Karl Aage Præst, also spelled Carl Aage Præst, (26 February 1922 – 19 November 2011) was a Danish

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. Playing in the

left winger In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

position, Præst won two

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 ...

championships with

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

club

Juventus FC Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

. He played 24 games and scored 17 goals for the Danish national team from 1945 to 1949, 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 ...

. He is a Danish Football Hall of Fame inductee.

Career

Born in Copenhagen, Karl Aage Præst attended the Royal Orphanage.Osterbro Data
p. 20 The orphanage became the youth team of football club

Østerbros Boldklub Østerbros Boldklub (also known as ØB) was a Danish sports club based in the Østerbro area of Copenhagen, active from 1894 to 1998. The club is best known for its amateur football team. It was one of the oldest Danish football clubs, and play ...

(ØB) in 1936, and Præst was among the first boys to join ØB. In his second year in the ØB youth team, Præst scored 57 goals in 16 games. He made his senior debut in 1940. At ØB, he played alongside later Danish international

Helge Broneé Helge or Helgi is a Scandinavian, German, and Dutch mostly male name. The name is derived from Proto-Norse ''Hailaga'' with its original meaning being ''dedicated to the gods''. For its Slavic version, see Oleg. Its feminine equivalent is Olga. ...

. Præst was acknowledged as a world-class talent, with great balance and

dribbling In sports, dribbling is maneuvering a ball by one player while moving in a given direction, avoiding defenders' attempts to intercept the ball. A successful dribble will bring the ball past defenders legally and create opportunities to score. As ...

, and a great end-product of either precise crossing or a good shot on goal. Præst played around 250 games while at ØB. He became internationally known through international exhibition games for Danish representative teams

Stævnet Stævnet ( or ''the meeting'') or Copenhagen XI were a Danish association football representative team which had its prime before 1970, however it was active until 1994. Stævnet participated in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, the precursor of UEFA C ...

and

Alliancen Alliancen (Danish language, Danish for ''the alliance'') is a Denmark, Danish association football organisation founded in 1940 by Fremad Amager, Hellerup IK, HIK, KFUMs Boldklub, B 1908 and ØB. Køge Boldklub, Køge, Brønshøj BK, Brønshøj, S ...

, and made his debut 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 ...

in June 1945. In May 1947, he was selected for the

Europe XI The Europe XI is an association football scratch team mainly consisting of players from the UEFA region but, on occasion, players hailing from other continents playing for European teams are invited to play. The European XI play one-off games aga ...

representative team, which lost 1–6 to the

Great Britain national football team The Great Britain Olympic football team is the men's football team that represents the United Kingdom at the Summer Olympic Games (where it competed as Great Britain, branded Team GB). The team is organised by the Football Association as the me ...

. Præst was a part of the Danish team at the

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, where Præst played four games and scored two goals as Denmark won a

. After the Olympics, Præst signed a professional contract with

club

, and was thus banned from the amateur-only Danish national team. With Juventus, Præst won the 1949–50 and

1951–52 Serie A The 1951-52 Serie A was the fiftieth edition of the Italian Football Championship. It was the nineteenth Italian Football Championship branded Serie A, since Serie A was launched in 1929. This was the twenty-sixth season from which the Italian Fo ...

championships. Though considered fast in Denmark, Præst was not as fast as most Italian defenders, but succeeded through his dribbling skills. Præst played alongside Danes John Hansen and

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 ...

at Juventus, and his dribbling and crossing ability was a key in making John Hansen top goal-scorer of the 1951–52 season. Præst played 232 games and scored 51 goals for Juventus in the Serie A championship from 1949 to 1956. In 1956, Præst moved on to league rivals

S.S. Lazio (; ; ''Lazio Sport Club'') is an Italian professional sports club based in Rome, most known for its football activity. The society, founded in 1900, plays in the Serie A and have spent most of their history in the top tier of Italian footba ...

. He played seven games for the club, before ending his career in 1957. Upon his return to Denmark, Præst's status as ex-professional meant the

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 ...

(DBU) kept him banned from playing in the Danish leagues. Præst and John Hansen had both bought vacation homes 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 ...

, and Præst's summer residence "Juve" was soon the gathering place of the 1948 Olympics team. The team was reformed, amateurs and ex-professionals alike, and played a string of unofficial high-profile exhibition matches that drew many spectators. This provoked DBU to move on the issue of ex-professionals, and it was decided that following a quarantine of two years, ex-professionals were allowed to re-enter the Danish football league. At ØB's 75th anniversary in 1969, Præst and

Flemming Nielsen Flemming Gert Nielsen (24 February 1934 – 16 November 2018), known simply as Flemming Nielsen, was a Danish football player in the midfielder position, who won a silver medal with the Denmark national football team at the 1960 Summer O ...

arranged an old boys exhibition match between the 1948 Olympic team and Juventus FC, with the proceeds going to ØB. In November 2008, Præst was voted into the Danish Football Hall of Fame, for his achievements with Juventus FC and the Danish national team.Dansk Fodbold Award 2008
,

, 17 November 2008. Præst died on 19 November 2011 at age 89.

Honours

Club

;Østerbros Boldklub *

KBUs Pokalturnering KBUs Pokalturnering (unofficial English translation: ''KBU Cup'', ''Copenhagen Cup'') was a Danish regional knockout association football competition contested annually from 1910 to 1953 by clubs that were members of the regional football associa ...

1947 It was the first year of the Cold War, which would last until 1991, ending with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Events January * January–February – Winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom: The worst snowfall in the country i ...

;Juventus FC *

: 1949–50, 1951–52

Individual

Serie A Team of The Year The AIC Serie A Team of the Year (in Italian: ''Squadra dell’anno AIC'') is an annual award given to a set of eleven footballers in the top tier of Football in Italy, Italian football, the Serie A, who are considered to have performed the best d ...

: 1953, 1954

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Praest, Carl Aage 1922 births 2011 deaths Danish men's footballers Denmark men's international footballers Danish expatriate men's footballers Juventus FC players SS Lazio players Serie A players Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Olympic footballers for Denmark Olympic bronze medalists for Denmark Footballers at the 1948 Summer Olympics Footballers from Copenhagen Olympic medalists in football Medalists at the 1948 Summer Olympics Men's association football midfielders Danish expatriate sportspeople in Italy 20th-century Danish sportsmen