Torkil Nielsen (, born 26 January 1964) is a former
Faroese 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 ...
midfielder
In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...
. He is also one of the Faroe Islands' best chess players.
Club career
He played most of his career at
SÍF Sandavágur and after they merged with
MB Miðvágur he played with the club which was a result of the merger,
FS Vágar. He was an active football player until 1997, after that he just played a few matches and played his last match in 2007, just before the club was re-established into
07 Vestur after a merger between FS Vágar 2004 and
SÍ Sørvágur.
International career
Nielsen played in an August 1988 friendly match against
Iceland
Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...
, the country's first
FIFA
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...
-recognized match. He scored the very first Faroese goal after FIFA recognition, in a game, which also turned out to be the first ever official victory for the Faroe Islands, winning 1–0 in a friendly over
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
in April 1989.
Torkil claimed his place in world football history for his goal in the 1992 European championship qualifying shock 1–0 defeat of
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
in September 1990, which also was the Faroe Islands' first competitive match.
His final match was a June 1993
World Cup qualifying match against
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
. He earned 18 caps, scoring 2 goals.
International goals
:''Scores and results list Faroe Islands' goal tally first.''
Chess career
During and after his football career, Torkil Nielsen plays chess with the club
Sandavágs talvfelag.
He was a three-time individual
champion of the Faroes in 1984, 1986 and 1988; and participated three times in the
Chess Olympiad
The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in FIDE Onli ...
as a member of Faroese chess national team - in 1982 in
Lucerne
Lucerne ( ) or Luzern ()Other languages: ; ; ; . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital of the canton of Lucerne and part of the Lucerne (district), di ...
, Switzerland, and in 1984 and 1988 in
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...
, Greece.
Personal life
Two of Torkil Nielsen's sons, Rógvi (born 1992) and Høgni Egilstoft Nielsen (born 1997) are also football players as well as chess players, just like their father. His elder son, Rógvi Egilstoft, is also a notable football and chess player. He is a defender for
NSÍ Runavík
NSÍ Runavík is a Faroe Islands, Faroese professional association football, football club, playing in Runavík on the island of Eysturoy. It was founded 24 March 1957. In 2003 NSÍ participated for the first time on a European stage.
In 2007, t ...
football club and represented
Faroes
The Faroe Islands ( ) (alt. the Faroes) are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean and an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. Located between Iceland, Norway, and the United Kingdom, the islands have a populat ...
at U-19 level.
He was individual chess champion of the Faroes in 2012, 2015 and 2016. He is rated 2334 at the World Chess Federation as of April 2016.
Rógvi Egilstoft is also acting mayor of the municipality of Eiði (Eiðis kommuna).
His younger son, Høgni Egilstoft Nielsen, was considered among the most promising chess players of Scandinavia in his age group. In 2014, he won the Faroese Chess Championship for adults at the age of 16, and became the youngest ever to win the championship. Høgni was also the first player ever who won all matches played in a Faroese Chess Championship.
Aktuelt.fo, Eitt umfar eftir – Høgni er yngsti FM-vinnarin nakrantíð
/ref> Høgni also plays football as a defender for 07 Vestur and also played 10 national matches for the Faroe Islands national football team at U-17 level in 2013.
References
External links
Goal and other highlights against Austria in 1990
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nielsen, Torkil
1964 births
Living people
Faroese men's footballers
Faroese chess players
Men's association football midfielders
Faroe Islands men's international footballers
20th-century Danish sportsmen