Jørgen Leschly Sørensen (24 September 1922 – 21 February 1999) was a Danish

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 ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

. He started as an amateur player in Danish football, and won the 1945 Danish championship with

B.93 Boldklubben af 1893, commonly referred to as B.93, is a football club based in Østerbro, Copenhagen, Denmark. The team competes in the Danish 1st Division, the second level of the Danish football league system, after achieving promotion in the ...

. He 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 ...

, and won a

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives ...

at the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and officially branded as London 1948, were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus cau ...

. After the Olympics, Sørensen played professionally in

Italian football Football ( ) is the most popular sport in Italy. The Italy national football team have won the FIFA World Cup four times (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006), trailing only Brazil (with five), runners-up in two finals both against Brazil, (1970, 1994) and ...

for

Atalanta B.C. Atalanta Bergamasca Calcio (), commonly referred to as Atalanta, is a professional Association football, football club based in Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy, who compete in Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football league system, Italian league ...

and

A.C. Milan (), commonly referred to as Milan or AC Milan () mainly outside of Italy, is an Italian professional Football club (association football), football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Founded in 1899, the club competes in the Serie A, the top tie ...

, winning the 1955

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

championship with Milan.

Career

Danish career

Born in Lumby near

Odense Odense ( , , ) is the third largest city in Denmark (after Copenhagen and Aarhus) and the largest city on the island of Funen. As of 1 January 2025, the city proper had a population of 185,480 while Odense Municipality had a population of 210, ...

,Jørgen Leschley Sørensen
at Gravsted.dk Sørensen started playing football at a lower-league club in his hometown. at

Odense Municipality Odense Municipality () is a Danish municipality ('' kommune'') in Southern Denmark on the island of Funen in central Denmark. The municipality covers an area of , and has a population of 210,803 (1. January 2025). It is the most populous municipa ...

He moved to local club

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

in 1939, and made his senior debut for the club. He played with Odense in the amateur-only Danish championship. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the Danish football leagues were rearranged, and Odense was demoted to the third-tier league of Danish football. Sørensen spent a year in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

finishing his education, and approached AB to play for the club while in Copenhagen. AB coach Arne Kleven said he could only use him as a reserve, and Sørensen went on to play for Copenhagen club B 93 instead. Sørensen went on to become league top goalscorer with 16 goals,Roberto Di Maggio
Denmark - List of Topscorers
,

RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (''RSSSF'') is an international organisation dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around ...

, 12 June 2009 as B 93 team won the top-flight 1945–46 Danish 1st Division championship. While at B 93,JØRGEN LESCHLEY SØRENSEN
at Haslund.info Sørensen made his debut for the

in June 1946, as he scored a goal in Denmark's 1–2 defeat to the Norwegian football team.Jørgen Leschly Sørensen - A-Landshold (Alle kampe)
at

Danish Football Association The Danish Football Association (; DBU) is the governing body of football in Denmark. It is the organization of Danish football clubs and runs the professional Danish football leagues, alongside the men's and women's national teams. Based ...

Upon his return to Odense in 1946, Sørensen found the team in the secondary

Danish 2nd Division The 2nd Division () is a professional association football league for men and the third division in Denmark. It is organised by the Divisionsforeningen on behalf of the Danish Football Association (Danish FA; DBU) as part of the nation-wide Da ...

league. He helped the club win

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

into the top-flight

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 ...

in his first year back with the club. He continued to play for the Danish national team while at Odense, and was selected for the Danish squad at the

. He played one game at the tournament, and scored a goal as Denmark defeated the Great Britain football team 5–3 to win the

s of the tournament. He was top goalscorer with 16 goals in the 1948–49 1st Division season, before moving abroad to play professionally. As a professional he was barred from the amateur-only Danish national team, and Sørensen tallied his total eight goals in 14 national team games from June 1946 to June 1949.

Professional career

Alongside fellow bronze medalist

Karl Aage Hansen Karl Aage Hansen (4 July 1921 – 23 November 1990) was a Danish football player, who played as a forward. He won a bronze medal with the Denmark national football team at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. He scored 17 goals in 22 games ...

, Sørensen joined

Atalanta Atalanta (; ) is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia (region), Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene (mythology), Clymene and who is primarily known from the tales of the Caly ...

