Thomas Rytter Jakobsen (born 6 January 1974) is a retired 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 ...

and manager, who played as a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

. He is currently the manager of Blovstrød IF. In 2001, he won the

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 with F.C. Copenhagen, and most prominently played for Spanish club

Sevilla Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Seville ...

and German club

Wolfsburg Wolfsburg (; Eastphalian language, Eastphalian: ''Wulfsborg'') is the fifth-largest city in the Germany, German state of Lower Saxony, on the river Aller (Germany), Aller east of Hanover and west of Berlin. Wolfsburg is famous as the locat ...

. Rytter was named 1994 Danish ''under-21 Talent of the Year'', and he played four matches for the Danish national team between 1996 and 2003.

Career

Early career

Born 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 ...

, Rytter started his career at

Lyngby Boldklub Lyngby Boldklub () is a professional Football (soccer), football club based in Kongens Lyngby, Lyngby, Denmark, founded in 1921. It is based at Lyngby Stadion. The club play in the Danish Superliga. From 1994 to 2001 the club was known as Lyngby ...

. He made his senior debut for the club in 1992, 18 years old, and immediately secured himself a place in the Lyngby first team squad. Rytter was one of several promising young Lyngby players, including later Danish internationals

Dennis Rommedahl Dennis Rommedahl (; born 22 July 1978) is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a right winger. During his 19-year professional career, he won four Eredivisie titles with PSV Eindhoven, and also played for several other Dutch clu ...

and Niclas Jensen, and he was called up for the Danish under-19 national team in October 1992. He went on to play 22 matches for the Danish under-21 national team from 1993 to 1996, and won the 1994 Danish ''under-21 Talent of the Year'' award.

Sevilla

Rytter was called up for Danish national team coach

Bo Johansson Bo "Bosse" Johansson (born 28 November 1942) is a Swedish former football player and former football coach. Career Johansson was a player for fourteen years with Kalmar FF and Lindsdals IF, though he did not win any trophies as a player. In 1 ...

's debut game, and got his international debut in the 1–0 win against

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

on 14 August 1996. After five seasons at Lyngby, Rytter left the club in the winter 1996. He was sold by Lyngby

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

Flemming Østergaard Flemming Ammentorp Østergaard (born 31 October 1943 in ''Det Gule Palæ'' (Danish language, Danish: ''The Yellow Palace''), Ordrup) is a retired businessman, best known as long-time chairman of Parken Sport & Entertainment, who owns the football ...

to Spanish club

Sevilla FC Sevilla Fútbol Club () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Seville, Andalusia, that competes in La Liga, the Spanish football league system, top flight of Spanish football. The club was formed on 25 January ...

in the

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

championship. Rytter made his debut for Sevilla in December 1996. In his first year at the club, Sevilla 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

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

. Rytter played the first half of the next season for Sevilla, before moving back to Denmark in January 1998.

Return to Denmark

Bought by F.C. Copenhagen (FCK) CEO Flemming Østergaard, Rytter made his FCK debut in March 1998. At FCK, he was reunited with former Lyngby teammate Niclas Jensen, and the two formed a wingback duo that was known as the best in the Superliga. Rytter was a part of the FCK team which won the 2001 Superliga trophy, and was once again called up for the Danish national team, by new national coach

Morten Olsen Morten Per Olsen (; born 14 August 1949) is a Danish former Association football, football manager and former player. He was the head coach of the Denmark national football team, Denmark national team for 15 years from 2000 until 2015, guiding ...

. He played his second national team game in November 2001.

Wolfsburg

His contract with FCK was set to run out in the summer 2002, and in the winter 2001, Rytter and FCK failed to agree on a contract extension. He was initially benched, but was eventually sold to

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

club

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg (), is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of Wolfsburg. I ...

in December 2001.

Retirement at Brøndby

He played three and a half seasons at Wolfsburg, and was twice called up for the Danish national team by Morten Olsen. In July 2005, he moved back to Denmark to

Brøndby IF Brøndbyernes Idrætsforening (, usually abbreviated to Brøndby IF (), is a Danish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Brøndbyvester. Brøndby IF denotes the professional football section of Brøndbyernes ...

, the main rivals of his former club FCK. This caused controversy in FCK, where Flemming Østergaard concluded that all footballers are

egoist Egoism is a philosophy concerned with the role of the self, or , as the motivation and goal of one's own action. Different theories of egoism encompass a range of disparate ideas and can generally be categorized into descriptive or normative ...

s as Thomas was like a son to him. Thomas Rytter replied "I already have a father, and his name is Frank". In his first season at Brøndby, injuries reduced his playing time. On 25 August 2008 he retired from professional football.

Honours

* 1994 Danish ''under-21 Talent of the Year'' * 2001

, with F.C. Copenhagen * 2008

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 Brøndby IF

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rytter, Thomas 1974 births Living people Danish men's footballers Lyngby Boldklub players F.C. Copenhagen players Brøndby IF players La Liga players Sevilla FC players Bundesliga players VfL Wolfsburg players Denmark men's international footballers Denmark men's under-21 international footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Danish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Danish expatriate sportspeople in Spain Men's association football defenders Footballers from Copenhagen