Bent Hansen (footballer)

Bent Hansen (13 September 1933 in Copenhagen – 8 March 2001) was a Danish amateur football (soccer) player who won a silver medal with the Denmark national football team at the 1960 Summer Olympics.[1][2] He played a total of 58 national team matches from 1958 to 1965, in which he scored a single goal. On the club level, Bent Hansen played his entire senior career with Copenhagen club B 1903.[3][4]

Bent Hansen
Medal record
Men's football
Representing  Denmark
Olympic Games
Silver medal – second place 1960 Rome Team competition

Hansen was a player of great stamina and positional sense with good technique, and his game was riskless without surprise or use of trickery, but also without mistakes.[5] He made his debut for the senior Danish national team in a friendly match against the West Germany national football team on 24 September 1958. On 23 September 1959 Hansen scored his only international goal, as Denmark drew the Czechoslovakia national football team 2-2 in a qualification game for the 1960 European Nations' Cup. At the 1960 Olympics, he played in the position of right halfback on the Danish team, often linking up via short passes with right-winger Poul Pedersen.[6] Hansen played all five games as Denmark won silver medals, losing to the Yugoslavia national football team in the final. Many of his Danish teammates moved abroad to play professionally during the 1960s, and were thereby banned from the amateur-only national team. Hansen and fellow Danish international Henning Enoksen were offered a professional contract with Torino Calcio, but Enoksen declined, and both offers were withdrawn.[7] Hansen stayed an amateur, and played both games, as the Danish team finished fourth at the 1964 European Nations' Cup. On 29 November 1964 he broke Poul Pedersen's record as he became the first Dane to play 51 games for the national team. Bent Hansen ended his international career in October 1965, having played 58 international games; a record that was eventually broken by Henning Munk Jensen in May 1978.

References edit

  1. ^ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Bent Hansen". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 3 December 2016.
  2. ^ "Bent Hansen". Olympedia. Archived from the original on 3 November 2021. Retrieved 10 December 2021.
  3. ^ Ritzaus Bureau, "Fodboldspilleren Bent Hansen er død", 9/3-2001
  4. ^ "Bent Hansen (Player)". national-football-teams.com. Archived from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
  5. ^ Knud Lundberg, "Dansk Fodbold 2", Rhodos (Copenhagen), 1987, pp.106-107
  6. ^ Knud Lundberg, "Dansk Fodbold 2", Rhodos (Copenhagen), 1987, p.94
  7. ^ Steen Ankerdal, "Landsholdet", Aschehoug, 2006, s.104

External links edit