Jesper Grønkjær

AaB

Raised in Thisted, Grønkjær started his career with local team Thisted. Earlier in his career he was told that he could have been a sprinter. He moved on to defending Danish Superliga champions AaB in 1995. He played almost 100 matches for the club, including games in the European 1995–96 UEFA Champions League tournament. He attracted the attention of a string of European top clubs.

Ajax

AaB sold Grønkjær in a £3.5 million transfer deal with Dutch club Ajax in October 1997, with Grønkjær moving to Amsterdam in July 1998. At Ajax, he was coached by fellow Dane Morten Olsen, and played alongside Danish international Ole Tobiasen. With Ajax, he won the 1998–99 KNVB Cup and he was named "Ajax Player of the Year" by the fans in 1999–2000 again finding himself pursued by a host of top teams.

Chelsea

In October 2000, Grønkjær joined Premier League club Chelsea for £7.8 million, which made him the then most expensive Danish football player. However, he was still sidelined with an injury until January 2001. His career at Chelsea lasted for four years although his form during that time was somewhat inconsistent. At his best he was a constant threat; creating and scoring some very important goals for the club. In Chelsea's fourth round FA Cup match away to Gillingham on 28 January 2001, Grønkjær started his first match for the club and scored two goals and hit the post twice, as Chelsea won 4–2. His most notable Chelsea performance came against Liverpool…

While at Thisted, Grønkjær made his debut for the Danish youth national teams in October 1992. With three goals in six matches, as the Denmark national youth team won silver medals at the 1994 UEFA European Under-16 Football Championship, Grønkjær showed himself one of the brightest talents in Danish football. He was named 1995 Danish Under-19 Player of the Year. In total, he scored 26 goals in 64 Danish youth team international games. In his first year at Ajax, Grønkjær made his full international debut for the Denmark national team in the 2000 European Championship (Euro 2000) qualification game against Italy on 27 March 1999. In the very first minute of the game, he famously echoed Jesper Olsen's 1986 World Cup mistimed back pass to Spanish forward Emilio Butragueño, as Grønkjær passed the ball to Italian forward Filippo Inzaghi who promptly scored the first goal in Italy's 2–1 victory. Despite the disappointing debut game, Grønkjær became an important part of the national team under coach Bo Johansson and he played full-time in Denmark's three games at the Euro 2000 main tournament. While at Chelsea, Grønkjær became a mainstay in the Denmark national team under new national team coach Morten Olsen, and he played in all of Denmark's four games at the 2002 World Cup. In the qualification games for Euro 2004, he scored the game-winning goal in a 1–0 victory over closest rivals Norway, helping Denmark qualify for the final tournament in Portugal. He missed the opening game…

Club

International

Scores and results list Denmark's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Grønkjær goal.

Ajax

KNVB Cup: 1998–99 Chelsea

FA Cup runner-up: 2001–02 Copenhagen

Danish Superliga: 2006–07, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11 Danish Cup: 2008–09 Individual

Danish Under-19 Player of the Year: 1995 TIPS-bladet's Player of the Year: 2006–07 TIPS-bladet's Autumn Profile: 2007 Team of the Year: 2007 Danish Superliga Profile of the Year: 2007 Danish Superliga Player of the Year: 2006–07