Martin Sejr Jensen (born 10 July 1973), known as Martin S. Jensen, is a Danish football coach and former professional

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 is a goalkeeping coach for

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 ...

side

Hobro IK Hobro Idræts Klub (), commonly referred to as Hobro IK or HIK, is a professional football club based in Hobro, Denmark. The club currently competes in the Danish 1st Division, the second tier of the Danish football league system, and plays its h ...

. He played 134 games in the top-flight

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 ...

championship from 2001 to 2007, representing

Esbjerg fB Esbjerg forenede Boldklubber (; commonly known as Esbjerg fB or EfB in short) is a Danish professional Association football, football club based in Esbjerg, West Jutland, Jylland, that plays in the Danish 1st Division, 1st division, the sec ...

, OB,

Randers FC Randers FC () is a professional association football, football club based in Randers, East Jutland metropolitan area, East Jutland, that plays in the Danish Superliga, the top flight of the Danish football league system. Founded on 1 January 200 ...

, and AaB. He won the

Danish Cup The Danish Cup (; often referred to as Pokalen) is the official "single-elimination tournament, knockout" cup competition in Danish football, run by the Danish Football Association. The cup has been contested annually since 1955. The winner will ...

with Randers and the Danish Superliga with AaB.

Club career

Jensen began his career with local amateur club Korup 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, ...

, before moving to nearby top-flight Superliga club

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 ...

(OB) in 1996, where he served as an understudy to Danish international keeper

Lars Høgh Poul Lars Høgh-Pedersen (; 14 January 1959 – 8 December 2021) was a Danish footballer, who played his entire career as a goalkeeper for Odense BK. He won three Danish football championships and three Danish Cup trophies with OB, and won the ...

. He moved on to lower-league club

Randers Freja Randers Sportsklub Freja (often abbreviated Randers Freja) is a Danish sport club with teams in athletics, handball, table tennis and football. History Randers Freja was founded in 1898, and was accepted into the Jydsk Boldspil-Union, JBU i ...

, and played almost 100 games for Freja from 1998 to 2000, helping the team 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 ...

for the second-tier

. Jensen joined rival Danish 1st Division team

in the Winter 2000, and eventually surpassed

Benny Gall Benny Gall (born 14 March 1971) is a Danish former footballer who played as a goalkeeper, and the current head coach of fourth tier Denmark Series club BK Avarta. He has previously been the manager of B93's 2nd Division East team and Elite 3 ...

as the starting goalkeeper. Jensen helped Esbjerg win promotion to the Danish Superliga, and played all 33 games as Esbjerg finished 7th in the

2001–02 Danish Superliga The 2001–02 Danish Superliga season was the 12th season of the Danish Superliga league championship, governed by the Danish Football Association. It took place from the first match on July 21, 2001, to final match on May 16, 2002. The Danish ch ...

season. In winter 2002, Esbjerg brought in new keeper

Lars Winde Lars Winde (born 3 December 1975) is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Danish Superliga clubs Esbjerg fB and Aalborg BK (AaB) as well as Austrian Bundesliga side SW Bregenz. Winde played seven games for the ...

. When Jensen made his dissatisfaction known, he was handed a free transfer, and rejoined with OB in January 2003, signing a two-year contract. At OB, Jensen initially served as the understudy once more, this time to ''

Det Gyldne Bur Det Gyldne Bur (''The Golden Cage'') is an award given to the best goalkeeper in Danish football each year. The winner is found by votes among the goalkeepers in the two top divisions of Danish football; the Danish Superliga and Danish 1st Divisi ...

