357: Jesper Olsen, Danmark, Panini Mexico 86 World Cup Sticker Album

We have another request post for you today this time taking a look at a former Danish wing wizard who lit up Amsterdam and Manchester in the 1980s. Thanks to both Derrick D’Souza and Michael from 80s&90sfootball for your suggestion and, as always, we hope this does the trick.

When the excellent No Score Draws recently asked for ideas for their ‘EPL Moments’ print they were inundated with excellent suggestions covering all the bases that nearly thirty years of football has produced. The final print did not disappoint and features Tony Yeboah’s foot like a traction engine, Delia Smith’s call for the Norwich City fans to make their presence felt, George Weah’s cousin (sadly not Chrisopher Wreh) and a former Liverpool captain who “let it f***in’ slip”. There was also room for a moment from Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Manchester City back in October 2005 where French stars Robert Pires and Thierry Henry attempted a two-man penalty kick with farcical consequences. I distinctly remember this event for the fact that Danny Mills was torn between hacking the ball clear and shouting at Pires and didn’t manage to do either particularly well and the substantial amount of time discussion of it took up on Match of the Day that evening. The thing is it wasn’t actually the first time such a penalty had been taken.

Back in 1982 the legendary Dutch star Johan Cruyff conspired with a young Jesper Olsen to score a two-man penalty during Ajax Amsterdam’s 5-0 victory over Helmond Sport in the Eredivisie. For Ajax’s second goal Cruyff passed the penalty forward to an onrushing Olsen who drew the goalkeeper out before passing back to Cruyff to slot into an empty net. The goal in no way contravened the rules of the game and can be seen as another example of the Harlem Globetrotters’ approach to beautiful football that Johan Cruyff brought to Ajax, Barcelona and the Netherlands throughout his career. The fact he was involved should come as little surprise but the key part played in the goal by the 21-year-old Olsen in only his second season with the Dutch side provides a glimpse of the precocious talent the Danish winger possessed.

Prior to his arrival in the Netherlands Jesper Olsen had made a promising start to his football career with Næstved IF and helped them to their joint highest finish in the Danish Championship in 1980 when they finished runners-up to KB. In the previous season he had played, and scored, on trial with Arsenal’s reserves but the North London club chose not to sign him. Just over twenty years later the Gunners would make a similar decision with a talented striker based on the other side of the Øresund when Zlatan Ibrahimovic did a classic Zlatan and refused to take part in a trial game to impress Arsene Wenger and shortly after moved to Ajax. In his three seasons in Amsterdam Olsen helped Ajax to two Eredivisie titles and a KNVB Cup and scored an impressive 23 goals in 85 appearances. Having made his international debut back in 1980 he earned a place in Denmark’s squad for the 1984 European Championships. In the meantime Arsenal failed to add to their trophy cabinet.

In France Olsen came on as a substitute in the Danes’ group stage defeat against the hosts but impressed enough to be called from the bench during their semi-final clash with Spain. He did his job from twelve yards but Preben Elkjær’s failure to do the same led to their elimination in a penalty shootout. That same summer Manchester United splashed out £350,000 to bring him to Old Trafford and by the end of his first season he had ousted Dutch winger Arnold Muhren from his left wing berth and helped the Red Devils to an FA Cup victory with a 1-0 win over Everton. Owing to the Heysel disaster United were banned from taking part in the Cup Winners’ Cup but started the 1985/86 campaign with ten straight victories which allowed them to open up a ten point lead over title rivals Liverpool by November. However, with Olsen and several other key players injured, their form fell off a cliff at the turn of year and, despite an impressive end to the season in which a returning Olsen bagged a hat-trick against West Bromwich Albion, they finished fourth. Perhaps manager Ron Atkinson’s failure to mention how much he would ‘love it’ if Kenny Dalglish’s Liverpool lost to Chelsea on the final day saved him his job.

Atkinson’s stay of execution would not be for long as seven defeats by November saw him replaced with Alex Ferguson. Shortly before the Scot’s arrival Jesper Olsen had been placed on the transfer list following a training ground fight with fellow midfielder Remi Moses. Perhaps Olsen had not been in the right frame of mind at the time of the bust up as a result of his experiences at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. Denmark had won all three of their group stage games against Scotland, Uruguay and West Germany, with Olsen scoring twice in the process, when they came up against Spain in the second round. The winger had opened the scoring from the penalty spot but just before half-time his misplaced back pass allowed Emilio Butragueño to equalise. Buoyed on by their fortune Spain romped home 5-1 winners, with Butragueño scoring four, and left Olsen little but the indignity of the phrase “a right Jesper Olsen” becoming commonplace in the Danish language for a costly error.

Ferguson saw Olsen’s potential, however, and removed him from the transfer list with the promise of two more years at Old Trafford. In doing so his manager chose not to put in a bid for Watford’s John Barnes in the summer of 1987 allowing the England winger to move to Liverpool. United finished second to their Merseyside rivals in the 1987/88 campaign with Barnes scoring seventeen goals and providing countless assists for the likes of John Aldridge. In comparison Olsen found the net just twice and, after 139 appearances for Manchester United, moved to Bordeaux for £400,000 early in the following season. After two seasons he moved to Caen where he converted to wing back a quarter of a century before the likes of Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young. He suffered a serious injury in his second season with the Normandy club and, despite offers of a return to football with Blackburn Rovers or a post-Brian Clough Nottingham Forest, he retired at the age of 31 in 1992.

Jesper Olsen was one of the first foreign players to make an impact on British football and, in many ways, led a pioneering career full of interesting twists. The advent of the Premier League, and the countless characters who have graced it, have meant that the likes of Olsen and his contemporaries are often forgotten due to the overwhelming dominance of the post-1992 English top flight. Perhaps it’s time these youngsters with their Sky Sports and Super Nintendos took some time to pay tribute to a man who was passing penalties, being ignored by Arsenal, being backed by Alex Ferguson and converting to wing back long before anyone uttered the words ‘Premier League’ in England.