Bergamo Bergamo ( , ; ) is a city in the Alps, alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from the alpine lakes Lake Como, Como and Lake Iseo, Iseo and 70 km (43 mi) from Lake Garda, Garda and Lake ...

in the

championship of

.Roberto Di Maggio
Danish Players in Italy
,

, 2 January 2005 It was through Hansen's recommendation, that Bergamo hired Sørensen. In his first time at the club, Bergamo played a

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sport, sporting event whose prize money and impact on th ...

against Sørensen's old club Odense on Odense Stadion. Sørensen was leading the Bergamo players onto the pitch, but as Karl Aage Hansen held back the other Bergamo players, Sørensen entered the pitch on his own to waves of applause from the Odense fans. Sørensen spent four seasons at Atalanta, scoring 51 goals in 134 games, and played alongside fellow Danish international players

Svend Jørgen Hansen Svend Hansen (17 September 1922 – 7 May 2006) was a Danish 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 fo ...

and Poul Rasmussen at the club. He moved to league rivals

in 1953, and played two seasons with the club, scoring 28 goals in 64 games. He won the

1954–55 Serie A The 1954-55 Serie A was the fifty-third edition of the Italian Football Championship. It was the twenty-second Italian Football Championship branded Serie A, since Serie A was launched in 1929. This was the twenty-ninth season from which the Ital ...

championship in his last season with Milan, before leaving the club in 1955. Milan offered him a contract extension, but Sørensen decided to return to Denmark. He was selected for a European Representative team to play against a Great Britain team to mark the 75th anniversary of the

Irish Football Association The Irish Football Association (IFA) is the governing body for association football in Northern Ireland. It organised the Ireland national football team (1882–1950), Ireland national football team from 1880 to 1950, which after 1954, became t ...

in August 1955. Sørensen worked defensively to neutralize English player

Sir Stanley Matthews Sir Stanley Matthews (1 February 1915 – 23 February 2000) was an English footballer who played as an outside right. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of the British game and one of the greatest players of all time, he is the onl ...

, and the European team won 4–1.England Player Honours - International Representative Teams
at EnglandFootballOnline.com When Sørensen returned to Denmark in 1955, he and other ex-professionals were banned from entering the Danish amateur leagues by the

(DBU). The ex-professionals took to playing a series of unofficial, but popular, exhibition matches, centered around Karl Aage Præst's vacation home in

Liseleje Liseleje is a former fishing village and popular tourist resort in Halsnæs Municipality, North Zealand, some 60 kilometres northwest of Copenhagen, Denmark. The original village is surrounded by extensive areas of summerhouses. It has merged wi ...

. In 1958, DBU decided to allow ex-professionals back into Danish football following a two-year quarantine, and as Leschly had already sat out for even longer, he re-entered the amateur-only Danish leagues that year. While banned from playing, he had coached his former club Odense Boldklub. He returned as a player for Odense in 1958, and played for the club until his retirement in 1962. Leschly served as Odense manager again in 1963.OB's placering i Danmarksturneringen siden 1946 - OB-trænere siden 1962
at

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 of Odense, in southern Denmark. The club has won three Danish championships and five Danish Cup trophies. OB play ...

Sørensen became a part of the committee which selected the players for the Danish national team in 1970.Jimmie Thomsen
DBUs landstrænere i perioden 1967-69
,

, 26 November 2001, published by

He was a member of the committee until it was disbanded in 1979, with its responsibilities transferred solely to the Danish national team manager.

Honours

Club

B93 * Danish championship: 1945–46 Milan *

: 1954–55

International

Denmark * Olympic Bronze Medal:

1948 Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The current Constitutions of Constitution of Italy, Italy and of Constitution of New Jersey, New Jersey (both later subject to amendment) ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sorensen, Jorgen Leschly 1922 births 1999 deaths Men's association football forwards Danish men's footballers Danish expatriate men's footballers Odense Boldklub players Boldklubben af 1893 players Atalanta BC players AC Milan players Denmark men's international footballers Footballers at the 1948 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Denmark Olympic bronze medalists for Denmark Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Danish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Serie A players Olympic medalists in football Danish football managers Odense Boldklub managers Medalists at the 1948 Summer Olympics Footballers from Odense 20th-century Danish sportsmen