention to repeat his win of the Brøndby topscorer title in 1988.

Panathinaikos

He played the 1988–89 season for the Greek club

. But with only six goals during 20 games, his time in Greece was only a limited success. He won the 1988

Greek Super Cup The Greek Super Cup (), formerly known as the Friendship and Solidarity Cup () is a Greek association football one-match competition, which is contested annually either between the champions of the previous Super League Greece season and the hold ...

and the

1988–89 Greek Football Cup The 1988–89 Greek Football Cup was the 47th edition of the Greek Football Cup. Tournament details Totally 52 teams participated, 16 from Alpha Ethniki, 18 from Beta, and 18 from Gamma. It was held in 6 rounds, included final. This season, for ...

with the team.

Twente

After his short Greek adventure, he played the next two seasons from 1989 to 1991 for

, in the Dutch Eredivisie. Here he continued to score a high rate of goals, by netting a total number of 22 goals in 39 games.

Return to Brøndby

In July 1991, he transferred back to Brøndby again. After playing 13 games in autumn 1991, a serious knee injury kept him away from the pitch throughout the entire spring 1992. He made a short comeback attempt in autumn 1992, but the injury continued to trouble him, so he only played four more games for the club in the autumn (with the last one in November 1992). Because his injury was more or less a permanent problem, he ended his football career in March 1993.Søren Olsen, "Tacklet for sidste gang",

Politiken ''Politiken'' is a leading Danish daily broadsheet newspaper, published by JP/Politikens Hus in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was founded in 1884 and played a role in the formation of the Danish Social Liberal Party. Since 1970 it has been indepe ...

, 7 March 1993

International career

Nielsen played 14 games and scored eight goals for the

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 ...

from October 1986 to June 1991. His knee injury put an early stop to his International career at 27 years of age.

Career highlights

Club statistics

Total number of goals for Brøndby (1984–1988 and 1991–1992):

References

External links

*
Claus Nielsen
official

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 ...

statistics at danskfodbold.com * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nielsen, Claus 1964 births Living people Sportspeople from Kalundborg Men's association football forwards Danish men's footballers Danish expatriate men's footballers Brøndby IF players Denmark men's international footballers Denmark men's under-21 international footballers FC Twente players Panathinaikos F.C. players Eredivisie players Super League Greece players Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Danish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Danish expatriate sportspeople in Greece Footballers from Region Zealand 20th-century Danish sportsmen