Claus Thomsen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Claus Thomsen (born May 31, 1970 in Aarhus) is a Danish former professional footballer, who most notably won the Danish Cup with Aarhus GF, and played abroad for English teams Ipswich Town and Everton, as well as Wolfsburg in Germany. He played 20 matches for Danish national team, including the 1992 Summer Olympics and Euro 96.

[edit] Biography

The 6' 3" defender and midfield player started his career at Aarhus GF in Denmark. He made his debut for the Danish under-21 national team in May 1989, and was a part of the Aarhus team which won the 1992 Danish Cup. He was selected to represent Denmark at the 1992 Summer Olympics, where he played all three of Denmark's matches, and scored a goal against Mexico.

In June 1994, he moved abroad to play for English club Ipswich Town, in a transfer deal worth £250,000. He was called up for his Danish national team debut, by national coach Richard Møller Nielsen, in April 1995. Thomsen was called up to the Danish national squad for the 1996 European Championship, and played in all Denmark's three matches before elimination. He made a total 97 appearances and scored 8 goals for Ipswich. He was one of the stronger players in the weakest side in Ipswich Towns history. In his first season he was relegated with Ipswich in 1994/5 and a major part of the side that missed the First Division Play Offs in 1995-96 however as Ipswich were looking to improve their side in 1997 he was sold to Premiership Everton, for £900,000, in January 1997.

After little more than a year at Everton, he moved back to Denmark for £500,000 in March 1998, to play for Akademisk Boldklub (AB). He only stayed at AB for six months, before moving abroad once again. He joined German club VFL Wolfsburg in September 1998. In April 1999, Thomsen ended his Danish national team career, citing a lacking energy surplus. Due to injury problems, he saw very little playing time in his last years at Wolfsburg, and ended his career in April 2002.

[edit] Honours

• Danish Cup: 1992
• Anglo-Italian Cup: Semi-Finals 1995-96 Ipswich Town

[edit] External links

• Danish national team profile
• Soccerbase career statistics
• (German) FussballDaten career statistics
• National Football Teams career statistics

v • d • e Denmark squad - UEFA Euro 1996 1 Schmeichel • 2 Helveg • 3 Rieper • 4 Olsen • 5 Høgh • 6 Schjønberg • 7 B.S. Nielsen • 8 Thomsen • 9 Beck • 10 M. Laudrup • 11 B. Laudrup • 12 Piechnik • 13 Larsen • 14 Risager • 15 E.B. Andersen • 16 Høgh • 17 A. Nielsen • 18 Vilfort • 19 Tøfting • 20 Laursen • 21 S. Andersen • 22 Krogh • Coach: R.M. Nielsen