Jesper Jensen (born 30 October 1977) is a former Danish

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

player and current manager of the Danish women's national team. He was named World Coach of the Year (female teams) in 2021 by IHF. Jensen comes from a handball family. He is brother of the former Danish handball player and 2004 Olympic champion, Trine Jensen. His mother played for the Danish club Vejlby-Risskov Idrætsklub, and his father was a handball referee. Jensen won the

2008 European Men's Handball Championship The 2008 EHF European Men's Handball Championship (8th tournament) was held in Norway from 17 to 27 January, in the cities of Bergen, Drammen, Lillehammer, Stavanger and Trondheim. Denmark men's national handball team, Denmark won the tournament ...

with the Danish men's national handball team. He was part of the team which finished seventh in the 2008 Olympic tournament. He played all eight matches and scored 16 goals. On 17 February 2011, Jensen retired from the Danish men's national team after 120 games and 238 goals.

Coaching career

After his playing career Jensen became the head coach of the Vejen EH women's team in 2013. He coached them for a single season until switching to

Aalborg Håndbold Aalborg Handball () is a professional handball club from Aalborg, Denmark that competes in the Danish Handball League. Aalborg Håndbold play their home games in the Gigantium arena in Aalborg – known as Jutlander Bank Arena for sponsorship rea ...

. In March 2016 he was fired due to disappointing results. The club was in 7th place at the time. In 2017 he became the assistant coach at Team Esbjerg. When the club fired head coach

Lars Frederiksen Lars Erik Frederiksen (born Lars Erik Dapello, August 30, 1971) is an American musician and record producer best known as a guitarist and vocalist for the punk rock band Rancid, as well as the frontman of Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards and ...

in May 2017, Jesper Jensen was promoted to head coach. Jensen has announced, that he does not intend to continue, when his contract expires in the summer 2024. He will at that time be replaced by Swedish coach Tomas Axnér.

Danish women's coach

In 2020, he was named head coach of the Danish women's national team, a position he has held simultaneously with the position at Team Esbjerg. He coached Denmark at the

2020 European Women's Handball Championship The 2020 European Women's Handball Championship was held from 3 to 20 December 2020. The games were played in Herning and Kolding, Denmark. Originally, this tournament would be held with 2 host countries: Norway and Denmark. However, lacking som ...

. He won silver with the Danish women's national team at the

2022 European Women's Handball Championship The 2022 European Women's Handball Championship was held in Slovenia, North Macedonia and Montenegro from 4 to 20 November 2022. The tournament was advanced a month in order not to coincide with the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. This tournament w ...

and, the next year, bronze at the

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

. Following the 2024 European Championship, where Denmark won silver medals, he announced his intention to retire from the position in the summer of 2025. A week later he announced that he will join Hungarian top club Ferencvaros. He will be replaced by Helle Thomsen who takes over in the summer of 2025.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jensen, Jesper 1977 births Living people Danish male handball players Danish handball coaches Olympic handball players for Denmark Handball players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Handball players from Aarhus Handball coaches of international teams Coaches at the 2024 Summer Olympics Team Esbjerg players