| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Lars Dahl Elstrup | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | (1963-03-24)24 March 1963 (age 62) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Råby, Denmark | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Position | Forward | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Youth career | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| –1980 | IF Fjorden i Havndal | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 1981–1985 | Randers Freja | 136 | (59) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 1986 | Brøndby IF | 7 | (2) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 1986–1988 | Feyenoord | 65 | (9) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 1988–1989 | Odense BK | 28 | (17) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 1989–1991 | Luton Town | 60 | (19) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 1991–1993 | Odense BK | 44 | (24) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Total | 340 | (130) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| International career | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1988–1993 | Denmark | 34 | (13) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Lars Dahl Elstrup (born 24 March 1963) is a Danish former professionalfootballer, who played as aforward for a number of Danish clubs, as well as Dutch clubFeyenoord and English clubLuton Town. He played 34 matches and scored 13 goals for theDenmark national team, and was part of the Denmark team which won the1992 European Championship.
Born in the village of Råby, 20 km NE ofRanders, Lars Elstrup made his senior debut for local clubRanders Sportsklub Freja in 1982. Over the next four seasons, he became a proven goalscorer inDanish football's mostly 2nd highest divisions, and before the1986 season Elstrup moved to thedefending championsBrøndby IF. He played just seven league games for Brøndby, scoring twice, before he moved abroad to play for Dutch clubFeyenoord. He played there for two years, but only scored nine goals for theRotterdam outfit.
In 1988, Elstrup moved back to Denmark to play forOdense BK. He scored 14 goals in 16 games in his first season at Odense, and was called up for theDenmark national team by national managerSepp Piontek.
The1989 Danish 1st Division saw Elstrup score three times in 12 league games, before he left to try his hand atEnglish football. Elstrup signed for EnglishFirst Division clubLuton Town on 21 August 1989 in a£850,000transfer deal, setting a club transfer record.[1][2] Playing atKenilworth Road for two seasons, he soon settled and scored a total of 18 goals to keep Luton up in1990–91.
After only two years in England, Elstrup moved back to Denmark to rejoin Odense. Odense only paid £200,000, despite having sold him to Luton only two years before for more than four times that amount, and having attained an impressive goalscoring record at the English club, as well as still being in his twenties.[3] Sure enough, after selling Elstrup, Luton were relegated.[4] He played two more seasons for Odense, scoring 24 goals, before retiring in strange circumstances. These strange circumstances were due to damage to body and mind, quote Lars Elstrup himself.
Elstrup made his national team debut in August 1988 againstSweden, and scored both goals in a 2–1 victory.[5]
Elstrup was part of the Denmark squad for the1992 European Championship. He played in two matches at the tournament, and scored the winning goal in the 2–1 win againstFrance in the group stages. He also scored one of Denmark's five penalties in the semi-finalpenalty shootout againstNetherlands, though he was an unused substitute, as Denmark beatGermany 2–0 in the final.
In 1993, Elstrup had doubts about his footballing future, as he felt he was living under the expectations of others.[6] He joined a spiritualsect, and took the spiritual name "Darando", meaning "The River that Flows into the Sea". He moved away from the sect in December 1999 after being arrested for punching a school child.[7] In January 2000, Odense gave Elstrup a chance to re-enter professional football by giving him a trial, but he left the club soon after when the club refused to pay him during the trial.[8] He now lives inOdense, and stays out of the public eye.
Odense BK
Denmark
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