Harald Nielsen

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Harald Nielsen
Nielsen in the early 1960s
Personal information
Full name Harald Ingemann Nielsen
Date of birth (1941-10-26)26 October 1941
Place of birth Frederikshavn, Denmark
Date of death 11 August 2015(2015-08-11) (aged 73)
Place of death Klampenborg, Denmark
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Position(s) Forward
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1959–1961 Frederikshavn fI 50 (44)
1961–1967
Bologna
157 (104)
1967–1968
Internazionale
8 (2)
1968–1969 Napoli 10 (2)
1969–1970 Sampdoria 4 (0)
Total 229 (129)
International career
1959–1960 Denmark 14 (15)
Medal record
Representing  Denmark
Men's Football
Silver medal – second place 1960 Rome
Team competition
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Harald Ingemann Nielsen (26 October 1941 – 11 August 2015) was a Danish

Bologna F.C. where he was the league top scorer (capocannoniere) in Bologna's 1964 Serie A championship winning season. Harald Nielsen played 14 games for the Denmark national team in 1959 and 1960, scoring 15 goals, and he was known as Guld-Harald (Gold-Harald). He was a football entrepreneur having continuously worked for the professionalization of both the Demark national team and the national league.[1]

Club career

Harald Nielsen was born in

Danish football championship
.

In the top Danish league, Nielsen debuted for Frederikshavn against Boldklubben Frem in March 1960. Frederikshavn won 3–1, with Harald Nielsen scoring all three goals. The team finished the league in fifth place with Nielsen becoming league top scorer.

Nielsen with Bologna in the early 1960s, between manager Bernardini (left) and teammate Haller (right).

In 1961, Harald Nielsen moved abroad to play professionally for

U.C. Sampdoria
a back injury kept him mostly off the field, he ended his career in 1970.

International career

Harald Nielsen made his debut for the Denmark national team on 13 September 1959 against Norway in Oslo, as the youngest Denmark national team player ever. Only 17 years and 322 days old, he scored a single goal in the 4–2 win.

Nielsen with the Denmark national team in 1964.

In the summer of 1960, he represented Denmark at the 1960 Summer Olympics football tournament in Rome.[2] Denmark finished runners-up and Nielsen was the leading goals scorer of the tournament with 6 goals.[3]

His international potential as a striker became obvious already on 10 May 1960, when he scored two goals in a Copenhagen XI game against the 1958 Brazilian world champions team, which two years earlier had another largely unknown 17-year-old Pelé making his debut on the world stage. The two would meet again playing for their respective club teams later in their careers, but in a strange twist of fates while Pelé was essentially banned from playing outside Brazilian team(s), Nielsen would be banned from playing on the Denmark national team. As the Danish Football Association did not allow professionals to represent the Denmark national team until 1971, Nielsen was banned from the national team at 19 years old when he joined Bologna, and would not play another national team match. This was a great frustration to Harald Nielsen, which he repeatedly voiced in interviews with Danish media.[4]

Outside football

Rudi Hansen and Harald Nielsen in 1961.
Rudi Hansen and Harald Nielsen

Nielsen was a prolific entrepreneur who started numerous companies. Just after ending his career he started a firm together with his wife, former actress Rudi Nielsen, which imports Italian leather works to Scandinavia. Nielsen and Hansen met on the set of Far til fire med fuld musik in 1961 and married in 1963.

In the 1970s Nielsen became involved in professionalising

Danish Minister of Science Helge Sander
planned to found a professional Danish football league. As a consequence of these plans, Danish Football Association finally allowed professional football in Denmark from 1978.

Harald Nielsen along with Alex Friedman founded – and became the first chairman of FC København A/S later

FC København from Parken's A-stand. He was chairman and co-owner/founder of the largest summer house building company in Denmark. He was president of the Rebild National Park Society in 1997–2007. He led the Gunnar Nu Foundation for 18 years until 2009 and presided the distribution of over DKK 9 million to Danish sports in those years.[3] From 2003 until his death, he was chairman/co-owner of ABSI A/S., one of the leading trade and loyalty solutions companies in Scandinavia. He wrote six books during his football career, which became known as the "Harald-Books" during the 1960s. He died on 11 August 2015.[5]
On 26 October 2016, which would have been his 75th birthday, the square in front of Arena North, in Frederikshavn, was named the Harald Nielsens Plads in his honor. On 9 July 2018 an 8+ foot tall statue of Harald Nielsen in his youth was unveiled on his square, which is the largest statue of a footballer in Denmark. A prize is now given out each year called “Årets Guld-Harald” in his honor.[6]

Career statistics

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League
Division Apps Goals
Bologna
1961–62 Serie A 16 8
1962–63 Serie A 29 19
1963–64 Serie A 31 21
1964–65 Serie A 31 13
1965–66 Serie A 29 12
1966–67 Serie A 21 8
Inter Milan 1967–68 Serie A 8 2
Napoli
1968–69 Serie A 10 2
Sampdoria
1969–70 Serie A 4 0

Honours

Bologna

Denmark

  • Rome 1960

Individual

Films

References

  1. .
  2. ^ "Harald Nielsen". Olympedia. Retrieved 10 December 2021.
  3. ^ a b Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Harald Nielsen". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020.
  4. .
  5. ^ Calcio, morto Harald Nielsen: stella del super Bologna anni '60. Repubblica.it (12 August 2015). Retrieved on 4 April 2016.
  6. ^ Guld-Harald fik sin egen plads i Frederikshavn. TV2Nord.dk (26 October 2016).

Literature

External links