''-winning goalkeeper Karim Zaza. When Zaza was sold in the Summer 2003, Jensen was handed a place in the starting line-up which he kept for 18 games. In winter 2003, OB bought a new ''Det Gyldne Bur''-winning keeper in Arek Onyszko, and Jensen was demoted to the bench. In July 2004, Jensen announced his desire to let his OB contract expire at the end of the year 2004, as he had already agreed to join newly promoted team

, a club merger based on his former team Randers Freja. In August 2004, OB and Randers agreed on a transfer move, allowing Jensen to immediately join Randers. At Randers, Jensen quickly established himself as the starting goalkeeper ahead of Christian Kemph. The season did not end well for Jensen, as Randers were

relegated Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

to the Danish 1st Division. As a 1st Division team, Randers and Jensen managed to win the

2005–06 Danish Cup The 2005–06 Danish Cup was the 52nd season of the Danish Cup. The first round was played on about 27 July 2005 and the final was played on 11 May 2006. This was the first time in the tournament's modern history that the final was not played on th ...

, beating Superliga club Esbjerg fB 1–0 in

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

in the final. That same season, Randers won promotion for the Superliga, and Jensen signed a two-year contract extension in June 2006. In the following

2006–07 Danish Superliga The 2006–07 Danish Superliga season was the 17th season of the Danish Superliga league championship, which determined the winners of the Danish football championship. It was governed by the Danish Football Association. It took place from the ...

season, Jensen missed only a single game (through suspension), as Randers finished eighth. When Randers signed Kevin Stuhr Ellegaard as their new starting goalkeeper in the 2007 summer transfer window, Jensen was not allowed to train with the first team, but was instead demoted to the youth team. Following a public dispute with Randers due to what Jensen contested as unfair treatment, he was released from all contractual obligations with the club on 16 July 2007. Jensen soon after chose to join AaB Aalborg, signing a half-year contract with the club. He was brought in as a backup keeper, as AaB's newly bought first choice Karim Zaza was still recovering from a shoulder operation. Jensen was AaB's starting goalkeeper in the first seven games of the

2007–08 Danish Superliga The 2007–08 Danish Superliga season was the 18th season of the Danish Superliga league championship, which determined the winners of the Danish football championship. It was governed by the Danish Football Association. It started with the first ...

season, including a 5–0 defeat to his former team Randers FC, and he also helped AaB beat

Gent Gent is a shortened form of the word gentleman. It may also refer to: * Ghent ( Dutch: Gent), a Belgian city ** K.A.A. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** K.R.C. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** Gent RFC, a rugby club in Ghent ** .gent, ...

to advance to the

2007–08 UEFA Cup The 2007–08 UEFA Cup was the 37th edition of the UEFA Europa League, UEFA Cup, UEFA's former second-tier club association football, football tournament. The 2008 UEFA Cup Final, final was played at the City of Manchester Stadium, Manchester, E ...

. When Zaza returned to fitness in September 2007, Jensen found himself as the second choice keeper for the Superliga games, but saw playing time in the Danish Cup tournament instead. In his six months at AaB, Jensen played 12 matches in all competitions for the club, in a season that would ultimately lead to AaB winning the Danish Superliga title in May 2008. By then, Jensen had already moved on. In January 2008, he joined

Skive IK Skive Idræts Klub, commonly known as Skive IK, SIK (especially locally) or simply Skive, is a Danish professional Football team, football club based in Skive, Denmark, Skive, Central Denmark Region. Founded in 1901, the club is affiliated with ...

in the Danish 1st Division as goalkeeper and

assistant manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

on a two-year contract. He had already agreed an extended contract with AaB, but AaB chose not to stop his dreams of gaining manager experience. Jensen stated that "I helped them out in a situation, as they help me in this situation". but he decided to end his career both as a player and manager.

Coaching career

Jensen was goalkeeping coach for

from 2014 until 2017, where he chose to focus on a civil career. On 1 January 2022, Jensen returned as goalkeeping coach in Martin Thomsen's coaching staff at Hobro IK.

Honours

Randers FC *

: 2005–06 AaB *

: 2007–08

References

External links

Danish Superliga player statistics
at danskfodbold.com
AaB profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jensen, Martin S 1973 births Living people AaB Fodbold players Men's association football goalkeepers Association football goalkeeping coaches Danish Superliga players Danish men's footballers Esbjerg fB players Odense Boldklub players Randers FC players Skive IK players Sportspeople from Odense