 | Thisbiography of a living personneeds additionalcitations forverification. Please help by addingreliable sources.Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced orpoorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentiallylibelous. Find sources: "Allan Nielsen" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(January 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | (1971-03-13)13 March 1971 (age 54) | ||
| Place of birth | Esbjerg, Denmark | ||
| Height | 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) | ||
| Position | Midfielder | ||
| Youth career | |||
| SGI | |||
| 1989 | Esbjerg | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1989–1991 | Bayern Munich | 1 | (0) |
| 1991 | Sion | 0 | (0) |
| 1991–1993 | Odense | 55 | (9) |
| 1994–1995 | Copenhagen | 26 | (3) |
| 1995–1996 | Brøndby | 42 | (11) |
| 1996–2000 | Tottenham Hotspur | 97 | (12) |
| 2000 | →Wolverhampton Wanderers (loan) | 7 | (2) |
| 2000–2003 | Watford | 100 | (19) |
| 2003–2004 | Herfølge | 18 | (3) |
| Total | 346 | (59) | |
| International career | |||
| 1995–2002 | Denmark | 44 | (7) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 2003–2004 | Herfølge (assistant) | ||
| 2004–2005 | Herfølge | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Allan Nielsen (Danish pronunciation:[ˈæ.lænˈne̝l.sn̩]; born 13 March 1971) is a Danish former professionalfootballer who played as amidfielder. His most notable period of football was four years atEnglish Premier League clubTottenham Hotspur with whom he won the1999 League Cup, scoring the winning goal.
He was also an integral part of theDenmark national team from 1996 to 2001, playing a total of 44 matches and scoring seven goals. He competed for Denmark in the international1996 European Championship (Euro 1996),1998 FIFA World Cup andEuro 2000 tournaments.
Nielsen was born inEsbjerg, Denmark. Having never played a senior match forEsbjerg, whom he joined from the academy of Sædding-Guldager Idrætsforening (SGI),[1] he moved abroad in 1989 to play for GermanBundesliga teamBayern Munich at the age of 18. In his three years at the club, he played only six minutes in a single game in May 1991, as he came on as a substitute in a 7–3 win againstHertha BSC. Failing to break through at Bayern Munich, he left the club in the summer 1991. Nielsen initially signed a three-year contract withSion in June 1991, but he never played a game for the club. He swiftly moved back to Denmark, to play withOB in theDanish Superliga championship, where he debuted in September 1991.
At Odense, he was a part of the team that won the 1993Danish Cup and he was then brought to league rivalsCopenhagen in 1994. He played a single season for the club, where he wasteam captain, before he moved to main rivalsBrøndby in 1995. In his year at Brøndby, the club won the1995–96 Danish Superliga championship, and Nielsen was named the Brøndby1995 Player of the Year. He was called up for the Danish national team under national managerRichard Møller Nielsen. Nielsen made his debut againstArmenia on 16 August 1995. He came on as a substitute and following 45 seconds on the pitch, he scored the second goal in Denmark's 2–0 win. He was called up to represent Denmark at theEuro '96 tournament hosted by England, where he scored one goal in his only match, the 3–0 win againstTurkey.
After Euro 1996, Brøndby received atransfer fee of£1.65 million, when Nielsen moved to England to play forPremier League clubTottenham Hotspur. He played nearly 100 league matches for Tottenham, and he was a pivotal player when the club won the1999 League Cup. In the final minute, he scored a diving header to give Tottenham a 1–0 win againstLeicester City, and Nielsen was subsequently honoured as "Man of the Match".[2] Following controversies with Tottenham managerGeorge Graham, Nielsen moved down a league in March 2000, when he wasloaned out toWolverhampton Wanderers in theEnglish First Division in a three-month deal. During his time at Tottenham, he represented the Danish national team in five games at the1998 FIFA World Cup, scoring a single goal againstSouth Africa, as well as in two games at the Euro 2000 tournament.
He permanently moved away from Tottenham afterEuro 2000, in July 2000, to play for English First Division teamWatford. He was signed by Watford managerGraham Taylor for £2.5 million, which at the time was the highest fee the club had ever paid for a player. After three seasons at the club, Nielsen returned to Denmark in 2003 for Superligarelegation battlersHerfølge in a role as player/assistant coach. Following a bad first half of the2003–04 season, head coachJohnny Petersen was fired and Nielsen was promoted to player/coach, in a coaching partnership with former national team player and Esbjerg nativeMichael Schjønberg. They managed to finish just above the relegation zone at the end of the season. For the subsequent2004–05 season, Nielsen decided to focus exclusively on coaching, but to no avail as Herfølge was relegated, and he announced his coaching days were over.
On 20 August 2011, Nielsen married equestrianTina Lund.[3] The couple moved toDubai in 2013, but returned to Denmark in 2021.[4]
During theCOVID-19 pandemic, Nielsen drew controversy for spreadingmisinformation regarding COVID-19 andits vaccines.[5][6]
| No. | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 16 August 1995 | Yerevan, Armenia |  Armenia | 2–0 | 2–0 | Euro 1996 qualification |
| 2 | 19 June 1996 | Sheffield, England |  Turkey | 2–0 | 3–0 | Euro 1996 |
| 3 | 1 September 1996 | Ljubljana, Slovenia |  Slovenia | 1–0 | 2–0 | 1998 World Cup qualification |
| 4 | 30 April 1997 | Copenhagen, Denmark | Slovenia | 1–0 | 4–0 | 1998 World Cup qualification |
| 5 | 4–0 | |||||
| 6 | 18 June 1998 | Toulouse, France |  South Africa | 1–0 | 1–1 | 1998 World Cup |
| 7 | 4 September 1999 | Copenhagen, Denmark |  Switzerland | 1–0 | 2–1 | Euro 2000 qualification |
Odense
Brøndby
Tottenham Hotspur
Individual
Denmark squads | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||
