Jesper Christiansen

Danish breakthrough

Born in Roskilde, Christiansen competed with later national team player Peter Madsen to be the best forward on Zealand in his teenage years. At 17, he did not want the life of a professional footballer, and chose to play amateur football in Serie 3, the fourth lowest level of Danish football. For fun, he tried playing the position of goalkeeper, in which position he caught the attention of higher ranking clubs. Roskilde B 1906 offered him a contract in 1997, and he was Roskilde's goalkeeper for one season, before he followed his coach to Ølstykke. In 1998, he moved to OB in the second tier of Danish football, the Danish 1st Division. He helped OB win promotion to the top-flight Danish Superliga, where he got his national breakthrough. When OB legend Lars Høgh retired in January 2000, a string of strong displays by Christiansen showed a strong temper and good reflexes. He looked the long term replacement of Lars Høgh, though Christiansen never got the chance to make a decent bid for Høgh's record 817 games for OB. As Scottish club Rangers suffered injuries in their goalkeeping staff, the search for replacements turned to Christiansen, who was eager to move abroad at 22 years of age.

On the bench in Glasgow

In Glasgow, he played alongside fellow Dane Peter Løvenkrands, with whom he became good friends, and he played a handful of games in his first time at Rangers, including a few outings in the UEFA Champions League. His league debut was a…

During his time with Vejle, Christiansen was called up for the senior national team by national team manager Morten Olsen. He was chosen for the Danish squad at the 2002 FIFA World Cup in South Korea and Japan as a backup for starting national team goalkeeper Thomas Sørensen, and was an unused substitute throughout the tournament. In his time at Viborg, Christiansen was recalled to the Danish national team, and made his national team debut on 2 June 2005, in a 1–0 friendly match win against Finland. He played his second game in October 2005, when he came on as a substitute in a 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification 2–1 win against Kazakhstan. He quickly established himself as an understudy for Thomas Sørensen, and made a number of appearances at times when Sørensen was injured. Before the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Christiansen lacked playing time at FCK, and found himself in contention with Kim Christensen for the spot as third goalkeeper in the squad for the finals. Eventually Morten Olsen chose Christiansen for his team, and he spent his time at the tournament as an unused substitute.

After Christiansen left Vendsyssel in the summer 2017, he was officially announced as the new assistant manager of Danish 1st Division club AB. In January 2018, he left AB to become goalkeeper coach at Fremad Amager. In 2019, he also functioned as assistant manager for a short period. On 15 July 2019, it was announced, that Christiansen had left Fremad Amager because he wanted to stay closer to his family and then became the new goalkeeper coach of Viborg. In November 2019, Christiansen was on the bench for Viborg in three games, after first keeper, Ellery Balcombe, was banned with a red card and the third and fourth choices was out with injuries, which left Viborg with only Ingvar Jónsson who was able to play. On 13 July 2020, Fremad Amager announced that Christiansen had returned to the club. He left Fremad Amager again in April 2022 as a protest against the club's new owners. On 21 July 2022, Christiansen joined Nykøbing as a goalkeeper coach. In June 2023, Christiansn was appointed manager of Danish amateur club Vejby/Tisvilde Fodbold. It was the same club that Christiansen also played for a year earlier. He left his head coach position in October 2025. In January 2026, Christiansen returned for his third spell at Fremad Amager, this time as an assistant coach under newly appointed manager John Bredal.

OB

Viasat Divisionen: 1998–99 Copenhagen

Danish Superliga: 2005–06, 2006–07, 2008–09, 2009–10 Danish Cup: 2008–09 Individual

Danish Goalkeeper of the Year: 2005, 2006, 2007 Danish Team of the Year: 2005, 2006, 2007